Also that time of year. . .

When the number of guests starts to slow down. Unfortunately, that doesn't translate into a lot of down time here at the hotel.

This year, like in the past, we pick a tree house, close it down for a few days and clean, sand and varnish the entire building inside and out.

The Frog tree houses is finished and is looking brand new and shiny.

The Sloth is next on the list, and it's going to be closed for nearly two weeks. We're going to take out the Pergo flooring in there, then sand, fill, stain and varnish the flooring underneath to give it a cleaner look. Also, the sliding glass doors that surround two sides are coming out, to be replaced by large windows.

The doors are a great idea in theory, but are a real hassle. The tree that goes through the house is constantly moving, growing, etc., and as a result the tree house itself is constantly moving. The doors get off track, refuse to close and they're just not worth the hassle. The view will still be the same when the windows are put in, it just will make routine maintenance much easier.

That was a long explanation to basically say the blogging will be irregular for the next couple of weeks as more time will be devoted to making sure that we can finish the Sloth up in time for when the next guests are scheduled to check in. No room at the inn if it's not finished.

Happy Birthday!

To Herb Eidson, the coolest and best dad anyone could ever ask for.

Modesty (and threats) prevent us from revealing the age here, but feel free to guess in the comments section and post any wishes you may have.

I love you dad!

That time of year. . .

When the mamones, or lychee, are ripe and are falling off the trees. Here in Costa Rica, the fruit is a bit more on the spiky side on the outside than in Asia. It still tastes great with just a hint of tartness.

Of course, moderation is recommended when eating the little things, as too much can lead to a bit of balky belly.

That didn't stop some guests who just couldn't get enough. Doesn't slow us down much, either, as we'll eat them by the bagful.

Inspection of lines. . .

The inspector from Coopalesca came out and gave everything the official Okely-Dokely after Miguel had put up the posts and the other box and the wiring. He said it was a great job and was impressed with the work.

The inspector then put in the work order to have some fellows come out to install the meter.

They showed up to put in the meter late in the afternoon a couple of days later, and we were finally ready to complete the final steps.

However, these yahoos said that there was more work that needed to be done, so they packed it in and didn't do anything. Miguel needs to do some more welding and change one of the cables out.

Then, we'll have the inspector come out again and then the meter guys and then the dude to hook everything up to the new transformer.

That, of course, will happen when pigs fly and the folks get on the same page.

The over/under is set for Christmas when this will actually be finished.

Hometown visitors. . .

For the first time in 2.5 years here at the hotel, we had someone from a hometown. It wasn't mine, it was Lucy's hometown of Visalia, Calif.

A great group of folks came down (nine in total) and stayed for a few nights.

Some of them had grown up in Visalia, like Lucy, and others had moved there. With so many of them running around, it was hard to keep track of all, and on the day they left, we found out that one had worked with Lucy's sister, Dolores, for a spell and dubbed her "One of my favorite people of all time."

Now, if someone from Longview, Wash., would get their rears down this way, then all would be complete.

Did we say one step closer?

Silly us. Of course, that turned out not to be the case.

We're still waiting.

The electric company did come out with a new meter. The fellow that showed up, however, told us that we needed an additional box, that Coopalesca doesn't provide.

We needed a box with a lever to turn things off, and more cables to hook everything together.

Naturally, none of this wisdom was imparted during the entire six-month process of getting everything out.

Miguel hot-footed it down to the local hardware store, where the box we needed wasn't in stock. Off to another hardware store, where we got the box. Then a day or so of welding on Miguel's part to put the box up and then hook everything up.

Now, it's up to the Coopalesca folks to come back out again and give the final OK and hook up the meter.

Would like to say we'll be fully connected by the end of the week, but then again, we thought we would be wired by the end of July.

Pooch break. . .

This has nothing at all to do with the hotel here, but it's a great shot of what the Eidson family likes to call "Big Weeb" and "Little Weeb."

Not to give anything away, but "Big Weeb" has been to Costa Rica three times, while "Little Weeb" has stayed behind.

Talking story. . .

Once in a while, we get someone here that also works in the hotel business.

Of course, the experiences are not nearly the same; and a lot of the time, they are so different, it makes us wonder why anyone would work at one of the big hotels.

The folks that work at the big hotels come down here and enjoy the small-time atmosphere of the jungle and talk about the big-time hotels (200 or more checkins and outs per day) that they have to deal with and all of the different problems. For comparison, we have just the five tree houses and for us, when all five tree houses are checking out and all five are filling up, it's a long day. I can't imagine doing 200-plus. Of course, they have larger staffs, but they are also dealing with a different breed of traveler: One that is usually on the go and expects (and demands) a lot.

Then again, there are the things that folks do in/to hotel rooms. We have been very lucky to not have anyone trash a place, but the same can't be said for the larger chains. Suffice to say: Ugh.

The happiest time of the year. . .

It's that time of year again when there is U.S. football on the television regularly on Sundays (and occasionally on Saturdays with college).

From now until the end of January, real football will be available for myself and the three others in the area that want to watch it. The rest of the infidels will have to settle for the other football (soccer) being relegated to a different time.

Of course, most of the games are in Spanish (the exceptions being the Sunday and Monday night games) but that's fine.

The NFL Network is part of the satellite package down here (as opposed to being in a tiny slice of the cable market in the States), so highlights galore are available all of the time.

