“I want to show you what I found”, Chuckle said to me. 

I moved in closer and sucked in my breath.  It was a scorpion.  A couple of staff members had found one on the beach.

I leaned in for a second look.  I was hoping this would be the first and last time I laid eyes on one so I had a good, long stare.  I have to admit I was curious and don’t have a real fear of arachnids except for the ones with many, many legs.  Those totally creep me out.

It was only recently that a guest stepped on a scorpion in one of the rooms at the resort.  A Canadian guy with an easygoing demeanor and good sense of humour didn’t see the little creature and put his barefoot down.  He jumped when he felt the sting on the bottom of his foot, grabbed a rock and smashed the scorpion flat, but kept it mostly intact to take back home with him to display it as one might a deer head.  Canadian guy claimed it only felt like a bee sting but to me that’s enough of a pain to want them to stay far away. 

According to wikipedia, the scorpions here aren’t poisonous, although they can cause bad reactions in pets. How about little twelve-pound doggies who are alone in their room, often for several hours?  How would we even know if he was stung?  The sting, they say, can be so painful that morphine is needed for relief.  That’s like cutting you open for surgery without anesthetic!  Maybe that’s a little extreme, but morphine?  That’s strong stuff.