Whoa! I just realized that I almost forgot to post any pictures from my trip.

Here's one which expresses my mood perfectly:

Frankly, looking at that picture makes me jealous!

These little critters don't have to worry about elections; they can just tuck themselves into their shells. Well, maybe not "their" shells in the strictest sense, but when the original owner dies or gets eaten, why let a perfectly good shell go to waste? So what if it's pre-owned? And once you outgrow the shell, you just find another one, and leave the last one behind for some other deserving hermit. They get pretty big too; while I was SCUBA diving I saw one inside a large conch shell. (Well meaning humans even make designer shells for their captives.)

The guys in the above picture are Caribbean Land Crabs -- Coenobita clypeatus. They have gills, but use them as lungs by means of a curious adaptation:

As an adaptation for extracting oxygen from the air rather than from the water, the gills of Coenobita are reduced in number and stiffened, and the inner walls of the gill chamber are vascularized to promote the exchange of gases. Also, ventilation of the gill chamber is enhanced by the reduced side walls of the carapace or head shield of the crab. Moistening of the gills is abetted by well-developed glands in the bronchial region.

That's because their shells hold water in just the right balance for the crabs:

The danger of drying out or of over concentrating the body fluids through evaporation is the most critical problem confronting any animal that migrates from water to land. Coenobita has an advantage in this respect over the true land crabs, for it can store water in the appropriated snail shell, and this water may be used secondarily for drinking. One reason that hermit crabs so frequently try on different abandoned snail shells is to find one that fits the delicate abdomen closely, thereby minimizing evaporation. The same explanation probably accounts for the nocturnal habits of Coenobita Clypeatus in the southern part of its range, where daytime activity could result in severe evaporation. Experiments have shown that animals in well-fitting shells can subsist without food and water six times as long as those removed from their shells. When the crab withdraws into its shell in the daytime, the claws and walking legs form a reasonably effective seal in the shell mouth against evaporation. The parts of the animal that protrude farthest from the snail shell are most heavily calcified, and this undoubtedly helps to prevent the evaporation of body fluids.

Coenobita takes up water by dipping the tips of the claws in it, transferring drops to the mouthparts or maxillipeds and thence to the mouth and gill chamber. Very small amounts of water, such as raindrops and dew, can be utilized in this way. An alternate method is to hold both claws close together and dip them in the water; by shoveling motions, the water is forced to rise by capillary action along the fringe of hairs on the lower surfaces of the claws, and the maxillipeds, direct it to the mouth. Coenobita has a highly developed sensory perception for water; it prefers water of low salinity and it is able to discriminate well between different salinities. The animals seem to remain in best condition when a small amount of salt is present in the drinking water. Full-strength sea water can be used for drinking, but not for shell water-, the latter must be constantly diluted with nearly fresh water to prevent adverse concentration of the body fluids.

NOTE: I don't mean to offend any crabs or hermits who might be reading this post. I'm a crab myself as well as a borderline hermit.