THE FLIP FLOP LIFE

Some weeks ago, when I was cutting some of the heliconias that grow besides the house, I got a little scare from a bright green snake that suddenly fell on the floor from one of the leaves/branches that I was cutting. The snake was as least as scared as I and quickly disappeared between the green stems. As far as I could tell from the books and what I saw, it was one of those super lethal pit vipers … half a bite and you have 30 mins left to find an antidote … Nah. Just kidding. This one was not dangerous at all, well mostly harmless.

Ever since the heliconia incident, we have been on the lookout. Today, we saw it again. It was hanging out of a branch pointing towards the house. A slender, bright green snake with a whitish belly, and a black line behind its eyes which continued in the irises of its yellow pupils. It is a Green Parrot Snake, a quite common non-poisonous snake that eats lizards and frogs. Although it’s non-poisonous, it does ‘bite when handled’ and its spit contains anti-coagulant, which means that when it bites you, you will bleed a lot. So, …. we were not going to handle it. Also because we respect all animals. Except cockroaches, of course.

We took some pictures of the snake, which was not easy because the camera did not focus well. Still, Cristina made an absolutely brilliant photo, which you find at the bottom of this photo page. I set up the telescope for a super close-up image. The snake hardly moved so that helped. While I was inside the house fiddling with the iPhone, I suddenly noticed that the snake had disappeared. It had slid to the floor and was moving towards our house. Huh? Then I saw a Yellow-headed Gecko nearby (in the movie you see it on the piece of wood). Ah. It was on the hunt. Below you see how that story went. No animals were harmed for the making of this picture. If you find it too long, scrub to the last two minutes.