Mrs. ItchyFeet You have got to love critters to truly enjoy Costa Rica! I have seen more varieties of birds, insects, reptiles, and mammals here in Sámara in such a short time than anywhere else. To be fair, I also have a lot more critters in my apartment than I appreciate. I love the geckos who patrol around, eating all the dangerous insects. But I could go with fewer piles of gecko tic-tacks. Want to know how I got started calling gecko poop tic-tacs? I have stories!
Tic-Tacs!
Way back when I stayed for a month in Belize, I bought some dark chocolate from a local vender. So good! Well, you can’t leave chocolate out in the tropical hot-hot or it will melt post-haste (also something will eat it). Unfortunately, you must store it in the fridge. So my chocolate was all brittle and broke into shards as I took out a piece. What do you do with tiny shards of chocolate on your countertop? You use your finger to pick them up and enjoy the tiny treat.
The next day, I spotted a very small black sliver of goodness on my counter that I must have missed. In my mouth it went… oh, no… not chocolate! Gecko poop! I immediately spat it out, rinsed my mouth with potable water, and hoped that I would not get salmonella! So gross. Not chocolate. Maybe it’s a tic-tac? Did someone leave me a tic-tac? It just stuck for some reason. In hindsight, I should have known that a bit of chocolate would not have survived the overnight cleanup of tropical sugar ants.
I remove a lot of gecko tic-tacs from this apartment. It is worth it for the gecko sightings. My apartment has this amazing balcony which is perfect for watching critters. I’ve already told you tons of stories about seeing monkeys making their way down from the building’s roof to the mango tree next door. But what other critters have I seen from this magical vantage point?
That boat just sank!
There I was, drinking some coffee and watching the surf crash against the barrier reef out in the distance. There was a boat out there, which is pretty unusual. Suddenly, the boat goes underwater. I kid you not! I freaked out. Boats are not supposed to go underwater. I ran out to the balcony to get a better look. Then the boat jumped into the air and splashed down on its side! WTF!?! That’s not a boat… that’s a whale!
How cool is that? Just watching humpback whales jump and tail-flap and show off for the ladies, all from my balcony. They swim up north to the warm waters off Costa Rica this time of year to breed. Making the babies! I don’t have binoculars, so I couldn’t get any pictures for you all. Sorry! Not that I could, anyway. Do you know how hard it is to photograph whales jumping out of the water?
When I first got here, there was this large papaya tree out back with green papayas slowly getting bigger. I took a mental note to watch that tree to see if I could get a free papaya. Noms. But then one day, I noticed a massive green iguana up in that tree eating the leaves. The leaves! Why? Well, it broke and or ate every branch and that poor tree died. I haven’t seen many green iguanas here, so I was pretty excited about that, but all the papayas rotted. The story gets better.
I almost died
You know how I’m always telling you that you shouldn’t worry about sharks? Well, that’s true, but you should worry about coconuts. Falling coconuts truly can kill you. You know what can also kill you? Falling trees. There I was, heading down for my evening stroll on the beach. The path down the hill is clear. No worries. Then, 30 minutes later, I’m walking back up this hill and now there is a downed tree across my path!
I could have died! I’m being dramatic, but it would have hurt a lot. It was that dead papaya tree that the iguana killed a few months ago. It shattered when it landed. Did you know those things are hollow? There were a ton of very upset and/or happy bugs and wasps. I don’t think that they appreciated the loss of their home and/or appreciated their additional food source. At least it missed me!
Okay, here is another story. There I was, chilling in bed, watching some internets, when I hear something rustling around outside. I head out onto my balcony to investigate. There’s been a skunk smell here a lot lately and it would be cool to see one. I saw some babies up north in Playas del Coco and they are so cute. I’m on the second floor, so I should be safe… right?
What the crap is that!?!
There is definitely something in the Guanacaste tree right off the balcony. It’s dark out and I don’t want to scare it by turning on the outside lights. I’m just getting the shadow of a cat-sized furry creature digging around in a bend of the tree. Must be a coati… but the tail isn’t right. Maybe an opossum? Do they have fuzzy tails here?
