Life's a Stitch

The closer to the equator the larger the creatures.

A hitchhiker from our recent Panama trip:

I remember, as a kid, returning home from Puerto Rico with fabric luggage covered in ticks. I discovered it when I woke up in the middle of the night, a crawling sensation on my neck, my suitcase next to the bed. Gives me the creeps even now. 

Used to be, flying there, just prior to landing, they would spray the inside of the plane's cabin with insecticide. The  flight staff dubbed this flight from NY to San Juan "the Roach Coach." Seems to me it might have been more necessary for returning flights, not that we needed further carcinogenic exposure in a confined space. Those were also the days when inflight smoking was permitted.

These are the real deal, in the wild, shot from an overpass, meters from our parked vehicle:

This was a beautiful, but very poor country, with an ironically modern highway system.

A local enjoying the oppressively hot sunshine. If it were humanly possible to melt, I wouldn't be here to tell this tale. Does being cold blooded help?

Back home in the cool Northwest, I can think about knitting again. Another Dressew purchase, 10 skeins of $1.99 bulky weight self striping yarn, in an aptly named colourway – Tropical Sea, in need of a pattern.