Family Night

The other night, we had just finished dinner (Mark made his mouthwatering burgers on the grill)...we were just sitting around relaxing before dessert...the girls (Bejuca and Mini-B) were in a playful mood and Mark kept them entertained...even with Mini-B still in her doggie head cone, she was jumping around and getting in Bejuca's face...
As little as Mini-B is, she has no fear and will literally jump right in Bejuca's face and put her front paws on Bejuca's neck to get her attention...Mini-B will growl as loud and mean as she can to get Bejuca growling right back at her...only problem is, Bejuca's growl is a lot meaner and louder than little B's, so we have to keep and eye on Bejuca and make sure she doesn't get too agressive with the little one...it's definitely entertaining and fun to watch the two of them playing together...

Is the Colonel shorting us down here?

OK, not looking to draw the wrath of Colonel Sanders and his army of lawyers that protect his estate, but we went to eat at KFC last week on a run up to Ciudad Quesada. . . And we're thinking that the Colonel has left out an herb or spice from his secret recipe down in these parts. . . It was good, but it didn't have the same pop that it does back in the States. Maybe our taste buds have changed (this was one of the few times we've eaten U.S. fast food since we've been here) but the conspiracy theorist that lurks not too deep below in me, suggests that instead of the 11 herbs and spices, we're getting perhaps nine or 10. . . The fried chicken at the family-style sodas, or restaurants, down here is really, really good. . . Has great flavor and is very juicy. Not sure what they're putting on it, but it's good eating--and less expensive than the Colonel. The one gripe (and it's a big one) is that you cannot get just a drumstick or a wing at the family places. You always have to get a breast (pechuga). . . I've argued in my miserable Spanish for just a bunch of wings and legs at several different places (even offering to pony up more colones) to no avail. Think it's time someone opened up a chicken joint here with just legs and wings, no pechugas. I'd go there on a regular basis.

What the sam hill. . .

Is this thing? No idea, and while Kenneth and Darleen told us what it was in Spanish, I can't remember. Just know that it's big, brown and crawly. . . Spotted it on one of the rocking chairs the other day, just where you would put your head if you plopped down into it. It's supposed to be a jumping insect, but one of its rear legs was missing, so it wasn't able to leap at all. . . Looks pretty scary, but since Kenneth and Darleen didn't get too worked up about it, we figured that it wasn't anything too dangerous, so we just took some pictures and watched it make its way to the ground (with some assistance from Kenneth) and then head out for parts unknown.

The variety of insects, animals, birds, plants, etc., down here is truly amazing. I'm not much of a bird person, or plant person, but even I will stop and stare at some of the things we come across. We will spot a bird that we have never seen before, and it will have the most brilliant colors, that we just stop and look at it. Never have taken the time to do that before. I don't think we're going all-Thoreau on everyone or Mosquito Coast, but it is nice to check out the various things around here, and it's very pleasant to be surprised on a regular occasion.

Wedding bells. . .

Nope, no renewal of the vows down here. . . However, we had our first wedding at Tree Houses last week. . . A great couple from Dallas came down to get hitched in Costa Rica. . . Not an uncommon happening, but most folks choose to get married on the beach (like Hawaii) instead of the jungle. . . The bride first e-mailed me about three months ago, asking if they could get hitched here. . . We get plenty of honeymooners, but this was the first wedding here. . . They wanted to scout out the hotel grounds for the wedding site, and not surprisingly, they chose the waterfall and pools to seal their nuptials. . . They told their families that they were getting hitched in Costa Rica a couple of weeks before they came down (enough time to ensure that they wouldn't be able to get passports) and are planning on telling other folks about their Costa Rican vacation with wedding pictures from here.

They had everything all set up by the time they arrived: the officiant and the photographer. . . Lucy, myself and the officiant's wife and kids were the only witnesses. They got married on the walkway by the first pool, where the waterfall first splashes down. . . It was a very nice ceremony, and the officiant was quite the character, flailing his arms and offering to stand in the pools and look up at them to conduct the ceremony.

