No worries??!!??

So, the other day, I'm heading out to pull more of the bushels of leaves back out of the jungle with Chiza and Miguel. No worries, we have the rakes and we have on snake boots.

After about 30 minutes of pulling the jungle junk back into a pile, I noticed that there was about a foot-long root that was wriggling away from my rake, not getting hung up. Another stab, another furtive movement away; (repeat and repeat).

Then I saw the full flash as the black body snaked away. It was a viper (a young one, called a blood viper that is all black until it becomes an adult like in the picture above).

Fortunately for it and for my drawers, it slithered away with no damage done to anyone. Chiza, who was helping me haul the junk away, chided me for slinking away. He asked if the tail was yellow (which is a mika snake, non-venomous) but when I told him that, in fact, the entire body was black, Chiza wasn't too keen on raking up the rest of the leaves in that area. Can't say that I blame him.

Now, before all you weenies get up in arms and decide not to head down here, keep in mind that we were pretty deep in the jungle cleaning out the leaves, etc. It's not an everyday occurrence that we see the slithery snakes, but rather the exception.