Toucan loft

Here is the loft of the Toucan. There is a smaller double bed in the loft here. The other tree houses have two single beds in the loft, but there's not enough room in the loft of the Toucan.

Inside the Toucan

Here's the inside of the Toucan. Just like the other tree houses, there is a refrigerator, security safe, coffeemaker and air conditioner.

The Toucan is set up a bit differently, in that there is one room with a toilet and sink, and the shower is in another room on the other side of the tree house. In this picture, the toilet and sink can be seen on the other side of the bed.

Merry Christmas!

To everyone near and far and the three loyal readers! Hope you're having a great day and spending it with loved ones and family. Thanks for checking in occasionally and dropping lines, it's really great to hear from folks.

'Tis the season. . .

For sending out and receiving Christmas cards. Sadly, we're not nearly organized enough to get cards together and in the mail by Halloween.

Yes, Halloween would be about the time we would have to send out cards in order for them to arrive in time for Christmas.

We got a reminder of this when on December 20, Lucy received a birthday card from some friends back in Honolulu. They mailed the card about 10 days before her birthday and it did find its way down here.

Lucy's birthday is October 21. So you can see how we aren't quite in the holiday mode in late October to get our stuff ready and in the mail.

So, please consider this a woefully inadequate Christmas card from us down here in Costa Rica and Merry Christmas!

Toucan -- going up

Here's a picture of the ladder leading up to the loft of the Toucan tree house. Toucan, Rana and Perezosa all have lofts, and there is a ladder that is pretty much vertical that folks have to climb to get up to the lofts.

The new tree houses don't have the lofts, as it's not easy to get up and down with a load of sheets, blankets, etc.

Lessons learned. . .

Recently, we noticed that there were bees hanging around on the outside of the Toucan tree house. Just far enough so we couldn't lean over and get to them. That turned out to be a good thing, as Miguel (who's afraid of very little) didn't want to get any closer to the critters than he had to. The supposedly swarm and sting pretty bad.

So, Miguel came up with a way to smoke them out from under one of the boards on the outside of the house where they have gathered.

Lesson 1 learned: The smoke alarm inside the tree house works just fine.

Lesson 2 learned: The fire extinguisher inside the tree house also works just fine.

Nothing major as far as damage, and the bees appear to have been smoked out for now.

Toucan porch

Toucan has a front porch, plenty of space to hang out at the table and enjoy the surroundings. The Toucan, however, does not have a wraparound porch like the other tree houses. As I said in the previous post, this was the first tree house built by the original owners. They must have figured out wraparound porches were the way to go on the Frog and Perezosa. When we built the Congo and Colibri, the porches do go all the way around.

Casa de Toucan. . .

Here's a shot of the outside of the Toucan tree house. It's the smallest of the group, and was the first one built by the original owners. At times, when the wind is going somewhat strong, the tree house will rock back and forth pretty good. Some folks think they're sleeping on a boat, as it does sway pretty good at times.

This is also close to the highest of the five tree houses, if it's not the highest. Plenty of steps to get up and down.

Perazosa tree. . .

Here is the tree inside the Sloth tree house. . . We wrap towels around the bottom of the tree on the floor, as when it rains hard and the wind is blowing, water runs down the trunk. The towels do catch the water most of the time. However, we always remind guests to not lean their luggage up against the tree, as it could get a bit soggy.

Inside Perazosa. . .

Here you can see the sliding glass doors on the main floor, along with the tree. Upstairs, like the Rana, there are two twin beds.

The sliding glass doors offer a great view, as guests can open up the curtains and get a great shot of the jungle surrounding them. However, like the tree that goes through the house, it's a great idea, but a maintenance headache.

Since the tree house is always moving, the tracks for the doors are always moving as well, so we have to adjust these on a regular basis.

Perazosa porch. . .

Not as large as the Frog porch, but it has a great view of the rain forest from the trees.

