Snake or Slow Worm? Scared Me Silly

If you came downstairs barefoot in the night and you saw one of the above slithering from underneath your sofa would you scream? If this happened to you would you yell out loud 'Snake!' Would you care if it was a snake or a slow worm? I didn't care at all. I screamed until I cried. More about slow worms here but they will always be snakes to me.

Last year a 'slow worm' crawled into the sleeve of a shirt drying outside on the clothes line. I didn't know this until I picked the laundry basket up ready to do some ironing. It reared up as if it were mesmerised by the music of a snake charmer and looked me straight in the eyes.

I screamed then too! I was so terrified I threw the laundry, including the snake, into the linen basket and closed the lid. The 'slow worm' tried to escape through the holes in the basket weave. It was succeeding. I kept poking it back inside the basket, amidst more screaming. I opened the bedroom window and hurled the basket and the contents into the front garden.

I don't care if they are legless lizards and have eyelids. Even though it did wink at me! They are snakes.

Our first three nights of our trip to Cuba were spent in Havana and the last three nights in the Caribbean resort of Varadero. In beween we travelled through six of the fourteen Cuban provinces staying overnight in individual cabins with palm leaves for roofs. All the cabins were in rural parks with great views and plenty of wildlife. Thankfully, all the cabins had air conditioning - even though some of them were very noisy - as humidity does me in more than high temperatures.