Brooke vs. the World

We found ourselves in Copan Ruinas, Honduras around Valentine’s Day and decided to splurge on a nice place and dinner for the occasion. There’s a nice hacienda with 8 rooms scattered about just outside town that prepares gourmet food and runs mainly by candlelight. It’s a complete luxury style bed and breakfast in a rural Honduras setting.

We had a great afternoon and by the time the sun set, the entire grounds were covered in candles. Dinner consisted of five amazing courses all served outside under the stars. All was going well until I overheard a mother and daughter telling a story to their friends during the meal. I couldn’t really believe what I was hearing. Do we have to worry about that here?!

After dinner, we made our way back to our candlelit room where we were greeted with some delicious white chocolate and macadamia nut candies. It was wonderful to be so relaxed and not worrying about the questionability of the sheets on our bed. I decided to write in my journal for a bit while Brian lay in bed, when suddenly I heard it. It was the same “it” I heard the people talking about at dinner. There was a pattering across the rug – one of those reed woven rugs – that covered a large part of the stone floor. I cursed, grabbed my flashlight and confirmed they are indeed a threat here – black scorpions!

The little bugger was under the other bed (we had two double beds in our room) and then it disappeared. We had no idea if it was hiding still, or if it perhaps crawled out under the other door. Brian and I were frozen with fright. I wanted to leave and get help, from somewhere, but couldn’t get the courage to brave touching foot to floor! We’re from central Illinois. We don’t have scorpions and really knew nothing about how to deal with the situation. Do they climb walls? Could they possibly climb into bed with us? Were these super poisonous? The fact of the matter was that when you are in a room in the middle of the night that is barely lit by candlelight and see (and hear!) a black scorpion crawling about – there is just no way to feel comfortable.

I finally got the courage to run to the door (Brian wasn’t doing it – he was also frozen with fear!) to see if I could catch someone still in the main building. I put on my sandals – that’s all I had – and dashed to the front door, only to open it to a disappointing darkness outside. The candles were gone; the building looked abandoned. What was I going to do? It was Valentine’s Day and all the other couples were in their rooms in the other little buildings. I couldn’t knock on their door, let alone even get the courage to walk around outside in the dark now!

I freaked and hopped back into bed with Brian who hadn’t moved an inch. We used my little flashlight to check the corners, shine the beams above us, and everywhere else we could see. Every time we heard a slight clicky or pattering noise we jumped and used the flashlight to check where we thought it was coming from. I don’t know how we managed it, but we eventually passed out. I think we would wake about every hour and reassess the situation.

Surprisingly, when morning came, the hacienda took on a completely different light. I suddenly didn’t mind the bad sleep and continued to enjoy the sun-filled morning and awesome breakfast with an open mind. We actually just sort of thought that was common around here – that you just get scorpions in your room in Honduras – especially after hearing about the mother/daughter scorpion incident from the night before. We didn’t bring this up until we returned to town and picked up our bags at the hacienda business office. The owner asked us how it was and we responded that everything was great except for the scorpion in the room.

At this word, she freaked and became very concerned. “Where was it?!” she asked. “Was it on the wall?”

“Oh my God, they do climb walls?!” we responded with wide eyes and dropped jaws.

She went on about the severity of this situation. Apparently, this is a huge problem for them and now is the bad season. They spray for them, make the beds upside down (whatever that means), and when they come in and light your candles and supply the chocolates in your room, they are actually checking the room for scorpions! She apologized over and over again and made some phone calls (especially after I told her that we heard stories of other incidents). Eventually, she ended up giving us a fifty dollar (USD) bill as a refund for our troubles.

Scorpions! Just when you think the worst thing you could possibly encounter in your room is a giant spider, you meet the nasty, feisty scorpion with its curly stinger and claws. I don’t think we’ll ever forget this Valentine’s Day!