Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Not for the faint hearted

I mean it! Please ignore this post otherwise.
The photo you are about to see is a photo we received last friday from our security officer with the head title "Human leg found at Batugade Beach: FYI and avoid swimming"...




It's ghastly isn't it!? A reminder that crocodiles definitely exist in Timor Leste!
The worst was that on the way back from Dili on Friday, M and I decided to stop at this same beach to enjoy the sunset over the water before we had to go back to the mountains and the valley of Maliana. It was a beautiful sunset and we said to ourselves we have to come back one weekend and enjoy Batugade beach. We're both Portuguese so the need for water and the sea runs in our veins. Everytime we come down from Maliana, as soon as we see the ocean from up in the mountains it's like we're at peace, like everything is alright. I can't explain it, I just need to see water, especially the sea. But you can imagine our horror when, after arriving back at home in Maliana, M goes through her e-mails and finds this warning from our security officer, supposedly having happened at the beach we had just vacated!!

Our flatmate J, though, told us that he has received this photo before, a year ago or so... so apparently, it's one of those things that are running around the e-mails of Timor Leste and people pick it up now and again to serve as a warning not to underestimate the crocodiles of Timor Leste, even though none of us, UNVs, has yet seen one since arriving...

So, apologies to the faint hearted, it's just another story from Timor Leste, the island of the 'not so sleeping' crocodile...

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