¡Ataque de las Ranas!

Attack of the Frogs!

After a late start, we successfully moved to our friends finca (farm) on Tuesday, arriving around 4:00 pm. There was a little Bible conference being held in a nearby town, not that we had been planning on going but they were, and so we left around 6:00 to go to that. The conference was good and went until 9:30. We did not get home until 10:00 pm and we were beat. We were actually too tired to eat and just wanted to go to bed but first a quick 'splash bath'.

The Reyes family house

There is a shower area in the bathroom but there is only running water when the pump is on, which is about every three days, and so we fill up a big plastic trash can in our shower to dip water out of and... splash ourselves. The water is not too warm but not real cold, so it's just very refreshing.

When I started 'splashing' I saw a flicker of motion at my feet! I thought it might have been a cockroach but then to my surprise I saw a little frog climbing up the wall!

Our Water Container!

After drying off I caught him and threw him out the window which was a short drop to the ground below. I'm pretty sure he would be fine and at least I would be happier with him outside even if he wasn't.

Later, I caught another in the bathroom and then another in the bedroom right before going to sleep. I thought it was all rather strange but more of a one time occurrence.

The next night we caught four frogs before going to bed and so I posted on Facebook and asked for suggestions on how to stop their advance up the shower drain pipe which opens to the outside as grey water. Before going to bed I stopped up the drain with a wash clothe to keep the frogs from coming in.

Then in the night I was awakened by a 'plop' on my pillow. I sat up and asked Ellen if she had heard that and she said 'No.' I asked her to turn on her flashlight and look and sure enough a frog had fallen from the wall onto my pillow!!!

Una rana (a frog) on the wall in the shower!!

In the morning when I took my splash bath I removed the wash clothe from the drain and started my bath. For some unknown reason the water was puddling at my feet instead of going down the drain. I struggled with the large trash can to move it out of the way to see the drain. It looked brown and clogged and so I stuck my finger in it to move the dirt out of the way. Instead of dirt, three frogs leap out in all directions as I stuck my finger in! Great, the wash clothe trick did not work at all!

Ellen told our friends about the plague state today and they said they didn't know it was happening but that if we pour just a little clorox down the drain that usually deters our leaping friends.

We have applied the deterrent and now have hopes of a 'plopless' night!