Chasing the butterfly. . .

No, this isn't a counter-culture reference to opium use. It's actually about a butterfly. One night, while getting ready for bed, a good-sized winged creature swooped down and started flapping madly about the place. At first I thought it was a bat, as we have quite a few of those around here. It turned out to be a good-sized butterfly that had flown into the place at some point. Not wanting to mash the creature, I chased it around, turning off lights in different rooms and closing doors to keep it somewhat penned in. I used my baseball hat to try to herd it, but these buggers are surprisingly quick and agile. Finally, after about 15 to 20 minutes of chasing it around, I trapped it inside my hat with a towel on top to keep it there. I made my way to the door, opened it up and took the towel off of the hat. The butterfly flew out, and stuck to my shirt like glue. It could have saved me a lot of hassle and chase if it had done that way back when. Took a bit to get it off of my shirt, but it finally vamoosed into the night.
The next morning, Lucy found it perched outside on one of the pillars and snapped this picture of it. It stood there for a while before deciding to fly away.

Zip-itty doo-dah. . .

Recently, we had a break where there were no check-ins or check-outs, so we took advantage of the free time -- purely a business trip, of course -- to check out a new canopy tour, or zipline, in the San Lorenzo Cloud Forest for future guests here. . . And when I say cloud forest, it is in the clouds. It's amazing to be soaring through the clouds at a good clip. . . The company is called San Luis Canopy Tour, and is on the road between here and San Ramon. . . A very nice place with 12 lines. . . For those who haven't zipped before, you wear a harness and are hooked onto a line that goes between trees and you can get going pretty fast. . .You have on gloves, and your dominant hand has padding on the glove, as you press down with that to slow yourself down . . . We've done it before, and this one was really fun. . . You start out with a couple of short lines and you're a few hundred feet off the ground at some points, going over and through the trees, with a river and waterfalls visible way below you. . . The last line is 550 meters long (about 1,800 feet, I believe) and ends up right at the restaurant of the tour. Our guides were great, funny and informative. . . There's also a Tarzan Swing, where you hook in to a line and go flying straight out and then back several times. . . The Tarzan Swing was a first for us, and we really enjoyed it. . . Here's a picture I took of Mark swinging through the jungle...I would put in a picture of myself on the Tarzan Swing, but Mark took the picture and got a really nice shot of my hand only, he forgot the rest of me...we didn't sound much like Tarzan when we were swinging, but since this is a family-friendly blog, we won't print what was said while flying through the clouds. . .

Hungry Butterfly

Just outside of our house we have several tree stumps where we place food for the birds to come eat throughout the day...typically we will put out different fruits for the birds to come and enjoy...we had this butterfly perched on the stump for a few hours just hanging out and grinding (eating), until mark came along and scared him off...i'm not quite sure what the name of this type of butterfly is...i looked through my costa rica wildlife guide book and couldn't find him...but it was nice just watching him sit there and eat...i know the banana looks kind of nasty that he's eating, but, hey, to him i'm sure it's just delicious...for some reason the butterflies prefer spoiled or rotten fruit, they can't seem to get enough of the stuff. . . a lot of the birds prefer the fruit to be more on the ripe side as well.

Gauguin of the jungle. . .

OK. . . Maybe the style doesn't fit, but it has a better ring to it than Warhol or DaVinci of the Jungle, you have to admit. . . Kenneth (the younger fellow) works here at Tree Houses four days per week, and is a student during the rest of the time. He's also a pretty darn good artist. When we needed a new sign to point the way to the waterfall and pools, he came up with the design and painted it on a piece of wood.

With Kenneth is Miguel (who can build pretty much anything from wood just using a hand saw and a machete) and the Tree Houses pooch, Bejuca. Two weeks ago, Miguel was cutting brush at the neighbor's place, and heard a branch fall. He turned around, and about 50 meters away was a jaguar. He said that he stayed still and maintained eye contact with the feline for about five minutes. The jaguar came to within 15 to 20 meters of Miguel before getting a whiff of him, and then took off like a shot. If you ever come across a jaguar in the jungles of Costa Rica, you should remain still and calm and keep eye contact, just like Miguel. Personally, I probably would have set a record of some sorts for fastest short-distance sprint while screaming and wailing.

Volcano view. . .

