Electric Passport: The Not-So-Endangered Toilet Crab of Costa Rica

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!