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Okay, I know that those of you who know me well aren´t going to believe this, so I´m going to provide photo proof.  Memo (short for Guillermo), my host dad, keeps bees on the property for honey.  And I helped feed them!  Since it´s winter here, there aren´t enough flowers to keep the bees happily feed, and Memo and his partners feed the bees a thick sugar water to keep them fat and happy till summer.

Memo looked at me hard when I told him I wanted to go up to the bees.  I had told him a few days earlier that I was a little allergic, and he´d seen already how I reacted to a single fire ant bite.  But I mustered up my most sure of myself face and nodded enthusiastically.  Yes! I said.  Let´s do it.  I ran into the house, grabbed my AfterBite and some Benadryl, and ran back out.

Now, I know there is a fine line between brave and stupid.  But readers, sometimes that line is hard to find.  I made sure to ask Memo if there was any posibility of my being stung a scary number of times - it wouldn´t be 10 or 15 stings, right?  He assured me no, more like 3, and off I went, toting my suit and hat with me.  Here I am sporting the fashionable thing -

And let me tell you, if you can´t see it for yourself - I was terrified.  But excited to do something that really pushed my limits.  We trudged through the banana field and into the brush until the bee hotels came into view.  There were three or four scattered through this bit of brush and we visited each one to check in on the bees and drop off their mason jar of sugar water.

So how was it?  It was...... a success!  I was scared but okay.  Only at the last casita did the bees really show any interest in us, and did I feel any panic at all.  Even knowing that I had my suit on, it was really hard not to cower and swat while hundreds of bees flew at and around me.  But I kept still and thought peaceful thoughts and came out just fine.  I´m really happy to have gone, and feel like I checked something off an unseen list.

Memo gave me a book on apiculture when we got back so I could get to studying.  He´s also teaching me knots, which I love.  It´ll be interesting to use them in the states though, since now I only know them as ¨pata chancos¨ (pig tying knot) and other names that aren´t very illuminating in English.