Many years later, I had a student at Evergreen who felt that I should learn to appreciate spiders. She brought her pet tarantula to seminar one day (she asked in advance if this was okay). I was not okay with the tarantula in the classroom. However, the same student was with me on my first study abroad program in Panama, and she became expert in amblypygids, aka whip scorpions. They are terrifying to look at, but not at all dangerous (and not actually spiders, but they evoke the same kinds of feelings in those of us who don't love big meaty spiders). She brought one back from the field and encouraged me to handle it, and to let it explore my shoulders and head. I did. It was actually quite interesting, and I can now say that I rather enjoy amblypygids...but still don't love spiders.
Ok, you made me look at a whip scorpion picture. I think... not. Haha. They just look alien to me, and maybe dangerous - though they aren't you say, they have that look about them. It's probably is their first line of defense: look scary!
During WWII dad was sent to the Panama Canal Zone to be post surgeon for the Army. Though he was a Lt in the Navy, the Army was short certain professionals and so the Navy 'lent' them what they needed. My dad told us stories about the tarantulas there. He said they were huge. He remembered one in particular that had wandered onto a train track and was hit, and he said it was big enough that you could still call the remains a corpse.
No thank you! He didn't mind them. So he said.
Do you think much about those times in Madagascar? Of course you do when posting these chapters up for us to read, but before that, did the memories come often? Did you think about Lebon and Fortune and the others you'd met much?
The memories come and go, as you might expect. One of the interesting things about going back through Antipode for this project is that a few of my memories now do not match what I wrote in the book. But I wrote the book from the journals that I wrote every day in the field, and took no, or extremely little, literary license. So I trust my contemporary reports, and the book that emerged from them, more than I trust my memories now, 25 - 30 years later.
I suspect that I will never back to Nosy Mangabe, or Maroantsetra--there are so many places on this beautiful planet that I have yet to explore, and I am driven to see them more than I am to go back to Madagascar. But I am curious--how has it changed? How would my impressions now compare to my impressions then? And who among those I knew are still around? I had a letter exchange with Felix (the happiest man, one of the naturalist guides) in the few years after I left in 1999, but have not had any communications with anyone for a long time now.
Too many spiders! I don't know how you did it, really.
Beautiful photo at the close. Pushes out the thoughts of the spiders.
Thanks again for an entertaining and educating chapter.
There were definitely too many spiders.
Many years later, I had a student at Evergreen who felt that I should learn to appreciate spiders. She brought her pet tarantula to seminar one day (she asked in advance if this was okay). I was not okay with the tarantula in the classroom. However, the same student was with me on my first study abroad program in Panama, and she became expert in amblypygids, aka whip scorpions. They are terrifying to look at, but not at all dangerous (and not actually spiders, but they evoke the same kinds of feelings in those of us who don't love big meaty spiders). She brought one back from the field and encouraged me to handle it, and to let it explore my shoulders and head. I did. It was actually quite interesting, and I can now say that I rather enjoy amblypygids...but still don't love spiders.
Ok, you made me look at a whip scorpion picture. I think... not. Haha. They just look alien to me, and maybe dangerous - though they aren't you say, they have that look about them. It's probably is their first line of defense: look scary!
During WWII dad was sent to the Panama Canal Zone to be post surgeon for the Army. Though he was a Lt in the Navy, the Army was short certain professionals and so the Navy 'lent' them what they needed. My dad told us stories about the tarantulas there. He said they were huge. He remembered one in particular that had wandered onto a train track and was hit, and he said it was big enough that you could still call the remains a corpse.
No thank you! He didn't mind them. So he said.
Do you think much about those times in Madagascar? Of course you do when posting these chapters up for us to read, but before that, did the memories come often? Did you think about Lebon and Fortune and the others you'd met much?
The memories come and go, as you might expect. One of the interesting things about going back through Antipode for this project is that a few of my memories now do not match what I wrote in the book. But I wrote the book from the journals that I wrote every day in the field, and took no, or extremely little, literary license. So I trust my contemporary reports, and the book that emerged from them, more than I trust my memories now, 25 - 30 years later.
I suspect that I will never back to Nosy Mangabe, or Maroantsetra--there are so many places on this beautiful planet that I have yet to explore, and I am driven to see them more than I am to go back to Madagascar. But I am curious--how has it changed? How would my impressions now compare to my impressions then? And who among those I knew are still around? I had a letter exchange with Felix (the happiest man, one of the naturalist guides) in the few years after I left in 1999, but have not had any communications with anyone for a long time now.
Thank you for answering.