The 2023 Brazil Journals, Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

Goodness, Gracious, Great Snakes Alive!

Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be poisonous.

--Chanakya

Virginia and I are watching a drama play out at the water fountain when Shelly comes striding toward us yelling, "I HAVE A SNAKE IN MY BATHROOM!!!"  

Deja Vu all over again.   The first time it was a frog.

She says she heard noises coming from the bathroom and when she opened the door, there was a long snake on her bathroom counter, knocking her things onto the floor.

Virginia and I grab our cameras and run to Shelly's room to see the snake.  While we angle for the best shooting spot, Shelly returns with a woman from the lodge who is holding a broom.

Darned if there isn't a snake in Shelly's bathroom!   Shelly gets all the best roommates.

"Get out of the bathroom and let her in," Shelly commands anxiously.

This snake cantilevered its body vertically trying to reach the window and escape before the lady with broom urged it to hasten its journey.

"No way, Shelly.   Photos come first," I reply laughingly.   "Photos or it didn't happen."

Finally we let the lady with the broom into the small area and she coaxes it out the open window, which is screened but the screen has been pulled away from the bottom corner.

It's a parrot snake, I say, just like the one Virginia and I were watching at the water fountain in front of  the lodge.   And that was a drama unfolding.

The water fountain in front of the lodge.

The white blobs are water droplets.   That bulge at right might be the frog.

This snake has swallowed a frog and there was a large bulge in the snake's abdomen.

You can actually see the bulk of the frog inside the snake.  The snake positioned itself  with water is running on the frog bulge, which I found fascinating.   Look how long it is.   My guess is five feet or so.

Octavio assures us it is only mildly venomous.   Which means, I tell him jokingly,  that you'll get sick and hope you die, but won't.

This is a very slender snake.

Such a pretty color.

Note how it uses its body to create a bridge and then comes back upon itself.

I find it uttering interesting, coming from a place where there are no snakes in the wild (just bears and moose), how snakes can use their own bodies to bridge an open space such as the snake is doing here.  

SO, I did some research and after finally finding the right keywords, found this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8uubvO4Ids

Parrot snakes can attain a length of 68 inches, with 23 inches being its tail.

There was an afternoon vehicle excursion scheduled for the afternoon, but this happened:

Right at the end I swing my phone up and you get a glimpse of Lala the macaw staying out of the rain.

I went to my room.   This was going to last a while.

I was still trying to figure out if I had a cold or something else.   I had woken during the night with congestion.   Ah, it's a cold, I thought.   I took an anti-histamine and that was the last of the congestion.  No energy, achy body, yes.   But no congestion.

After a while, I looked out.   Still raining.   I went to tell the group I was going to skip the game drive.

Well, what better way to drive away the snake heebie-jeebies than chocolate?

Some more photos:

Grayish Baywing

Kiskadee

Hmmm.   Maybe a palm tanager

Same as above

Same as above