Suicide Shower Head

Photographer: Eric Ralston
From: Panama Canal and other stuff

Suicide Shower Head

Many hot showers in Central America come out of these units. This is a typical example. Notice the wiring job. There's 220 volts coursing through this thing, producing 4000 watts of warm water comfort and/or death. Steve, one of the American ex-pats I met at the quetzales lodge, said he's been badly shocked by one of these, and has learned to: (A) ALWAYS wear sandals when using a suicide shower. (B) NEVER touch the suicide shower head while the water is turned on. Along with having survived his near-death experience with one of these shower heads, Steve drove his old Subaru wagon to Panama from Winston Salem, North Carolina, and speaks essentially no Spanish. Steve has one hard-working guardian angel.