Outta here. . .

By the time the three of you read this, we'll be on our way for a vacation. Going to see some friends and my godson and we'll be back around Valentine's Day.

More than likely, the blog will be dark during this time, though we may post from one of our final destinations.

The greeter. . .

And this is often one of the first critters that folks get to meet upon their arrival at Tree Houses--Bejuca.

Bejuca is a gentle giant of a dog. Though she can let out a major-league growl when the mood strikes her.

At the house. . .

There are steps that lead up to our porch for those that arrive by foot, and the driveway circles around a little bit to wrap up on the side of the house.

The front of the house. . .

Now you're almost at the house, which you can glimpse the front of our house through the plants in front of the rock wall.

Still heading up the driveway. . .

At certain times of the year, there are a lot of butterflies that are flitting up and down the driveway, feeding off the flowers and plants along the way.

Almost there. . .

Still chugging along. . . Think the lens makes the driveway look longer than it really is.

Heading up to the house. . .

This is the driveway that leads up to our house, which is also the office for Tree Houses. It's a few hundred feet and it's a very nice drive up to where we live.

Every month or so, we'll go up and down the driveway with a machete and cut everything back. After a few weeks, you can hardly tell that anything was cut down.

Entering the grounds. . .

The front gate of Tree Houses, where folks first arrive. Our gate is closed most of the time, to prevent the looky-loos from rolling in to take a look.

On the left of the gate is an intercom, so folks can press the button and talk and then after they release the button (if they do, a huge number of people just hold the button down and keep rattling on) we tell them to drive on up.

We have a garage door opener with great range, so we can open the gate from here at the house.

Front yard. . .

This is our front yard. No grass, too much trouble to get it growing. There's a big almond tree right in front that shades a good portion of the area, so the owners back in the day opted for gravel. There are some bird feeders that we put plantains out on occasion to attract the larger birds. The front gate is about 150 yards or so from the house.

On the way to the waterfall. . .

Here's one of the half-dozen or so covered benches that are scattered along the trail. A nice place to sit down, hang out and check out the scenery.

Around the hotel. . .

Here's a picture of the start of the 3-kilometer hike to the waterfall and river. . . There are fruit trees that line the sides of the trail (limes, oranges, grapefruit, breadfruit, etc.) and when everything is ripe and it's a warm day, the whole area smells like a citrus factory.

No MagicJack for a while. . .

For the three of you who read this blog regularly, and the one that will call on the MagicJack, we're going to be without the phone connection until the middle of February. We're loaning it to a friend and then we're traveling, so we won't be around to answer the phone anyway.

Colibri V

Here's the view from the shower. All of the showers in the tree houses are enclosed by screens, so you kind of get the feeling of taking a shower outdoors.

Colibri IV

Here's the view from the front porch of the Hummingbird tree house. Guests, and ourselves, have seen monkeys, sloths and all kinds of cool birds from up there. No snakes, though, so no worries.

Colibri III

Here's the side view of the Hummingbird tree house. The parking is here, while the front faces the jungle and rain forest.

Colibri II

Here's another look at the inside, and you can get a better view of the beds inside.

The Colibri . . .

OK, here we are back to the last of the five tree houses: Colibri, or hummingbird.

So, for all you snake-fearing folks, don't worry, none of the slithery critters around here. This is one of the new tree houses that were finished up in October. Here's what the inside looks like.

Lessons learned. . . II

Bees are not happy when you displace them from their home. Miguel and I found this out the other day when we pried off a board on the side of one of the tree houses to get at the lair, nest, hive, home (whatever you want to call it).

Not happy campers, but luckily they swarmed the opposite direction from where we were perched.

There are the African-ized honey bees in Costa Rica, and Miguel was plenty nervous about messing with them. Luckily, neither one of us were stung and hopefully we cleared out the lot of them.

Time to work on the house. . .

Now that the tree houses are finished as is the rancho (we're still awaiting the art department to turn in some images) attention has been turned to the house where we live.

We don't get to live in a tree house, but it's a nice regular house.

There was a small loft that was added when the roof was raised a few years ago. The only problem, is that it was too small and the only stairs were in the bodega, not the house.

We asked Palomino and the lads to stick around a few extra weeks to extend the loft, so it will take up nearly half of the house. It will also enclose the two bedrooms and bathrooms, so there will be ceilings above all of those now.

The wood was brought in before Christmas, and after 10 days of vacation for the holidays, Palomino and the fellas returned this week to start enclosing the space and giving us more room.

We're going to use it as a family room, and put a TV and sofa up there, and then glass in that half of the house up top, so we can see when guests come down and see the gate when folks are standing out there waiting to be let in.

Snake on the ground. . .

The other night, I walked down to the Rana (Frog) tree house to talk to some guests who had asked about a tour guide. When I got up to their porch, they were all looking at something in the jungle.

"Do you know what kind of snake that is?" They asked.

I didn't, and while we were up nice and high and away from the critter, I had walked maybe 15 feet past it on my way down.

Luckily, I didn't see it on the way, or else I would have turned and ran back to the house screaming. That probably isn't the best impression to give guests.

This is not a picture of the snake that we saw (there is no lens long enough or big enough for me to take a picture) this is as close as I could find on the Web.

It was a Mikan, which is non-venomous. It uses its tail to whip at prey and to defend itself, and can pack a powerful whack.

The one that was slithering through the jungle was at least 3 feet long and was more of a black color with some really bright yellow patterns across its body.

Happy 2011. . .

Guess we can't say Happy New Year, since we're a little tardy in putting anything up.

We had a quiet New Year's Eve, with just a few of the neighbors setting off fireworks around midnight to let us know that 2011 had arrived. Of course, the fireworks are nothing compared to Hawaii where it's bedlam from around 11 p.m. into the morning hours.

Hope everyone had a great holiday season and we'll hopefully see some of you down this way in 2011.