Scorpion king

What I have not been able to get used to in Cayman are the bugs. If you think Bermuda has bugs, well, then come on down to Cayman. I should mention here that Bermuda has no mosquitoes whatsoever. But it does have other mildly annoying bugs, and let's not forget the roaches.

Here in Cayman, I have not had to deal with the roaches, yet, but the other bugs are a different story. The ants are bigger - the red fire ants are the ones to watch out for - their bites stings for days, although, the smaller 'sugar ants' bite just as hard. Once night falls and you step out of your apartment, there are a whole slew of bugs to greet you - not all at once though - thank goodness. You will find beetles (that bite really hard - or so I've heard), which is weird because I never knew beetles bit humans. Then there are the odd ones, new for some but not entirely new for me - since I've seen some of these in India.

But here's one I have NEVER come across before. I was making my way home one night when I came upon this one bug. I had to do a double take because I thought my eyes were deceiving me. It was a bloody SCORPION. A scorpion! In Cayman! No one told me there were scorpions in Cayman. My neighbours (all five guys) killed it for me (not all five of them - just the one that happened to be home). He killed it with a book (I was not impressed - why use a book of all things). Anyway, I was told that while scorpions are not indegenious to Cayman, they have managed to sneak their way through here the via earth that Cayman imports from Cuba. A significant part of Cayman is (or started out as) swampland, and soil is brought in from Cuba to fill these areas up, making way as the base for construction buildings/houses. And just the other night I heard stomping outside my apartment, and figured one of the guys was killing something off. True enough, the next day I saw a scorpion just a foot away from my door squashed dead - with a book, no doubt. Thanks anyway, guys.

I'm almost used to the bugs by now. That feeling of something crawling up my arm, does not startle me like it used to. You should see me now when I find a bug on me - I'm all zen-like, as I look over and just kill it myself. I'm getting there, fighting the urge to freak out, one bug at a time. It is at times like these that I miss Toronto.