Why the small ones are called Hawaiian papayas, I can only guess. It seems to be the case that the small varieties are tastier–I first noticed that in Brasil, when my Brasilian friends, at the huge open-air markets, would choose the smaller ones if they were available. We eat the larger varieties from the fruit stands with lime juice, but we didn’t have to with the one we harvested from our tree! Yet, all the papaya trees we have were grown from seeds from papayas we bought in the markets.

Joyce

It’s actually rare anymore that you hear of anyone being bitten by a snake, thanks to the fact that most field workers–where you are most likely to encounter the fer-de-lance and other venomous snakes–wear boots. The snakes strike “downward”, and most bites are on the ankles and feet as well as wrists and hands for those who aren’t terrible bright who put their hands in areas that they can’t see.

Yes, Panamanians do kill them, and we would, too, if they were on the cleared part of our property. But we work hard at making the whole area, except for our swath of jungle, rodent-unfriendly and therefore snake-unfriendly. There really is no cover for them. Are there snakes in our jungle swath? Most likely. But we avoid that area in October and November, and there are whole sections we couldn’t penetrate anymore because it’s so overgrown.

The latest snake incident we’ve had was when Darío killed a coral snake last year, I believe. I don’t know where he was or what he was doing, but he showed us the snake after it had been decapitated.

I know that large and middle-sized snakes are important in rat and other rodent control, even the fer-de-lance. It eats small mammals like rats, lizards and birds. No, I don’t want it around the house! But no, I won’t kill one that is in its own environment, either.

Joyce

Too bad about the skin!

Joyce

It weighed 34 pounds. I had the skin drying out on the roof and some blasterd bird or perhaps a cat got it and it was gone.

When Ernesto Santamaria’s brother (whose name I can never remember) mowed the property in front of us (Tom Pittí’s) a couple of months ago, he told me that it was to reduce the snake cover–and also told me that he had killed two snakes while doing so. Pittí’s property is now growing again, but is nothing like the Brunelles’ across the road from us. That’s looked dangerous to me for a while. But then I suppose you have nothing to fear unless you go waltzing in there during the day without boots.

It would make sense that Arcadio killed a young fer-de-lance given the time of year. My reading says they’re just as lethal as adults and sometimes more so, if they have gone too long without food. I mean I get grumpy when I’m hungry, but let’s show some restraint, I say!

Joyce

Joyce