Never a Dull Moment, a Day in the Life of a
Guanacaste Resident by Laura Hahn
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest of the United States was the best. In Western Washington there are only two things that a kid can't play with and those are the Brown Recluse Spider and the Hobo Spider, which we didn't have when I was growing up.
We could let spiders crawl on us, ...make mud homes for potato bugs and put snakes down our shirt and gross people out. My mom would even enlist our help to get rid of unwanted company. We would run in the house showing off our catch of the day.
This is one thing that I knew my son would miss out on when we moved to Costa Rica. If it crawls flies or slithers, assume it bites, so don't touch it. Heck, even the snakes that are non-venomous have fangs here. And, Jon was just getting good at finding and catching snakes when we moved down here.
Memories of my childhood, and the fun we used to have with the small creatures, came flooding back to me when my dad and our gardener found a snake. They yelled at me to come out and bring our handy dandy Costa Rica Field Guide for Reptiles. The three of us examined the snakes on the chart and couldn't decide if it was venomous or not. It looked like a Cascabel (Rattlesnake), but had no rattler.
Guanacaste has two types of rattlesnakes, ...at least that's what I've been told, one with a rattler and one without. We've been here for three and a half years and I've only seen a Boa Constrictor (good snake) and a Green-headed Racer (non-venomous). This poor guy had a very distinctive diamond pattern on the back, so we deemed him venomous and he was taken care of in about the same manner we deal with scorpions. Now for all of you animal lovers who are feeling sorry for the snake, please remember that we have four dogs, two cats, two turtles, a child, ourselves and workers. The snake was the low man on the totem pole.
I sit here and wonder about the things that my son is missing out on. I know that he is experiencing more things than I ever did at his age, but in the back of my mind I'd still like to see him experience the same joys I had as a child. I will also keep reminding myself that to have the fun bugs, we'd have to move back to a colder climate. Hmmm, no thank you, I think I'll stick with the rattlesnakes and scorpions.
Luara Hahn is the representative of the ARCR branch in Guanacaste.
© El Residente ARCR Administración S.A. San José, Costa Rica N.B. Like all information on the internet, this article may currently be incorrect or out of date.
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