After the wedding, they opted to drive up to La Fortuna for some hiking and time in the hot springs. . . Unfortunately, when they returned to the hotel at 11:30 at night, the power had gone out and the gate wouldn't open as it's run by electricity. . . I walked up to the gate with a flashlight to walk them in. . . Ten minutes later, there's a knock on the door, and the groom was there. . . They had locked their keys in their car and their camera was in plain sight. . . This is a pretty safe area, but better to be safe and not offer up the temptation. . . We were up on the road until 2:30 a.m. trying to jimmy open the locks with a coat hanger. . . None of us has a career in car boosting.

Finally, I drove the Galloper up to the gate, and the newlyweds spent their first night as man and wife. . . sleeping in a Hyundai SUV until the sun came up and they felt OK enough to leave the car alone. . . They were great folks and had us take their picture in front of Tree House No. 4 (the Galloper). . .

Fire! Fire! Fire!

An homage to Beavis and Butthead, some may think. But alas, it's more pedestrian than that. It's just fire ants. At least that's what I think they're called. The other day, some monkeys were hanging out in trees close to the house. One of them pulled down a decent-sized branch that fell on the driveway. I went over to clear it off, not remembering that this particular kind of tree attracts ants that bite. I picked it up, and chucked it into the jungle. The next morning, my right thumb was swollen up pretty good and there was a nice red welt where one of the rotten little buggers had bitten me. OK, lesson learned. Two days later, I was with Kenneth, putting up new signs for the Tree Houses Hotel. I was wearing running shoes with socks and shorts, Kenneth in his usual long pants and rubber boots. About 3-4 minutes into the job, Kenneth looked down and yelled "Ormigas!". . . Me being the Spanish wiz that I am, thought he was looking for his friends (amigas). Turns out, ormigas are ants. And they were all over my shoes, socks and feet. . . I got chewed up pretty bad by the time I pulled off my shoes and socks. I was doing a little not-so-happy jig all the while, which Kenneth found amusing. OK, another lesson learned. Three hours later, a different sign, a different location. . . We were trying to shear off a short screw so we could hang the sign, so we laid it on the ground. I, naturally, put my hand into a pile of more ants and got my left hand gnawed on. Not sure if things will start to swell like the thumb (sure hope not, that will frighten folks) but do not mess with the little critters, they pack a powerful bite. The best way to ease the pain, I was told, is to douse yourself in rubbing alcohol.

Holy guano, batman!

OK, a collective groan, all at once please. . .

Of the three treehouses we have on property, the bats seem to be only drawn to Treehouse No. 3...they perch themselves on the outside deck, high above the ceiling...there can be as many as eight bats on any given day, just hanging out...
We have four of the mama bats with babies...the babies hang on to their mamas chests...it's kind of cool when you catch the babies stretching out their wings and you can get a good look at them hanging on to their mamas...in this picture you can see the three bats on top and if you look at their underside it's black...that black spot is actually a baby stuck to the mama...

The critters are fruit bats, so they help keep the bug population down around the area, which is very welcome at times. . . The bats are not inside the tree house, which most folks who stay in No. 3 are relieved to discover. . . They pretty much hang out at No. 3 until around dusk, then they take off and do what they do during the night, and will come fluttering back around dawn. . . One major downer: the little buggers are serious poop machines, and we have to go up daily to sweep the poo off of the porch. . . "Bat-poo cleanup on aisle 3!"

Not a happy camper. . .

Or maybe she is, she's pretty doped up at the moment, so maybe she's quite pleased with the situation. . . Most likely not. . . Mini-B is now a fixed pooch, so she won't be a mama. . . This is pretty rare in Costa Rica, as most people opt not to spay or neuter their dogs and cats. . . No worries, we're not going to go Bob Barker on you, but we just didn't want Mini-B dragging back from a night on the town at some point and getting a bundle of little surprises months later. . . She has to wear the halo for 10 days after surgery (she also had a tooth pulled, so it wasn't really a good day for her). . . When we first brought her home, she was walking backwards, as if she could back out of the halo. . . When the drugs wear off, it's probably going to be a challenge to keep it on her. . . The silver down below is something that the vet put on to help seal the wound. . . She goes back in a week to get her stitches out. . . Lucy was nearly in tears when we picked her up at the vet's office. . . Mini-B was shivering and shaking and didn't know what the sam hill was going on. . . I voted to wire her up to the satellite in hopes of getting free pay-per-view. . . That idea didn't go over very well. . .

