We recently returned from two weeks of volunteering at the
Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica. It is truly a fabulous place that is doing so much in the areas of the education about as well as the rehabilitation and research of the Bradypus and Choloepus Sloth populations that live there. The sanctuary is certainly a top-notch operation. However, it is located deep in the jungle of Costa Rica. When you stay there you coexist with all sorts of creatures that you may not normally encounter in your day-to-day life. This can lead to some amazing adventures. One of the adventures we had involved a not-so-little crab that landed in our toilet. Yes, this is the pictorial tale of Toilet Crab.
...yes, we actually did take pictures of our toilet while on vacation.
...yes, we probably need to get out more.
...yes, this episode is now in our top 10 list of travel stories!
|
The tale of one wayward crab, a
few random kitchen utensils scammed from the volunteer kitchen & a
piece of salami on a shoelace…deep in the heart of the Costa Rican jungle. |
|
Yes, this is a picture of a
crab inside of a toilet bowl. This guy somehow swam up through the
septic pipes & ended up in the toilet in our room one night after
dinner. He wouldn't leave. When we told the staff about our little
visitor they said, "Oh, you must be in Room 6" without blinking an eye.
[head tilt] Obviously, this wasn't the first time our crab had checked into this toilet (we're in the jungle of Costa Rica & these things happen). Resigned to the fact that there would now be three of us sharing a bathroom for at least a few more hours we named him "Mr. Swirly." We also decided to limit our
liquid intake that night as well as to flush first and then look before sitting
whenever necessary. |
|
The next morning the poor maintenance guy who drew the short straw came to our room on crab removal duty. His solution was to put a straightened-out wire hanger in the toilet to grab & pull the crab out & then toss him into the bag. (umm...seriously?) After standing around the toilet for quite some time waiting for the crab to come out the maintenance
guy tells me (Lori) in Spanish that he had other things to do &
that it would be up to me to continue to wait for Mr. Swirly to come out
of hiding & then pull him out with the wire hanger contraption. One can just guess how well that worked. |
|
Flash forward about 24 hours - After many unsuccessful attempts to flush Mr. Swirly away he became a bit of a celebrity with the staff & volunteers.
Everyone who came in during that time exclaimed, "Wow, that's one big
crab!" Yes, that's what we've been trying to tell you for the past day
or so... |
|
One of the other volunteers
thought that we might be able to coax Mr. Swirly out with some meat
attached to some sort of fishing line. Someone then produced a slice of
salami. Someone else then dug out a shoelace and a fishing line was born. |
|
Fishing for Mr. Swirly. Waiting...and waiting...and waiting... Trust us, The Deadliest Catch TV show was never quite this exciting or suspenseful...and probably never had so many adults standing around looking into a toilet bowl at a slice of salami on a shoelace while holding cameras. |
|
After many tries (and much suspense & excitement) we finally were able to fish him out with that piece of salami tied to a shoelace…as
well as a pair of salad tongs & that bent up wire clothes hanger.
Yes, MacGyver would have been proud of this entire operation...though
he would probably have used a gum wrapper and his duct tape with some
minor explosives to get the crab out & then made crab cakes for
dinner! |
|
Mr. Swirly protesting his forced removal. |
|
Extraction - This pic shows how big Mr. Swirly was. |
|
Mr. Swirly's beauty shot. |
|
Joel wrangling Mr. Swirly just outside of our room. |
|
The procession down to the dock for the ceremonial tossing of Mr. Swirly into the lagoon. |
|
Rob (the NOAA marine biologist) determining the sex of the crab before we tossed Ms. Swirly (yes, HE was actually a SHE) into the croc-filled lagoon. |
|
Even though we never saw
Toilet Crab again, for the rest of the two weeks we continued to embrace
the whole "look before you sit" idea. |