Pretty Big Bugs (not for the faint of heart :)

Sometimes pretty really does mean beautiful, as in the case of my little caterpillar friend here...

(found him cruising down the tiled walkway at the Ayurveda institute in Parassini.. I was walking by and did a touble take when I saw it.. An instructor looked at me like I was crazy when I bent down to take a picture, and then saw what I was looking at and did a double take as well.. then HE started calling people over so I figured this was a bit out of the every day, even for India)

Beautiful butterflies seem to be everywhere around Parassini....

Sometimes pretty big is the understatement of the century and really means fracking ginormous oh MY God this thing is going to eat my head... As in the case of these not so pretty but pretty big bugs...

This guy's body was at least four inches long and literally caused a bamboo curtain to sway when he ran behind it.  I can proundly say I did not scream like a little girl when I saw it.. I did, however, have a heartrate like I had just finished a marathon.. 

This was just a rediculously overgrown fly.. I think... the locals we asked had no idea what it was either, so I'm going to go with super mutant fly.  I did find him at the Savoy Spice Plantation in Goa.. so maybe all those organic spices just make them really big?? 

.. taking a break from flying around and resting.. 

and a few minutes later, chilling out on his back.. i was able to turn him over and he flew away.. so no, it's not dead.. 

And holy crap- lets talk about ants... the bastards in Florida and Texas have nothing on these guys... 

big, and fast.  not possible to get a shot of one standing still, because they just do not do that.. they are constantly in nija fast motion.. 

Hopefully now that we have left the jungles of Kerala and Goa we will not be seeing any more ridiculous creepy crawlers, however I think Mumbai may have an entirely different class of insects all unto itself.  Really, really hoping to avoid bed bugs and cocroaches, but we will see...