This is the view you get from the restaurant, right down the road from Tree Houses. The restaurant is called Lomas Del Mapache, and the food is very good. If they don't have the karaoke going or the jukebox blaring, it's a very nice place to hang out. It's an open-air restaurant with an unobstructed view of the volcano, which is 30 or so kilometers away by car. From this side of the volcano, the lava isn't visible, but if you drive around to the other side -- and the weather cooperates (never a given) -- then you can see lava and rocks tumbling down. See the picture below. Back to Mapache. They have bacon-wrapped shrimp stuffed with cheese that is truly outstanding, though a given to take a few years off of your life. . . The chicken gordon blue (yes, that's how it's spelled--maybe it's a Costa Rican spin) is also very good. When the sun is setting, even if the top of the volcano isn't visible and there are clouds around, it makes for a spectacular sunset.

X marks the spot. . .

Yesterday, we went back to flip the switch on the water tank for the hotel (yes, the water here is fine to drink, no worries) and came across this spider with its web. Very hard to miss, with the big white "X" right in the center of it. Went back to take some pictures, and the spider had moved to the other side of the X, so it's not visible in the shots. It's an Arigiope spider, for those who didn't know. I looked it up on the Web and had to wade through a surprisingly large amount of SpiderMan and Hulk sites to find something on it.

From Wikipedia:
The average orb web is practically invisible, and it is easy to blunder into one and end up covered with a sticky web. The very easily visible pattern of banded silk made by Argiope is pure white, and some species make an "X" form, or a zigzag type of web (often with a hollow center). The spider then aligns one pair of its legs with each of the four lines in the hollow "X," making a complete "X" of white lines with a very eye-catching spider colored bright yellow on a field of black or variegated red white and yellow stripes forming its center. The white patterns are called stabilimentum and reflect UV light. They have been shown to play a role in attracting prey to the web, and possibly to prevent its destruction by large animals

Movie Time: Rápido y Furioso

We finally had a chance to break away for a bit to go and see a movie. . . The nearest movie theatre is in Ciudad Quesada (also known as San Carlos) about 20 minutes away . . . It's a tri-plex, and our options (or so we thought) were: The Fast and the Furious 4; Escape from Witch Mountain; and Dragon Ball Z. . . It wasn't a hard choice, as only the Fast and Furious 4 was in English, the other two were dubbed in Spanish. . . It didn't hurt that Lucy is a huge Vin Diesel fan. . . Cost per person for the movie: 1800 colones (the exchange rate is around 560 colonoes to the dollar, so you can do the math); cost for popcorn, two sodas and nachos: 3800 colones. . . not a bad deal at all. . . At the concession stand, after we ordered our snacks, they gave us a big plastic tray/carrier, so we didn't have to try to balance everything while walking into the theatre. . . Wolverine is supposed to show up there on May 1, so we'll try to catch that and hope that it will be in English with Spanish subtitles. . .

The first haircut. . .

Normally not a big deal, but when you don't speak much Spanish, there's a certain amount of trepidation that goes along with getting the locks shorn. Lucy, being the excellent Spanish speaker and fine wife that she is, abandoned me to go to the bank, leaving me in the hands of an elderly gentleman and his clippers and scissors. I can say "poquito" which means little, and I pointed to the top of my head and said just that, hoping he would get the hint that I just wanted a bit cut off and not taken down all the way to the scalp. Fortunately, he got the message and did an excellent job (he even trimmed my bushy eyebrows, which was a first). Normally, I don't put anything in the 'do, preferring to go natural. This time, though, I thought he asked me if I was happy with the haircut and I said "Si!" Actually, he was asking if I wanted goop in my hair, so I got a headfull of something or other that left my hair a bit on the spiky side. Luckily, I had a hat to beat it back into submission. No pictures of this jaunt, which is a good thing, as unless my mug is surrounded by rain forest, critters or volcanoes, it just ain't worth looking at.

One big bamboocha

There are all kinds of insects crawling/flying/leaping about down here. The cicadas are pretty good size, about as big as my thumb, and fly around with reckless abandon most of the time. One night, I was walking the grounds of the hotel, when one flew into my chest. It felt like a pretty good thump and scared the snot out of me. This bugger here is twice as big as the green ones. For some reason, they end up on their backs, especially in the evenings and mornings, and if you give them a little shove or prod them a bit, they take off flying like a drunken WWI flying ace, just bouncing off of everything in their path. You can see that this one is nearly as long as my index finger, and it's pretty beefy as well. I definitely would not like to have one of those smack into me at some point. Would probably leave a good-sized bruise.