Behold the snake tamer. . .

Or more appropriately, the snake killer. . . Sorry for the misdirection, this is a family blog, after all.

Anyway, folks who know me will not find this a huge surprise: I'm terrified of the serpents. Flat-out, wet-my-BVDs, scream-like-a-first-grader scared. Once, when I was backpacking through Nepal, I stopped to check out a snake show in Kathmandu. Being the only white face in the crowd, the wrangler/handler came over to me in search of a donation. I promptly emptied my pockets in the face of the cobra he was handling and vamoosed. And there are plenty of snakes here in Costa Rica. There are non-venomous snakes, and there are a lot of venomous slitherers as well. I don't have an eye for the critters, so every snake elicits a Depends-reaction from me. Lucy is much better, having seen a coral snake (very venomous) and thinking it was really cool.

Kenneth, one of our ace employees here at Tree Houses, stumbled across his fair share of the slitherers in just two days time. Two of the snakes he dispatched of down on the back property, and two were on the hotel grounds. The two that he took care of here near the hotel are of the poisonous variety -- both fer de lance snakes.

If you have the misfortune to get chomped by one of them, or their cousins in the viper family, you have about 2 to 4 hours to get to a hospital. The nearest hospital is only about 20 minutes away, luckily.

This is a small bugger, but I remember reading in junior-high earth science that the small snakes (this is a fer de lance and can get up to 6 feet long) pack the most venom per bite, as they don't know how to control the release of the poison when they chomp on something.

Sooner or later, I'm going to run into a snake and I can only hope that I have the presence of mind to hightail it quickly. Or that the snake is repulsed by the sight/smell/sound of a grown man wetting himself in the jungle.

Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (aka Blue Jean Frog)

Can you see it? if you click on the picture you can get a bigger image of it...they are so small, these frogs are sometimes difficult to see...but what makes them stand out are their colors...so vibrant that even though they are small, you can spot them...this is strawberry poison dart frog (aka blue jean frog)...getting it's name from it's blue legs - makes it look like it's wearing blue jeans. http://www.anywherecostarica.com/costa-rica-amphibian/blue-jeans-frog.htm...now that we are coming into the rainy season the frogs are making themselves more known...we've had guests spot these frogs down by the waterfall pools and even around the treehouses...they are just the cutest creatures, but beware because they are poisonous.

Gardening 101

This is our attempt at putting together our very first international garden. . . We cleared off a decent-sized chunk of jungle and dug up the ground by pick-axe (no roto-tiller around, unfortunately). . . We got some plants and seeds from Steven at Finca Luna Nueva, an organic farm/hotel not too far away from Tree Houses. We even put in an irrigation system, albeit inadvertently. . . While I was digging out a footpath going from top to bottom of the garden, I noticed that one of the water pipes for the hotel ran through the garden. . . I wisely moved over about a foot and a half, and started digging the trench anew. . . When I was about two-thirds of the way down, I struck water and had a nice geyser going. . . When I stepped back, I had noticed that I was digging crooked with the pick-axe. . . Not to fear, Miguel was around and he got the water stopped to that area, and then we put a vertical pipe and a spigot on it, so now we can water the garden when it's not the rainy season (around November). . .

As for what's in the garden? A lot of it, we're not sure of, but it's a lot of different varieties of lettuce and spinach. . . Steven really knows his plants, and most of the stuff he gave us is over our heads, but it does taste good. . . We also got some chilis and small tomatoes that we cut open to get the seeds out of, and they're already about 2-3 inches high. . . We do have one pineapple plant, and are hoping to plant some watermelons as well. . . Maybe in the future, we will have enough for a salad!

