Ooooh, that smell!

"Ooooh, that smell/ Can't you smell that smell/ The smell of death surrounds you." Lynyrd Skynyrd

Aaaaah. Sun and solace. Take a deep breath. Aaaaaah, it’s a beautiful day! Can you see the blue sky? Can you smell the fresh air? … What? Oh, sorry. Of course you can’t smell the fresh air -- because it smells like DEAD ANIMAL!!! Yes, that’s right. After 72 non-stop hours of what locals are saying was the worst weather EVER to hit the Arenal area (hurricane-like winds that blew the rain sideways, ripped off roofs, knocked over trees, and killed pasture animals), we finally got some sun today. So I walk outside to soak up some of the lovely rays and take a deep breath of fresh, rain-cleansed air, and – “Oh my gawd! What IS that?!” Dead animal smell. Now, if you don’t know what dead animal smell is, how can I best describe it? Oh, yes, it smells like a dead rotting animal. It’s pretty unique to itself and like nothing you can imagine. No, it’s not like your pet goldfish that was left floating belly up in the bowl for two days before you noticed it, not like the maggots in your compost, not like the garbage can of fish guts at the fish market or the homemade ceviche sold out of that guy’s trunk every Saturday, and it’s certainly not like night-blooming jasmine even though its smell, just like night-blooming jasmine, is for some reason more pungent in the dark. It is the smell of death, my friends. And if you’ve never smelled it, you will know it when you do. Kind of like the time in junior high when I walked into the school bathroom during a dance and smelled the lingering aftersmoke of marijuana. I had never smoked it, never smelled it – but I knew what it was. Something about its sickly sweet aroma needed no introduction. It is the same with the rancid stench of death. Something about the slow putrefaction of hair, fat, and organ tissue is unmistakable. It is also difficult to erase the memory, if not the actual physical impression, of it. It is disturbing. . . .So what was this dead animal smell sending its suffocating scent wafting across our paradise? It came and is still coming from our neighbor’s poor old dead horse. You may recall the reference to dead pasture animals above. This one did not survive the storm. And locally, when cows and horses die, they are left to the devices of nature. Well, nature is not as expedient as one would hope. I am actually quite disappointed in the ants and vultures and coyotes that call themselves our neighbors. It’s either too much horse for them, or maybe the old guy’s meat is just too tough. But I tell you, after a couple of days of beating down sun and more rain, his carcass is just getting more and more ... distinguised. Aaaaaaah, it's a beautiful day. Just don’t breathe too deeply.