The other night, we were lying in bed watching TV. No lights were on, just the flickering light of the set. I looked over on the wall, and a shadow that was about 3 feet tall was inching along the wall, caught in the light of the TV. I flicked on the light and saw that it was a grasshopper/cricket that was crawling up the side of the TV. This was bigger than the praying mantis (see attack of the greenie entry for a picture of that) as it was longer and thicker. Managed to trap it in a cup with a towel over it and let it loose into the night.

Sloth-capades

Now these critters are named correctly. Sloths don't do much of anything at a fast pace. This fellow, just about 100 yards from tree house No. 1 on the path to the waterfall and river, was moving around from one branch to the next this morning. I just stood around and watched him go, very, very deliberately, from one branch to the next. He got really far out on one branch, and it bowed so much, I thought it might break. No worries, though, he just hung out for a while, then made his way back to the main trunk of the tree and crawled, again very deliberately, up another branch. You can see the claws on him, and he uses them to wrap around a branch for grip. You can also see a big part in his back. That comes from just sitting in the same position up in a tree for hours and hours on end. The three-toed sloths take on a slight green tint to them, and I've read that it's like a mini eco-system on their backs--mold, fungus, etc. I suppose it helps with camouflage as well. Spotting a sloth isn't easy a lot of the time, as they don't move around a whole lot. They typically come down from the trees once a week to take care of business, as they don't do anything up in the trees but eat and sleep.

Carrots of the Rainforest

While at the wildlife rescue center, Alvoro was showing us around and asked us if we liked carrots. . . Sure, we said. . . Alvoro then asked if we wanted to try some carrots of the rain forest. . . Sure, why not, we thought, we're up for something new. . . Alvoro then pulled up a piece of bark from a nearby tree and came out with a handful of ants/termites (you can see one of them at the end of my finger) and popped them in his mouth. . . Bite down, he said, and chew them and they taste just like carrots. . . After making sure that Alvoro had done just that and wasn't pranking us, we followed suit. . . Sure enough, Ormigas de Zanahoria, tastes just like carrots. . . For such a small little thing, it packs a lot of carrot flavor, and it lingers in your mouth for quite a while afterwards. . . So, if you're a bit peckish in the jungle and looking for some carrot-flavored vittles, pop off some bark and dig in!

Proytecto Asis (II)

Alvoro and his father have created a beautiful little haven for animals. You can see some herons in a tree that's over a swamp where the caymans are at. The herons and the ducks are wild, but like to live at the center where food is plentiful. It's really cool to see them swoop from tree to tree. The ducks spend most of their time up in the trees, rather than the water. Not sure if that's because of the cayman in the water or the fact that they like being up high or not.

There are also three spider monkeys at the center. These monkeys were taken as pets long ago, and then the owners decided they didn't want the monkeys any longer. The monkeys don't have the socialization skills to survive in the wild (they're all over 10 years old, I believe) so they stay at the center. A lot of animals are taken out of the jungle by people visiting from San Jose and other cities, who think it's cute to have them as pets. Then when the animals get larger and revert to their wild ways, the folks get fed up with them and dump them. That's where Alvoro comes in. There's also a big trade in sending animals up to pet shops in the States and other countries. Alvoro said for every animal that you see in a pet store, a good half-dozen or more did not survive the trip up to the pet store.
This group of monkeys was quiet and well behaved while we were there, though they do like to mix it up on occasion, we were told. They will reach through the cage to shake hands with you, though they will bite, so folks don't go into the cage all that often.
Their tails are just like an extra arm or leg, as they use them to swing around and grip things with. Very agile critters.

Proytecto Asis (I)

This is a great little wildlife rescue center just about 10 minutes away from Tree Houses. It's run by Alvoro and his father. They have about eight acres, and they take in animals that belong in the wild, but were taken by folks as pets, then given up when they couldn't handle them. A lot of times, the animals don't have the social skills to survive in the wild, so Alvoro keeps them at the center and uses them for educational purposes. He gets a lot of school kids on field trips, and he tells them about the pitfalls of taking wild animals home. The pecarys are like wild pigs and man, oh man, do they give off a stench! There are three pecarys, two in one pen and one in another. They have to keep them separated, as the male in the pen with two of them gets amorous and wants to hook up with the female, who's in her own pen. She doesn't appreciate the advances and there's usually trouble, so they figured it's better to keep them apart.






