Land Shrimp!

Shrimp and their various flickering cousins are the first link in many a marine eco food web.  From slow moving behemoth whales to spirited frenetic fishes to
the occasional seafood restauranteur, there are few who do not delight in the sight of these delicious, cholesterol rich treats.  However, I will be the first to admit
that the shimp I find on my front porch beneath the welcome mat, under and in my shoes as well as all over the floor in the massage room hardly strike me as savory.
I am speaking of the plague like infestation of land shrimp that appear each rainy season here in the Monteverde zone.  Their name in Spanish is "camaroncitos" or
"tiny shrimps" and they are a complete mystery.  They really shouldn't be here.  No one can figure out how they fit into the eco system.  They only showed up here
recently and are about as welcome as the newest string of hotels, the corporate supermarket, and the Monteverde mall.  Perhaps they arrived together, born from the same
primordial ooze. 

The shrimp live underground as eggs/larva for most of the year, and about 90% of their life cycle is spent as such in the dark.  When the rains come, they rise en masse, reproduce and die, creating a crunchy
carpet that can be thick enough to obscure a floor's natural color.  They seem to have first appeared at the hotel El Establo, which frequent readers of this blog may recognize
as the subject of many a vitriolic rant.  It is the source of most of Monteverde's light, air and physical pollution, and remains the root of many of the zone's labor issues as well.
Anyway, the shrimp seem to be exceedingly good at two things:  jumping up and down in place, and dying.  It's interesting to see a creature as acrobatic as that burn out so quickly.