The small table over to the left is a tree that formerly went through the deck and the roof. However, some bugs got the better of it and it didn't last, so we cut it down to a few feet off of the deck, found a nice wood slab to put on top and turned it into a table.

The tree, with the V-shape in front of the table, is a monkey favorite at times. Once, when the guests were hanging out in their chairs relaxing, a monkey came down right into the V and hung out there, about 6 feet away from the guests and myself, and just relaxed for 30 minutes or more.

After that, the little fellow got tired of looking at the weirdos up in the trees with him and he took off.

Casa de Perazosa. . .

The Sloth tree house is the most popular of the three original tree houses. It has a tree that goes through the inside of it and there are sliding glass doors all the way around.

Looks great, maintenance headache. The tree is still growing and when the wind blows, it stretches out the metal roof, so Miguel and Keneth head up to the top a couple of times per year to do some repairs.

The Rana porch. . .

Here's where folks sit out on the porch and see what they can see as far as wildlife, birds, etc. You can see the outline of the Sloth tree houses from the porch here, but you can't see inside or make out anyone who may be on the porch of the Sloth tree house, so there's a fair amount of privacy.

All of the tree houses are pretty private, which is a nice thing as no one wants to come out and hang on their porch in the morning and see some other yahoo 10 feet away in another tree house.

Inside Rana. . .

This is the upstairs (left) and the downstairs. No worries for a family of four as mom and dad can have the larger bed downstairs and the kids are good to go up in the loft with the two single beds. At times there are five folks in there, and we'll put down a small mattress on the floor between the two single beds. It is a tight fit, but we've had a load of five-person families in here and in the Sloth tree house.

Feliz cumpleanos senor Eidson. . .

Today is my brother Matt's birthday. That's 41 years for those keeping score at home. Hard to believe that we've come from fighting over toys and candy decades ago to just agitating our folks for fun's sake.

Matt will be in the L.A. area for his birthday, and then will be heading back later on to spend holidays with the folks in snowy Wisconsin.

Casa de Rana. . .

Here's a picture of the Frog tree houses. . . This is the tree house where we stayed on our two visits to Tree Houses when we came down as tourists.

It's down a little hill away from the main house where we live and is really surrounded by trees, so there's always a lot of shade around it. It's one of my favorite tree houses.

Sloths can squeal!

We never knew that until the other day. Lucy found four sloths all within about 50 feet of each other in two trees down the driveway. One was a tiny little thing, and it looked like it was either trying to latch back onto its mom, or was having a sibling spat with another. The two were hanging on a small branch, about 40 feet above the driveway, and the little one was swiping at the larger one.

The larger one was swatting back, and a high-pitched shriek was the result. Not sure which of the sloths was emitting the squeal, but it was pretty loud.

I have heard sloths hiss before when they are upset, but this was a first to really hear a distinct squeal.

The little one eventually gave up and moved on to another tree. It was moving fast -- for a sloth. Not like a monkey, but compared to other sloths, this one was moving at warp speed.

Baked Huevos Rancheros. . .

This is a twist on regular huevos (eggs) rancheros.

In this version, everything is baked in a ramikin. You put a small tortilla at the bottom and then layer it with salsa, pureed black beans, salsa, cheese, egg, another tortilla and more cheese.

Then you polish it off with a few dollops of guacamole or black beans and serve it up.

On the side is fried yucca, which is pretty much like hash-brown potatoes.

The approach to Tree Houses. . .

This is another great picture by the McKays of part of the driveway up to the hotel.

It's about 150 yards or so through the jungle to get up to the house where we live and check people in.

The tree houses themselves are scattered around the 8 acres to give folks enough privacy to relax and enjoy the jungle surrounding the tree houses.

Coconut french toast. . .

This is one of the favorites here at Tree Houses; coconut french toast.

It is made like regular french toast, except coconut milk is added to the dredge for the bread and fresh coconut is sprinkled over the top.

For those with a really sweet tooth, you can drizzle syrup over the top.