Bella Verona

This is Costa Rica. And we're pretty much in the boonies of the country, save for the 20-minute drive to La Fortuna, a very nice tourist hub. So, you wouldn't expect to find truly exceptional Italian food in the area. However, at a place called Bella Verona, we have found food that is truly outstanding. It's owned by Guilano, an Italian fellow who came over from Italy about 15 years ago. He was a chef in Italy, and it shows here.

About two months ago, a gentleman who grew up in Switzerland, was asking about the local restaurants. I told him about Bella Verona. "No! No Italian food in Costa Rica! I grew up 20 miles from the Italian border, and I cannot eat food that is not truly Italian."

Fair enough, I reasoned. However, something happened a day later on the way back from La Fortuna. Perhaps his kids pestered him into stopping at Bella Verona, or maybe he had a morbid curiousity and couldn't wait to pick the place apart. The next morning at breakfast, he came up to me, and said, "Mark, my family and I ate at Bella Verona last night." My eyebrows went up and I asked how it was. "The man is an artiste!" he replied. "His pasta, al dente, is magnifique! Just like when I was growing up."

Bella Verona is more expensive than the average Costa Rican joint, but well worth the trip. We just got back a couple of hours ago and the food is truly specatcular.

The one caveat: Guilano is looking to sell the place. When he goes, who knows what kind of food will be on the menu.

We interrupt your normally scheduled blog. . .

For a word on television. There are no TVs, phones or anything like that in the three tree houses. We do have, in our house, satellite TV. What do we get? Pretty much the same fare that we got back home. However, on the satellite system down here, the shows are typically on whatever network is the producer of the show. There is no CBS, ABC or NBC. There is a Fox, and we get plenty of Simpsons (three to four episodes nightly, woo-hoo!!). So, "The Mentalist" is on the Warner Channel, as it's produced by Warner Brothers. The same with "Cold Case", while "Law and Order" is on the Universal Channel. It's been a while for the Sony network, as there's not a lot of new stuff on there, it seems.

It can be a challenge to try to find a show. Most of the shows are delayed from when they're shown in the States. We love "The Amazing Race" and it's on the AXN network down here (no idea what that stands for), but was running about six weeks behind the episodes on CBS back home. We just saw the finale yesterday. We do get TNT (only movies, none of the series--those are on other channels); ESPN and ESPN2 (primarily soccer--ugh); CNN International; Fox News (though there are no commercials, just news fillers); the American Network (loads of Dr. Phil, Oprah, Rachael Rae, etc., which Lucy loves); also the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and the Biography Channel.

One bonus: We do get the NFL Network, which will come in very handy when autumn rolls around, if for nothing else than highlights.

Nice perks of the job. . .

We are getting a chance to meet people from all over the world. Most of the guests at the hotel are from the U.S. or Candada (about 80 percent) and the rest are from Europe, for the most part. We have some guests coming from South Africa later on this summer. Not a lot of folks from Asia, thus far. It's a long haul from there to here. Here's a picture of two great Greek gentlemen who stayed with us back in early April, just shortly after we started. It had been their dream to come to Costa Rica, and they were in the country for a few weeks, before making their way to Los Angeles, then onto Tahiti to meet up with their wives. From there, they were going to travel around the islands before taking a cruise back to Europe. They sent us a nice e-mail and some photos of their time here just a few days ago when they got back. Always fun to meet people from different parts of the world and get their take on things.

Holiday haze. . .

Happy Fourth of July! Not being in the States, the holidays that are uniquely American tend to creep up on you, and if you're not careful, pass you by. We were reminded of today's holiday on several fronts: Lucy's mom's birthday is July 4; my parents and I talked about the holiday this morning; and a very nice British family, living in the Netherlands, wished us a Happy Fourth as well.

For Memorial Day, we had to think twice and check out a calendar down here. I imagine it will be the same for Labor Day.

Costa Rica has quite a few holidays as well, and we're reminded of them by the folks who work at the hotel, as they either get the day off or get double-time. Just like we used to count the holidays back home when we were working for our companies, it's the same down here.

No fireworks on tap for today, unless a thunder and lightning storm rolls in, though.