Plagues!

We seem to be having a bout of assorted plagues here!
I dont think its of "biblical proportions" but its definitely noticeable by everyone!

The rains are well and truly happening down here now (its summer which means its hot and wet).
We get rain in the afternoon at about 2pm every day. The mornings are lovely though, so life is still quite pleasant... But, mother nature is responding to the rain and we are currently experiencing three local plagues:
First we got the frogs... They are everywhere...largish and dull brown. If you see movement on the path at night or in the grass then its almost guaranteed to be a frog. These are not so bad since they dont bite and they cant climb the walls or get under the doors, so they stay outside... quite benign.

Then there are the crabs... yep, the lake here has descent sized freshwater crabs. And it seems that at this time of year they come up onto the land and pursue some of their biological urges...Not sure what those urges are, but there are quite a few 15cm across crabs wandering around the town. They are not quite as benign as the frogs cos they do have nippers and they know how to use them! The disappointment is that the ones out on the land apparently dont have a nice flavor!... But they are actually a bit too small to be worth the effort to cook and eat for me so no great loss there. Like the frogs, they cant get under the doors so they stay outside :)))

And then there are the flys! The locals call them "moskos" but whatever you call them they are a plague for sure. There are "bazillions" of them . They are small bush flies and they remind me of being in the country in Australia at the wrong time of year. Those of you who are Australians or who have spent some time there in the country will know what I mean....very annoying! Unfortunately these guys can get under your door ...or through any small gap for that matter...Its a real problem for the local restaurants and cafes... The food has to be kept very well protected... Though it usually isnt!


And the final Plague is the local Municipal government!
They have decided to apply an arbitrary tax on all the businesses... I say all, but in reality they just want to tax the expat' businesses. There is even a line in the papers that they are "serving" that states this is targeted at the "extrageneros" because they only take and give nothing back to the community! And so the tax is about five times as large for expat businesses.
Another disappointing reality is that the papers are only being served to expat businesses and the local business owners will not have to pay a cent!
Yep, I (actually everybody I speak to) believe that this is wholly unconstitutional and is just the local government on a money grab. This has happened in the past but has been a much lower sum of money, so people have just paid up and moved on. This time however, people feel they are getting greedy...
The good thing here is that the greed is likely high enough to cause the expat' business owners to band together and reject it and get lawyers involved...
We shall see what happens next!

Another aspect of it is that I currently dont have a business license for the motorbike rentals.
It has been an experiment till now and I have learned lots and not committed too much...but now is the time when I need to "get real" (it was always going to happen, so I dont really mind) so I am now getting things in order with a lawyer etc to set up all the needed paperwork. It will likely cost a bit and since I dont yet have residency I will have to get a local to be the" business owner" and I´ll technically be the employee... But Ill manage the business and provide all the equipment and get 90% of the profit - Coincidentaly, this corresponds exactly with the 10% that I currently pay the hotel where the bikes are stored! :)))

So the plagues are upon us, but life goes on just fine :)