My Green Pea pod

February 26, 2012:  In the wee hours of the quiet night I woke up in my hammock, alone and in an open hut made solely for protection from rain.  My hammock is excellent for sleeping outside because it has a mosquito net conveniently sewed to it with a zipper, protecting me from all little things...though this green pea pod is the worst place to be if I needed to quickly get out it for the bigger things.

Something didnt feel right lying there and in a strange way...I felt like I was being watched.  Peeping out from the side of hammock as would a child, I scanned the area with my flashlight thinking everything you shouldn’t when not a soul is around you.  Thoughts of a jaguar making me a human piñata or even worse, the pasty dead girl from the movie, “The Ring” standing aside the bushes filled my head.

While lying there, the late night choir started with a solo, as a bird began a chirping rampage with a savaged dog later joining in.  Perhaps they were warning me that something was out there…but what?  I seemed to be letting my imagination having the best of me here in Annai, scaring myself again for the second night in a row.

In the morning, I went for a hike climbing a nearby hill overlooking the town and the surrounding area.  I happened to see a family of howler monkeys and two birds in the process of murdering some large ants with their two facial swords.

I had the intent to eat something healthy today instead of Guyana's famous coco buns, so I walked to the road stop that serves food to the town drunks, domino players and they can now add, mangy backpackers.  When ordering the fish stew, the man at the restaurant told me that they can make chicken for me.  “Why,” I thought…if fish stew is the menu of the day, there is no reason to make me anything special.

Well, the stew was shight.  I got the head and fins.  A joke? - I am not sure.  But, if I remember correctly my friend Martha from Colombia loved the head, the eyes, and even its cheeks.  I didn’t seem to have the appetite tonight for eating something’s eyes so I ended up just eating the coco rice and went to bed.  Next time, I will stick with chicken - there is no way possible to mess up chicken…never once have I ever received only a head with wings.