It was fun, but pretty insane. It kind of went down like the plot to a bad horror movie:

So, coconut crabs are nocturnal (naturally). They typically make their nests in these mangrove-like trees (think lots of splayed roots with a hollow area in the middle). You have to go out when it's dark and try and spot them with a flashlight - they typically avoid light, so you try sneak up on them.

We drank at the bar until about 9:30, then decided to head out in the electric cart (SILENT). Us Americans and three Marshallese. We headed to the thick jungle part of the island, with flashlights.

We ended up catching seven (yes, they are technically an endangered species, but not on Roi). The first one we spotted with headlights on the cart. We found two more on the road before going into the jungle (we also stumbled into some ruins, found one there, along with Japanese graffiti). Note, I was ill-prepared and somewhat drunk... as in, wife beater and flip flops. Anyways, the creepiest thing about these guys is that if they spot you, they run away from you backwards, and they look like goddamn face huggers when they move. Luckily, Titus is adept at catching them, so he blasted through a few without problem. I tried my hand at catching them, and got my thumb all scratched up (turns out - small claws on their back legs, you have to hold them in a certain way).

Since we had all been drinking, we of course got lost in the jungle. I'm at the whim of the dudes with the flashlights, so I'm trying not to lose my flip flops or the coconut crabs I'm carrying (they were duct-taped, but one had to have been damn near 10 pounds). We finally find our way out, and head for a couple of celebration drinks at the bar, which ended with arm wrestling, because, MEN.

We cooked them up the next day. Like tuna combined with crab combined with subtle coconut sweetness. The jackpot is to eat is the soft abdomen. While it houses guts, it also houses what I think is the liver, that, when cooked, is fatty and delicious as hell to dip stuff in. Like a weirdly bitter queso.

So: success.