Close call with wildlife!

[Catito]

Rented a nice looking beach house in Taveuni, Fiji with nice deck and lots of tropical fruit plants down to the beach.

Day 1 beautiful weather, enjoying the beach where you could see fish, eels and seasnakes.

Day 2 came out to cook breakfast and found the real "owner" of the house: A big tarantula looking spider bigger than my hand, hanging out in the kitchen. We were probably lucky to see him on the floor after he had already gotten off the counter. Good morning Fiji style. We sent him on vacation for a bit to see his buddies.

Day 3, I got sick like my wife knew would happen after a sickly woman in the boarding lounge suddenly stuck her face in mine to ask me something. Then it started raining. Not just rain but horizontal complete whiteout 50 feet away on the beach rain. For 6 days. The house was going to be great because there was no damn TV, radio or any of that because we would be diving and running around the island. So NOTHING to do but be sick. Until the leaks in the house started. Had to get up off the rock they called a bed and eventually, all the furniture was piled up on the corner of the house. I livened up the time by visiting another 3rd world hospital because I felt so bad from illness and dehydration. Then we went diving with an outfit whose covered aluminum speedboat caused carbon monoxide to flow back into the passenger area turning my wife into a sputtering idiot in 15 mins. Finally made it to the next part of the trip where the sailboat worked out great, but hey good times

wow. I can’t beat that.

 

[Scared Silly]

Not diving related. As a kid I ran and jumped off the deck into a lake. Mid air I realized I was going to land on a water moccasin (aka cottonmouth) snake. Fortunately, the event was scary enough for both we swam off in different directions.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Did I already tell about the manta laying on me in Raja Ampat?

 

[chillyinCanada]

Another reason not to use a snorkel during the warmer months here.
Had a lady diver surface happy near the boat 'what a great dive' she said, gave the OK, exchanged her regulator for her snorkel, BUT ! Hanging on the mouthpiece was a Blue bottle [The Bluebottle or Pacific Man-of-War] and into her mouth it goes, not so happy now.
She was diving from my charter boat and I am thinking "how do I treat this?" The 'expletives' used by her and everyone that witnessed this were as blue as this evil little thing, you can guess.
Bluebottle
View attachment 677099

She didn't die? Omg