I think one of the aspects of my personality that has allowed me to successfully live in rural Guanacaste all these years is that I’m quite adaptable. I can get used to just about anything. I was discussing this personality trait with my wife the other day using an anecdote that she decided was ‘off putting.’
I told her I’m so adaptable that she could replace my toilet with a bucket. I wouldn’t like it. At first, I’d probably complain a little. After about a week I’d get used to it and think to myself, “I guess I’m a bucket man now.”
This attribute comes in handy in many instances in life in Guanacaste. It allows one to successfully navigate potholes the height of a pickup truck on the way to dropping the kids off at school. You can use it to stay calm when another repairman says he’ll be there ‘ahorita’ which could mean 5 minutes, 3 hours, or never. It can be applied to all sorts of things.
Lately, I’ve been using my adaptability to become comfortable with the fact that some sort of creature lives in my ceiling. The situation has developed exactly along the lines of toilet/bucket analogy. I was used to living a life without creatures in my ceiling, it became apparent that something with long, scratchy nails moved into my ceiling which involved some getting used to, and now, “I guess I’m a guy that lives with some unknown animal in my ceiling.”
There is an access hole to the space between the roof and the ceiling in the bathroom but who really wants to confront an unknown inhabitant through a hole that’s barely large enough to fit my head and shoulders? Instead, I’ll guess what it is based on experience.
Once, several years ago, our rustic little rental house started to smell bad. It started as a light stink, but after a few days it matured into the smell of death. My wife and I were walking around the house trying to pinpoint the source of the stink when something fell from the ceiling and hit her in the chest.
We simultaneously looked down to the floor to see a wriggling maggot and then looked up and noticed the dark stain that was dripping down the wall from the ceiling. A subsequent trip to the roof confirmed that the smell was emanating from a dead iguana.
So, it could be an iguana.
Another time, at the school where my wife has been working for the last few years, there was evidence that something was crawling around in the ceiling of one of the classrooms. At first nobody could figure out what it was, but the mystery was quickly solved when a gray fox came crashing down through the ceiling tiles onto the desks below.
So, it could also be a fox.
Perhaps my adaptability is a double-edged sword because I’m not terribly motivated to identify the species and evict it because, the truth is, I’ve already become used to the sound of whatever it is scratching around up there. I’m a guy that lives with a creature in his ceiling and I’m okay with that.
About the Author
Vincent Losasso, founder of Guanacaste Wildlife Monitoring, is a biologist who works with camera traps throughout Costa Rica.
