When we arrived to Puerto Rico and were talking about all the challenges of living in a tropical environment, someone remarked that in comparison to some areas, the Puerto Rico jungle is “Jungle Lite”. This is because in other parts of the world, such as the Amazon or even Central America, you might find big cats like panthers or howling monkeys and venomous snakes and spiders, none of which we have on this island.
Still, I would say that adjusting to the tropics, even “jungle lite” tropics like Puerto Rico takes some getting used to. Coming from Colorado, we were not used to the humidity or the ocean or the flora and fauna. We have mostly come to a balance with these things, but then we are hit with a new challenge to sort out. Like the ones we had last night and today.
Termite season!
Yesterday we had a pretty good afternoon rain. We let the chickens out around 5pm and did a free range supervision like we do until they put themselves back into the coop when the sky darkens (around 7pm). Then we went into the house to make dinner. We noticed one then another “moth” flying around the light. We ignored it because we often see the occasional moth. Then we saw a few more. Then they started landing on us and it became a little annoying until we knew we had to do something! Britton swatted one and its wings fell off. That’s when we knew they weren’t moths but rather…termites! Agh!
They call termites both polilla and comejen here. I asked someone once what the difference was and he said that polilla fly and comejen don’t. So I guess we had the flight of the polilla last night.
Candlelight to keep the termites away
We had been paying attention to what people had said years before about the termite swarms, so we shut all the windows and turned out the lights since they are attracted to the light. We lit a citronella candle and finished cooking dinner while enjoying a glass of wine. In the morning there were termite wings all over the floor, but not nearly as many as there could have been had we not acted quickly.
The most recent encounter with jungle lite was this morning. Britton had gone out and worked on chopping some of the trees into smaller more manageable pieces, but knew it was starting to get a little too hot to continue working. So, we decided to hang out in the cool cabana for a while and watch a movie.
Turkeys in the tractor
Suddenly I hear the baby turkeys just outside our cabana door in the turkey tractor making a bunch of chirping racket. I ran out the door and see a rat pulling a turkey by its wing underneath the tractor side walls. I yelled at it hoping it would drop the bird but it just kept scurrying and went through the chain link fence link with the turkey! Britton ran out and we both jumped around trying to throw on some clothes and shoes so we could try and chase the rat and find the turkey. Britton scaled the fence and I ran all the way around down the steep embankment and climbed my way through the thicket of vines and sansevieria plants. We hacked away for a good 45 minutes calling for the bird and looking for a trail of feathers or anything that would give us a lead, but found nothing.
Apparently turkeys and chickens are not only tasty birds to us humans, but also to most of the jungle life out here. These birds are pretty vulnerable at such a young and small age, but we didn’t think anything would attack them in broad daylight with us just 5 feet away.
Britton and I remarked that we feel like we are in a nature show and we are just one of the many creatures here. It is difficult to remember that when we are so used to being in our own separate humanland of cities and walls instead of jungle and wildlife. Even if it is jungle lite, the jungle still knows way more than we do about living here and gives us some lessons nearly every day.