Buggie-Boos & Creepy-Crawlies of Panajachel

In honour of the approach of Halloween (my favourite holiday!), I am posting pictures of some of the interesting, surprising, and sometimes freaky insects and arachnids we've seen around (and inside) our apartments on Lake Atitlan, and while out walking around Panajachel and Santa Catarina in Guatemala.

I haven't blown up the pictures really huge so you won't get overwhelmed. If you want to see a bigger picture, just click the pic and it will open up a large size version.
I apologize to all those folks who don't like bugs! They are a big part of life here in Guatemala so I thought I would share. :)
(Scroll quickly to the end for a sweet picture of Bert & Pachi!)

This was the first scorpion we saw in our apartment.
Very cool to see as we don't have these in Canada, eh? :D

This centipede was dying, not sure why. He's upside-down.

Did not like the looks of this little insect. Good thing he was outside.

Leaf cutter ant. Big head. We see these touring around in the plants, but this was the first time we'd seen one where we could get a picture.

Eeks, I hate centipedes!! Canadian toonie for scale.

Teeny tiny scorpion.

This was a weird spider outside at night. Not sure if he was injured or something.

There are a lot of neat beetles around but we rarely get a chance to photograph them.

Interesting waspy thing. Zippo for scale.

We see quite a few Huntsman spiders. We have one that lives in a crack in our front window.
His name is Jacques.  :D

A better picture of the Huntsman spider. They are flattened and have forward-facing legs so they can squeeze into cracks.
They are actually "good" spiders in that they eat other pests. They are also very shy and only come out in the dark.

Super awesome big beetle! Canadian toonie for scale.
Sorry for the dust. We captured him in our dustpan.

On the wall outside at dusk. About an inch long.

Slug that crawled into our apartment. Canadian toonie for scale. :)

Only the size of a housefly, but super cool looking.

Actually a very large flying insect, about two inches long. Very shiny copper in the sun.

Stick Bug!! This is my favourite so far.

Black Widow Spider. OMG!! Found right outside our front door. Eeks!

Love the camouflage!

Wicked cool looking caterpillar. I'll be doing a post abuot butterflies too, if I can ever get some decent pictures!

Look at the size of that thing!

A little tarantula we caught at the lake apartment. He was awesome!
When I posted this on Facebook, people were shocked that there were tarantulas here.

The stick bug is back! My foot for scale.  :D

This dude was trundling along a wall. See the little bits of red on his antenna?

A different bug than the one above. This guy was shiny metallic green.
He had cool antenna too but they're hard to see in the pic.

A scorpion at our new house in town. This guy had clear legs.
Bert said, "Quick, get the camera. He's posing!"

Bert saw a HUGE scorpion in our kitchen but couldn't get a good photo of it. I wish I had seen it. He said it was the biggest yet!

Honeybees eating pancake syrup off our dirty dishes. They were soooo happy!
They came back the next day to scope out if there was any more but were sadly disappointed.

Of course, there are many, many, MANY more bugs than pictured here. There are lots of wee little bugs that don't look good in pictures, plus bugs that zip by in a flash, plus the regular bugs we have back home like houseflies and mosquitos. One thing that is weird here though is the that mosquitos are really tiny! They have this super high-pitched whine when they fly near your ears while you're trying to sleep. Tiny or not, mosquitos here are not cool. They carry dengue fever and other nasty diseases. 

For those of you who made it to the end of the post, here is your reward!

Smile, Pachi!

Bert got his hair shaved into a buzzed mohawk. He loves it! He and Pachi are posing beside an elephant-ear plant. Such huge leaves!

Bert would like to say "Hi" to his Aunt Carol and Uncle Mike. He heard through his mom that they were enjoying following our adventures here in Guatemala. :D