Creepy crawlies

Current location: SINAC station, Palo Verde National Park, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

The complete list of bugs and insects I have found in or around my bed so far after 30 min includes: Fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, scorpions, various species of spiders, scorpion spiders, cockroaches and banana flies. I am sure the list goes on but to preserve my mental health I have stopped looking. On the toilet bowl seat I counted a total of 7 ticks waiting for my sweet innocent ass to sit down on them. As much as I like Ludvig I am really not overly keen about having him remove something from my va-jay-jay or anus area. With the amount of creepy crawlies that is surrounding us right now, I am, however, sincerely concerned this might become the outcome of our field trip. I guess we will become better friends. But a positive thing is that they don’t have any mosquito or tick carried diseases here - my discontentedness is based more on the discomfort rather than the immediate danger Ludvig loves it, he looks like a child on Christmas – I hate it. A scorpion was hiding in the shower curtain, Ludvig of course had to pick it up and put it in a sealed plastic jar. I spent 30 min trying to take a photo of the cockroach that hid in my shoe, not because I am overly interested in insects, but more because I want proof of my immediate (to me quite displeasing) living conditions. I am a terrible field biologist. That is why I nowadays prefer to refer to myself as an environmental toxicologist rather than a biologist. Biodiversity is great and all that, but I don’t feel the need of personally receiving a visit of every living thing in a tropical forest to appreciate its importance or existence. Despite of everything lurking in the dark around me I am excited to be here. We are at the SINAC station in Palo Verde National Park, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We are far from any civilization and supposedly we’ll have an honest shot of finding crocodile nests tomorrow. Our stubbornness seems to have paid off. Perhaps we will receive our masters in science after all. Goodnight bugs. If I wake up bloody with things attached to me I’ll be seriously pissed off. Respect the boundaries of the bug net PLEASE!