That is when it stopped digging around and started climbing up the tree into the light projected from the upstairs deck. This creature is absolutely adorable, with tan fur and massive claws. Is this a fast moving sloth? That doesn’t seem right. The creature disappeared up the tree before I could get my phone for a picture for you all. Sorry!
But I could Google and found out that what I saw was a tamandua (anteater!). Besides ants, they also eat termites, which is what that little guy was doing up in the tree. Turns out they eat and then move on to let the hive recover. So maybe I’ll get another chance to see it if it comes back for more delicious termites!
Coati!
The cute critters in this neck of the woods consist of monkeys, tamanduas, and… coati! Oh, and dogs, but those aren’t native. Okay, well there is this one doggo named Luz (pronounced Loose, for light) that lives down the street and is just the absolute cutest pit-bull in the whole wide world. I give that lovely lady skritches every time I walk by the falafel restaurant her people own. Those gorgeous almond eyes and that happy grin. I just can’t get enough… I digress.
So I had just finished walking past the falafel restaurant when I spot what looks like a cat sleeping on a concrete boundary wall. Wait… that’s not a cat! It’s a coati! I’m watching and it finishes its nap and starts heading along the top of the wall. They are so cool looking. Not as cute as a North American raccoon, but similar. Alternative names are the Mexican raccoon or Costa Rican pizote.
Now if you saw a North American raccoon wandering around in the middle of the day, you would be sus that it was sick and you should definitely stay away. No worries with the coati (but still keep your distance because it’s still a wild animal!). It does what it wants when it wants. I was lucky enough to get some excellent pictures for you all! You’re welcome. Now to find the photos in all the chaos that is my photo gallery. Sigh.
Ocean critters!
When I first got here, I would occasionally notice a nudibranch-looking critter swimming or sliding over the sand on the beach in the intertidal zone. Very cool looking flat creatures slightly longer but about the size of my fingernail on my pinky. Mottled brown, so really hard to spot in the sand. I kept trying to get a picture but never saw one while carrying my cell phone.
Normally I don’t like to bring my phone to the beach because this is the unpredictable Pacific Ocean and you get the occasional random gigantic wave. No worries if I’m just in shorts, but my phone is not waterproof (not that any phone is saltwater proof!). It would be very difficult to get a new phone in this remote location. After many attempts, I finally get a shot of the thing so I can compare it to pictures on the internet. It’s a flatworm! Not dangerous… to me.
So then, just the other day, I was watching one acting strangely in a small pool of water. It was circling back and forth like it smelled something and was hunting it. It would move forward, then quickly turn back. I noticed a hole nearby, and the flatworm was making its way in that direction. The instant it found the hole, it darted in. Within five seconds, a big gush of water is pushed out of the hole. That’s from a bivalve! That flatworm just caught itself a bivalve! I watched as more water was pushed out as the shelled creature tried to gargle out the invader. I had no idea something so small could take out something as big as a clam!
Don’t fly at my face!
Okay, last story. There I was watching some YouTube when this massive flying insect goes shooting around my apartment. Usually when that happens it’s a cockroach (yes cockroaches fly… no, it is not cool). Think mutant dragonfly. Did not want this thing landing on my face for so many reasons! I managed to herd it with a towel outside where it clearly wanted to be.
The next morning, I noticed something white imbedded in my screen door. Eggs! So many tiny sticky eggs! There are countless creatures that could lay these eggs… but, thanks to the googles, I linked the eggs with the bug from last night. Ship timber beetle. So called because they eat wood. Oh, great! All my furniture is wood! It’s hard enough to keep the termites away (I did surprisingly lose a wine cork to some dry-wood termites… those jerks!).
I quickly removed the sticky eggs and put them in my fridge trash so that they didn’t hatch in the room-temp garbage. Since then, I have been finding these sticky patches every once in a while out on the balcony. I finally managed to get a picture for you all (you’re welcome!) when one of them died laying eggs on my balcony’s tile floor. You have to scrub the spot with soapy water or it stays sticky forever! Pura Vida!
too fun that is funny, and good bug collecting!