Tossing Toads

Scary things lurk in the jungle here. One night we were coming home from dinner, as I descended the steps to get to the cabins, something scurried across my path in the dark. I couldn’t see what it was because it was dark. Then the bushes beside me started to move and sway.

“Damm, it must be something big.” I’m thinking as I hurried into the cabin.

The next morning, Bill walks out to the pool area and finds a big turd on the first step in our pool. (Time for extra chlorine and super shock.) The real puzzle is what did its business in our pool? Being the ignorant Gringos that we are, we asked Efrain, our caretaker. Efrain, said it was a sapo, or a toad.

It’s really hard to believe that a toad could have so much excrement. I’m thinking, “Toads don’t swim. Toad or frog, it had to be the size of a Chihuahua.”

What ever the little pooper amphibians are, they have another not so endearing trait. They are extremely noisy. Forget the ubiquitous, “Rib-it, rib-it” that you read in children’s books. Think of a foghorn. A few frogs around your pool at night can keep you up all night.

Sleepless in Costa Rica pool owners have resorted to the sport of Toad Tossing or Frog Flinging to rid their pools of the noisy pests. You begin the game by heading out after dark with a flashlight in search of frogs in and around your pool. Once you find one, you grab the pool net skimmer and try to capture the offender. It usually jumps into the pool and starts swimming for the bottom. You submerge the net and chase the frog with it. Once netted, pluck the frog out of the water and launch the creature as far as you can on a free flight away from the pool.

A toad tossing enthusiast neighbor told us of the time she turned toad tossing into a biathlon, when she plunged straight into her pool with her pajamas on.

We all know how well Bill swims. Needless to say, I was a little concerned when one night after dinner, Bill says, “I’m going frog hunting. If I’m not back in ten minutes, send help.”

He heads on out to the pool. I follow with the flashlight.

It wasn’t too hard to find a toad. Catching it on the other hand was challenging. Bill deftly followed the frog underwater with the net. Once caught, he brought him to the surface and out of the water. So far, OK. Bill’s technique failed with the fling however. It looked good, but then, “THUCK!”




You can’t see the toads fly in the dark, but it was perfectly obvious that Bill had tossed this one onto the corrugated steel roof instead of the jungle. Yuck!

That was enough for me. I won’t be doing anymore Toad Tossing or Frog Flinging. I happen to like the little guys to spite their big mouths.