The kinkajous were rescued from the wild. The alpha male of the group (herd? tribe? pod? gaggle?) ran these two out of the tree they were living in. You can see the bite and claw marks left by the alpha male on the two kinkajous that they have at the center. Kinkajous look like monkeys and have a long tail, but are more closely related to the raccoon family. They're pretty much creatures of the night and just lay around and relax during the day. They have incredibly long tongues. I'm guessing this is for getting insects and what-not out of trees for food.

Survivor - Costa Rica

A handyman-challenged dude, and a fan of Survivor dudette can come up with some interesting things when necessity arises. There is a waterfall with three pools about a 20- to 30-minute hike away from the hotel. Since the pools are in the middle of the jungle, they tend to collect a lot of leaves and other stuff in them. We clean the pools once a week, but if it gets windy, then a lot of stuff can blow down. Rather than drain the pools every time, we thought it would be a great idea to get a skimmer, like pool cleaners use. The only problem: no skimmers around here at all. But that wasn't a problem for Lucy as she came up with a great idea: make our own skimmer. She fashioned a round rim out of wire, then cut some black tarp for the netting on the skimmer. We attached the tarp to the wire with twist ties, and then Lucy found a stick that we could attach it to. The result is a jungle skimmer (patent pending). We took it down to the pool this afternoon and it worked just fine. You can see the results of Lucy's ingenuity in the pictures, and there's also some pictures of the pools, along with Bejuca, lurking on the steps.

Attack of the greenie

If Godzilla or King Kong exist in the insect world, it may look like this fellow scaling the candleholder and other things around the patio.

Just another one of the many critters that we stumble across every day down here. This fellow looks just like a leaf, and we didn't notice it until Adrianna pointed it out. It's called a mula del diablo in Spanish, or a praying mantis. It's definitely a good size and packs a painful bite, we've been told. It was fun to watch it slowly crawl across a table and then up a plant. It's big, but doesn't move very fast. And yes, it does fly. It's not as cool as the fireflies that light up in the eyes and not the tail. Those are very cool to see coming at you in the evenings; two beady, green/yellow eyes just weaving around in the night. Doubt we'll get much of a picture of one of those, unless we get really lucky.

Churro hangover?

I think it's entirely possible. It's been three days since I had the sweet, deep-fried treat and I'm still feeling the effects. For those not in the know, a churro is dough that is deep fried, and then coated with sugar, or cinnamon, or chocolate or caramel or all of the above. It's a strip of dough, and is close to a doughnut or a malasada. This one we got while at the Santa Clara Festia. I bellied up to the churro bar and asked for the caramel-covered churros (about five pieces, each about 3 to 4 inches long) and the lady asked me if I wanted caramel. Si! Claro! Yes, of course! I replied. The churros already had caramel and peanuts on top, and she then proceeded to empty most of her bottle of caramel onto my churros, bringing the raw net weight to about 3 pounds. Lucy wisely avoided the delectable mess, while I scarfed the whole thing down while watching cowboys ride bulls and spectators jump into the ring and play tag with el toro. The next morning, I felt like I had gone a few rounds with el toro, and the sugar high is still keeping me plugging along, three days later. I felt like Homer Simpson when he sees a doughnut: MMmmmmmmmmmmmmm, churrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooo!

Go Green (ribbit)

Good Morning Little Frog...when I woke up this morning and walked into the bathroom, I found this little one in our bathroom sink...cute little guy, who seems to have found his home in our sink because i've found him there for the past few days now...not sure where he goes during the daytime, but in the early mornings he's here...i'm sure he'll be there tomorrow too...

On our patio, we spotted another little creature just perched
and sleeping on our "office" sign...he stood still for his photo
opportunity, without taking a leap off the sign...even found him in the exact same spot several hours later...

In addition to the leaping frogs and toads that we find, we have a gecko living in our house as well. . . didn't know that geckos actually chirp. . . for a while we thought that we had a bird in the house, but it's just a gecko helping to keep us insect-free.