We’ve been here for almost two months now, and I’ve shared a lot about how much we’re enjoying our simpler life. But there have definitely been some changes that have been difficult to deal with, so I thought I would share a little about those too!

1) Bugs. Lots and lots of bugs and bug bites. In America pesticides are sprayed everywhere, including in public parks, so much of the bug population is controlled in populated areas. Here dealing with bugs is a daily occurrence, and I’m unfortunately the best thing to happen to the bug population of El Nido; if there is something that bites, I will get bitten. And the bugs here are Jurassic-era huge, especially because we live beside an undeveloped mountainside. Mosquitoes are the least of our problems because they’re the least itchy of the bugs that bite. I’ve been massacred by nikniks (sand flies/no-see-ums) and sea lice (baby jellyfish). The itchiness of their bites is much more severe and lasts much longer than mosquito bites. They itch so badly that you can’t sleep. Plus I already have eczema and sensitive skin, so I truly suffer. But it really depends on the person and whether or not they’re allergic to bites. I get the most bites by far out of everyone in our family, followed by Charlie. Olive almost never gets any bites even when we’re in the same place at the same time!

2) Other creepy, crawly critters. If you follow me on snapchat, you regularly see me trapping lizards, frogs, geckos, and spiders (the size of my palm) in our house. We also deal with wasps, monster centipedes, praying mantises, ticks (Mr. Bee’s mom’s yorkie gets a bunch every time he comes over to our side) and many other bugs I can’t identify. Ants are always a problem and they’re often found working together to carry away a big dead bug. I also kill ants crawling up my arms a couple times every day. Killing bugs with our bare hands has become a daily way of life for all of us. The plentiful insects here attract dragonflies (they eat mosquitoes), frogs, lizards and geckos, and we see a couple lizards/tokay geckos in our house every day. The geckos harmless, but they make these loud croaking sounds every night that always wake us up!

3) Truly scary and dangerous critters. Our nanny found a 3 foot long poisonous snake in her room! Luckily Mr. Bee’s mom has an awesome member on staff that is not afraid of anything (he’s the unofficial critter catcher), and he caught and killed it. The reason the snake was there was because we had a rat infestation in our attic. Our house had remained uninhabited for a while because it was badly damaged by typhoons, and a family of rats had taken up residence. We have a metal roof and the sound of their claws on it every night sounded like there was a bear up there! I think we caught 6 rats with traps and the clawing sound disappeared for a while, but we heard a new one last night.

There are many alligators and crocodiles native to this island. I’ve seen them on island hopping tours, and they’re about 5 feet long or so. Last week Mr. Bee saw one just behind our house! Of course now the kids are more curious than ever about spotting it and try to go up there by themselves.

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4) No trash service. Because there is no trash service, an area behind our house serves as a dump site for the resort where they dump trash and burn it (like all of the other local resorts and residents). The trash attracts rodents, which in turn attracts snakes and alligators. The trash is actually the root cause of almost all our critter problems. We’re currently working on setting up a long-term compost solution and trash reduction plans for the resort.

5) No spay/neuter services. The dump also attracts lots of dogs wandering through our property looking for food. They’re not necessarily strays and most probably have owners, but most dogs here are underfed. They’re typically fed a few scraps of leftovers with a lot of water added. I don’t really fear them biting the kids too much because all dogs tend to be friendly and will run away if you shush them. But it is tough to have at least half a dozen dogs wandering around our house every day — some of them are part of the same pack of the two dogs we feed regularly, Brownie and Alko. Many are painfully thin, and females always recently had puppies. As a huge animal lover it is really, really, really hard for me to resist feeding all.the.dogs. Since there are no spay/neuter services, dogs are constantly breeding. For the most part the dogs seem pretty happy though even if they are starving, because they play with each other and run free around the island.

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Brownie pretty much lives with us. I’ve been feeding him every day since we got here and though you can still see his ribs, he’s definitely put on some weight. He’s a very sweet dog but such a beta, I can’t always get him to eat, especially when his alpha pack leader Alko is around!

6) Isolation/no friends/lack of things to do. Admittedly we haven’t made any effort to meet people here because we’ve been busy setting up our home, catching up on work, and helping Mr. Bee’s parents out with their business. Every day is pretty much the same as the last, and I thrive on adventure and new experiences. We’ve stayed close to home for the most part because we’re residents and not tourists anymore! Once we’re more settled in we’ll definitely be taking advantage of everything the island has to offer, but we’re also trying to convince some good friends in New York to come live with us for a year! Would you take us up on that offer and move to a remote tropical island?