One thing I learned when I came to Costa Rica is that a shower where you can control the tempurature is rare. Every shower I have expereinced is one tap that you turn on and don’t know if it will be freezing cold, boiling hot or anywhere in between. The showers that offer hot water on occasion are only able to do this by having a heater right up in the shower head. When I first walked in and saw wires hanging out on top of the shower head, I thought this seems odd. I was assured that this was the normal shower head in Costa Rica (found in the house and local residences) and it was all good. Although I did have one friend refer to them as the death showers which raised a bit of concern. The house where I lived seemed to not ever have hot water in the shower, on occasion luke warm, but never hot. This made me think maybe there was no electricity going to the heater in the shower head which provided me comfort. One day after cleaning the bathroom I decided to a full shower (ladies will know) wash my hair, and shave my legs, what a treat. As I was rinsing out the conditioner in my hair I heard a noise and in a split second the shower head had popped off. I luckily stepped to the side in that second and thankfully I did. I looked as the water coming out was now running over the wires and coils and sparking on its way down! I reached my arm in to shut it off and in the process got water with sparks on my arm. Once the water was off, it started on fire, at this point I am freaking out and run out to my roomate whose working asking for help. By the time we got back to the bathroom luckily the fire had put itself out.

That’s when I started to notice the tingling in my hand and arm. I had electrocuted myself. The weirdest part was as the day continued on my pinky was not mine to control adn for a solid 12 hours it would randomly pulse up and twitch as the elecricity flowed. The first day I was feeling not great and honestly freaked out. But as the week went on the tingling stopped. Looking back this makes me laugh as my luck always puts me in these unique situations. Only took me one day before I was able to shower again.

Here is a photo of the aftermath. Missing the shower head, notice the burnt area where there were flames and the wires hanging from above.