A Bee in My Bonnet

The Creature Who Elicited Howls from Jerome

Already fatigued from climbing and helping other climbers climb, Karina informed Jerome and me that we had another full day of climbing ahead of us. Of the activities that she could possibly assign to us, I was happy with climbing – until I saw the last tree I was going to climb today. And Jerome had better watch how far he pushes his filming when Karina is up in a tree, thinking that she won’t be able to see what is taking him so long to weigh and measure a chick!

But that’s getting ahead of myself. As just the two of us packed up for the first climb, Jerome broke out in howls as I dragged the backpack toward the stairs leading down to the ground from the “mudroom.” Looking the direction he pointed, I saw a very large rodent, specifically a rat, quite dead, under the edge of the backpack. Jerome’s guess was it had ended up there “to die” after being poisoned by some of the bait the housekeeper leaves around. I blamed it on Jerome’s carelessness when he threw down the pack the day before on our return. Either way, the rat, or el raton, has provided a lot of material for jokes and laughs with the rest of the staff ever since.



Jerome Dressed for the Bees

One of the items that I saw packed in preparation for our climbing today was a filmy piece of clothing that I assumed was some kinky outfit Jerome was planning to wear in a scene of his documentary. Little did I suspect I was going to be the person who donned it for my last climb of the day. And I wouldn’t be wearing it for effect, either, but for protection from a swarm of bees that nested in a cavity opposite the location of the macaw nest that we would next monitor. With 90 degree weather and 100 percent humidity, already wearing long sleeves and long pants for protection against other insects, I now was told to put on a half body net to protect myself from bees that would surely bite me if I weren’t wearing it. Once I got the damn thing on, we discovered not one, but three holes that were big enough to drive a truck through. Unable to fix one of the three in the field, Jerome said I had better wear his head net for extra protection for this part of the anatomy. I’ve mentioned, I think, previously that Jerome has an odiferous reputation here at TRC. I think that I now know the reason he acquired such a reputation – the headnet. Okay, so not only was I incredibly hot and sweaty and continuing to sweat and engulfed in something that smelled dead, but I had to hang from a rope 100 feet above the ground while bees were trying their hardest to let me know that I wasn’t welcome. In the future, I will volunteer to be a torture subject instead!

If Karina hadn’t offered to let me stay in the lodge to recuperate that afternoon, I would have ignored her commands and done so anyway. Rehydration and a good shower filled most of the rest of the day.