Snake Charming for Lafitte's Treasure!!!

21.3.05

Snake charming for Lafitte’s Treasure.

Wonder how Jean Lafitte did it back then? When we set out in quest of Lafitte’s Treasure we happened upon a not so happy resident of the snag in which Lafitte’s Treasure resided. We gazed within and noticed a juvenile snake guarding the treasure. Had his home not been so snug we would have gingerly reached in to retrieve our prize, but it was a wee bit tight so we hesitated. Hesitating just long enough to notice junior’s parent aggressively guarding the snag from the outside. The snake slithered from side to side tightly hugging the base of the tree. We attempted a feint, distracting it from one side hoping it would wander off to the other side—but each time we distracted it regardless of which side, it simply slithered off to the other side—ever hugging the base of the tree. Very protective! That’s when we realized it must have been a nest. Never before have we encountered such a protective ‘ribbon snake’ in the wild.

Chopstick Letterboxing

So, we had to come up with an alternative approach to retrieving Lafitte’s Treasure. Eventually the ‘approved solution’ proved to be retrieving the small letterbox using two 2-1/2’loblolly pine tree sticks ‘chopstick’ style. How funny I must have looked to the passersby who had nary an idea what I was doing. After many frustrating failed attempts, I eventually succeeded in snaring the letterbox with my ‘chopsticks’ AND retrieving it without the adult snake striking in the process. We wandered off with our well-earned prize and stamped in off site. We continued along on our quest—easily locating the second prize in the series and hiking another 1 mile or so along the bayou. What an adventure this stroll turned out to be.

Gators, Geckos, Gators & More Gators

We saw Herons, White Ibises (adult & juvenile) and many other uniquely interesting birds along the trek. Geckos climbed all around us, snakes sunned near stumps. We were quite fortunate to encounter 16 alligators during this visit. The first encounter was a gator about 3’ in length—floating lazily adjacent a boardwalk we visited. Then further down along our trek we saw a mama gator sunning along a high bank of the bayou. She, too, stood there frozen baking in the sun. Then we noticed her 6 babies lazily sunning all around the banks around her. What a unique experience. Just as we were about to set off along the trail Mama decided to take a swim. She ‘waddled’ into the swamp but stopped just before her tail submerged. She stood there, frozen, half in the water, half out for the rest of our visit. We continued along the trek and noticed several other juvenile gators sunning themselves on sinkers and logs all along the banks. Some of the gators were mere inches from our boardwalk—others were off in the distance. We saw some painted turtles both sunning and swimming, too.

After our hour long trek through the bayou, we headed back to Lafitte’s Treasure hidey-hole hoping that our ‘resident sentries’ would have departed for less ‘disturbed’ quarters and we would be able to easily return the prize to the hidey-hole. We quietly walked up to the snag hoping to replant the box without difficulty but soon realized that ‘mama’ or ‘papa’ snake was no longer just defending the base of the tree but rather INSIDE the tree, with his head perched about 1’ just at the level of the opening of the snag—armed and ready to take on any future ‘disturbers’. Not wanting to raise the stakes, we decided to convert the small ‘tub’ container letterbox into a ‘fishing pole’ type box (with the approval of the planter, of course). We jerry-rigged a solution by taping the container to the end of a sturdy stick—making the retrieval step that much less difficult in the ‘uptake’. We were able to carefully replant it in its hidey hole and hope the resident snakes will no longer feel so disturbed by future visitors.