Close encounter with a mapepire

After wading through what seemed like never ending river gorges and rushing rapids, slipping and sliding our wet selves down rocks and grassy inclines we made it to the falls. I don’t think I was ever so glad to see the clear waters of a waterfall. Just the sight of it was enough to help blot out the never-ending trek through muddy rivers with hidden rocks that threatened to not only sprain an ankle but completely severe my foot from the rest of my body.

What a relief to just swim in the cool waters and soak bruised limbs and feet. Then came time to leave and the journey back out began.

Well is now the drama start! A female hiker ahead of the group closest to me had slipped and injured her ankle on the muddy slopes. Given the twisted expression of pain on her face, it was clear that her ankle was broken.

With the help of able-bodied men around she was supported on the arduous trek. We still had more than half of the journey to complete when someone yelled, “Snake!” “Where?” “Look it there.” It was mere feet away from us so close I could actually see it. And it was a mapepire! Whether it was a Mapepire Balsan or the Mapepire Zanana (aka Bushmaster) they did not say. And it mattered not to me for at the mention of this pit viper all the heat in my body dried up instantly.

“Wait is two I think,” I heard someone say. Lord have mercy! I want my mummy.

To say those of us around were frozen in fear is an understatement.

Those who weren’t standing still were looking back wondering if there was another path out. Talk of “kill it!” began to circulate. Immediately I remembered someone once saying to me that the only good snake is a dead one. We had an injured hiker in tow so it was slow going for the guys helping to carry her. I wondered if they would be able to make their way safely by without incurring the wrath of the snake.

The hike leaders were rather calm though. They decided to coax the snake further away from us rather than kill it. Two of them, one armed with a sizeable cutlass, stood guard with eyes fixed on the snake as it slithered into the bush, away from our path.

As I trekked past this area I did so with eyes firmly planted in the direction of the snake and henceforth, firmly planted along the trail paying close attention to where my feet went. I don’t think I lifted my head much until we were almost out of the bush and I could see the paved road ahead. In fact I spent so much time looking at where my feet went I realized that the running shoes many of us were wearing were no match for a Mapepire’s bite. It would be like clamping its jaws into a piece of toffee.

The two species of Mapepire mentioned, along with two types of coral snakes, are the only poisonous snakes in Trinidad. They are deadly. Anyone wishing to familiarise themselves with the poisonous snakes in T&T (and all hikers should) can visit the website: http://asawright.org/venemous- snakes-of-trinidad-tobago/ . There are detailed drawings and pictures that make it easy to identify these mortifying reptiles.