Pura Vida, Pt III

Ah, yes, I forgot I need to finish my Costa Rica post. Okay, so we hiked a lot, we ate a lot, we went kayaking, we went surfing, got massages and then we came home. I just saved you 45 minutes. But here are the highlights, starting with the critters:

After dinner one night, the Mrs. was changing when I saw a flurry of flailing and a call for help. Apparently a she had the nerve to disturb a small scorpion that had taken up residence in her shirt, and the tourist-hater scorpion did not take too kindly to that. Being the awesome husband that I am, my concerned response was, “Cool, there he is! Quick, get the camera!” Being the horrible wife that she is, she seemed more concerned about the bite on her shoulder and her needs rather than finding the camera for me. (I failed to convince her later that I was only hoping to get a picture to help identify the scorpion for the doctors.) There was just a small welt and not the intolerable pain that you hear about, but we went back to the lodge to ask if it was anything to be concerned about. They claimed the small ones weren’t poisonous and gave us a bag of ice to keep the swelling down. The Mrs. grabbed the ice pack and explained to me that it was for her shoulder and not my pants. The next day we talked to the resident biologist and he postulated that she probably only got nicked, since a full sting would have been much more painful. But it was still a cool story. And we learned to shake out our clothes for the rest of the trip.



The cabina isn’t really designed to keep everything out so we usually just slept with doors wide open to get the full effect of the ocean breeze and the sound of the surf. Insects weren’t a big problem, and the mosquito nets seemed to work pretty well. But immediately after the scorpion incident I was sent to do a bed check. I declared the bed safe for occupancy and went to brush my teeth when I was called out again, this time to find a jungle roach the size of my hand hanging on the mosquito netting. We then began debating our course of action. We could smash it, but that might cause a wet, messy explosion and I didn’t want to deal with the aftermath. We could capture it within the netting and attempt to transfer it outside, but that seemed too logistically complicated. We could get somebody from the lodge to handle it, but that seemed kind of wussy. Instead we opted for the swat with a towel toward the open
door, and I’m pleased to report it went swimmingly.



The following night we found a jungle crab hanging on the inside of the netting, which was removed using the same technique. And the next night I discovered a decent size Wandering Spider next to the bed, which I was able to direct outside using a piece of paper. After all this, I began offering my critter removal services to the other guests and made a tidy profit before leaving.



Please note that the only original photo is the roach. All the others are the best representations I could find on the Internets. But I’ll quit now before I digress and use up that 45 minutes I promised I wouldn’t take up. More to follow. And sweet dreams.