I’ve been asked by a gentle reader to write something more cheery about my adventures in Costa Rica that do not involve killing snakes or slaying señoritas. Hope you will find this uplifting. What was that again about mad dogs and Englishmen in the midday sun?

I’m dizzy again and on the verge of heat stroke wondering how quickly I’ll react to the next snake attack. We’re standing around the back of my truck taking a water break and trying to get some shade from the unrelenting tropical sun when the youngest of the crew, Pablo, (15 years old and the only one still single) bolts into the rows of young pepper plants that are just learning to attach themselves to and climb up their live posts. Black pepper plants are vines, and in order to get any significant production out of them you’ve got to get them off of…