Tiny Grass

So we are here in Costa Rica, and we have had some interesting experiences already. Our 24 hours in Alajuela was a great beginning, and we are looking forward to coming back to the Central Valley in a few weeks. But on to the crab house….

We arrived in Cahuita, on the Caribbean coast, on Friday, after a very long 5 hour drive. Our driver was very nice, and actually an extremely safe driver in comparison to the other drivers we saw on the road. Actually, he was almost too safe. We were stuck behind trucks that were driving perhaps 20 mph for much of the time. The driver refused to pass. Normally I’d say bravo, safety dude! But I was stuck in the back of the van with a crying J for much of the time. I’m sure the driver thinks that all I must do is nurse, because I think I nursed for almost 5 straight hours.

We arrived in Cahuita rather late, and very very stir-crazy. I had this idea that we’d be able to take a swim in the ocean once we arrived, but I keep forgetting that the sun goes down a lot sooner in Costa Rica. We arrived around 5pm, and with the shade of the trees, it was already getting dark. And very buggy. We got out of the van and were hit with a wall of dark buggy humidity. I was really cranky, and so were the kids.

As we entered our extremely rustic cabina, we noticed that we had a visitor under one of the tables. We couldn’t find our flashlights, so we weren’t yet sure what the creature was. But it was big. Very big. I assumed it was a large spider, which I might expect in a jungle. But Arp told me he thought it was a crab. I kind of thought he was crazy. But he told me it was moving sideways just like a crab. But the mosquitoes were starting to bite the hell out of me, so I didn’t spend much time wondering. Our whole family was getting bitten, and I was having trouble finding the bug repellent. I was having some serious visions of Dengue fever. I was also hot as hell. So we searched a good long time and found the DEET, coating ourselves.

Next, I tried out the fan. For some reason it didn’t seem to work very well. It sort of made the air move a tiny bit around the room, but it didn’t exactly cool me off. I was practically dripping sweat. So as Arp headed out the door to get some snacks at the grocery store, I stripped off all my clothes and dove under the mosquito-netted beds with the kids. I had just settled myself down on the bed (in only my panties) and started to nurse J again when I looked up….and … SCREAMED! Two large crabs were crawling around above my head on the inside frame of the mosquito netting. Over the course of about 2 seconds, and in my topless state, I imagined what might happen if they dropped down on my naked body. I jumped up, grabbed the kids, and got the hell out of there! It was a wonderful welcome to what has come to be known by our family as “The Crab House”.

That night was a hard night for me. I had to endure a day-long car ride, mosquito attacks, a useless fan, and crabs in my bed. The Girl Scout in me was chanting, “Harden up, girl!” But the wimp in me was, at first, screaming harder, “Go home! Make a reservation for some cushy hotel, like you deserve!” Well, I am happy to say that by the next morning, the Girl Scout in me had prevailed. We ended up actually loving the place, and I will write another blog with a review.

Here is a picture of the crab under the netting:

And the one on the floor:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 7:07 pm and is filed under costa rica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.