Live the same

There's another interesting creature you might encounter back home — one that you'd easily give a 100-five to! 😄

I was on a daredevil trip to Samana one time and was chatting with a guide from another company. I noticed a weird scar on his leg — an almost perfect circle, about 2-3 cm in diameter and at least 1 cm deep. It literally looked like someone had cut out a chunk of his skin. I've been injured a lot in the past and spent enough time in emergency rooms to see all kinds of wounds, but I'd never seen anything like this before. So I asked him about it.

It turns out that a scalopendra had crawled into his bed while he was sleeping! And those things are real monsters in the Dominican Republic — up to 20 cm long, damn tough, and almost impossible to crush. Oh, and they're poisonous, too. That scar? That's what a scalopendra leaves behind after a bite. The guy told me that by the time he got to the hospital, the skin around the bite had literally melted

I came across another type of dangerous creature when I got into diving. Back at one of my previous jobs, I won three dives, and I really liked it. Since the Dominican Republic has an ocean, a sea, and plenty of lakes with underwater caves, I decided to give it another shot. I had some free time, so why not? It actually went really well—I even got my Deep Water certification and started cave diving training. But I didn’t finish it because I had to leave… but that’s not the point.

The underwater world is breathtaking, but sometimes, it can be terrifying. It’s scary to get stuck, scary to have nothing but 100+ meters of black abyss beneath you while you’re just floating above it, like in space. And, of course, it’s scary to run into sharks… No, hahaha, I didn’t see any sharks. But I did come across moray eels. They’re not as intimidating as sharks, but they can still be pretty dangerous. Dominican reefs are full of small caves where moray eels like to hide, so you have to be really careful.

The underwater world is both mesmerizing and daunting. Your experience with moray eels highlights the unexpected encounters divers can face. It’s a reminder of the importance of caution and respect for marine life. Thanks for sharing this thrilling story! 
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