And for the the yahoos out there that don't follow true college football (d3football.com), the mighty Pirates of Whitworth are 1-1.

Check it out. . .

OK, this is a shameless plug for a book written by Lee Mullikin, the enlightened brother of the Mullikin clan (just joking, Bruce!).

This is Lee's telling of the events surrounding Katrina in New Orleans, where he has lived for 30-plus years and what it was like to be in the city after the hurricane came through.

There is a television interview with Lee out there on the Web, but for whatever reason, I cannot copy the link and put it in here.

The TV interview is on WWLTV.com and you can do a search for that with Lee Mullikin and check it out there.

One step closer to new lines. . .

We are slowly, but surely, making progress to getting new power lines and a transformer on line here at the hotel.

A crew, sub-contracted out from Coopalesca (the main power supplier in the area) planted poles and strung lines recently.

Now, we just have to wait for official Coopalesca employees to come out and install a new box and meter where the new transformer is.

Then, we have to pay someone to come out and connect the tree houses, the main house and the rancho (where breakfast is served) to the new system.

Of course, not just one person, or crew, can do it all. It all falls to other people.

Coincidentally (or not?) the folks that are doing the hookup of the meter and new box are employees of Coopalesca, and are working on their own time.

Monkey RIP

Unfortunately, this is a sad entry. The little monkey that was knocked out of the trees earlier did not survive. We got the word that it never responded to treatment and died recently.

A moment (day or so) of silence will be observed.

Monkey down!

The other day, after a pretty ferocious thunder storm blew through, I was up at the rancho cleaning off the tables and straightening up things that had blown over during the storm.

As Mini-B and I were heading up the main trail to go turn on the lights, I noticed a brown lump on the ground. I did a double-take and saw that it was a howler monkey, curled up in a ball like it was sleeping. It wasn't moving at all. I scooped up Mini-B before she could get up to the monkey and tossed her in the rancho kitchen. I got Lucy and she called Proyecto Asis, the local wildlife rescue center, to have someone call over.

At first, we thought the little critter was dead as it wasn't moving at all. Just as I was going to get a stick to prod it, it moved just a little.

About 30 minutes later, the vet came over and took a look at the simian. It got up and staggered side to side like it was drunk, before it settled down and tucked its hands under its head and closed its eyes.

The vet then got out a cage and some pipe and rope to herd the little bugger into the cage. It took a few tries and the monkey wasn't entirely thrilled with being woken from its stupor, but it was finally in the cage.

We assisted the vet with an injection and squiring some medicine into its mouth and then it was off to the center. The vet's best guess was that the monkey either fell out of the trees or was knocked out by a branch, etc., and it had a concussion.

Line V

Since we applied for our bank account in San Jose, we had to go to the local branch
of Banco Nacional in La Fortuna after we got back.

When we got into the bank, the line for the tellers was around15 to 20 deep. Luckily, we could wait in chairs, for one of the folks to help us since we were getting cards and not doing any transactions.

It took around 25 minutes, and then we received our cards. We asked about setting up the automatic payments each month, and the woman told us that we had to go see one of the other folks down the way, as she didn't do that from her cubicle.

We pulled another number and waited a bit before we were called up. Again, since I'm the primary, the transfers have to be done in my name and changed over from my account. However, when the woman tried to activate my card, she frowned, looked things over and then told us that my card wasn't valid.

Why not? We asked.

This is a woman's card, she said.

Sure enough, on the card, it said BN Mujer, and mujer is woman. Who knew there were banks that issued cards for men and women? (The women's card is the white one on top, while the yellow is the man card.)

So, nothing further to be done that day. I had to go back to the bank the following day, get my man card and then set everything up. That was relatively quick, taking just 90 minutes total to get the card and set up the monthly transfers.

Line IV

Once back here, we needed to head to the La Caja office in Ciudad Quesada to change the code on our carnet (card) to reflect the fact that we were with the ARCR and no longer on our own, in order to get the cheaper monthly rate.

So, we headed up to Quesada early to be one of the first in line, as the kind folks at ARCR said we needed to go to the La Caja office first, change the code, and then head to the clinic to get our new cards.

That, apparently, is how it works in every other La Caja office in the country. Not so in Quesada.

After waiting in line for around 30 minutes, we were told that in this area, we have to go to the clinic first and then return to the La Caja office afterward.

Back in the car, back to Florencia and another line. This one, thankfully, was pretty quick and painless and we got our new cards with new codes pretty quickly.

At that point, Lucy hopped in the car to head back to Quesada and I took a cab back to the hotel to check in on the guests.

The man at the La Caja office in Quesada was surprised to see Lucy back so quickly with the new cards.

However, when he tried to do the change there, he told Lucy that the cards would not be in the system for another two weeks, necessitating another trip to La Caja around the middle of September.

Line III

So, it was off to Banco Nacional to set up a bank account for our immigration needs.

When we arrived there, we ended up sitting next to a gentleman who was waiting to pick up his credit card. He took a look at us, and said: Are you with ARCR? We said we had just joined, and Mel said he was the president of the association. We got some more information while waiting in line and some tips on setting up the account.

Of course, the bank's computers were down when our number was called, so we walked around for a couple of hours, got some lunch and then headed back to the bank.

The computers were back up, but really slow, so it took around an hour-plus to get everything set up.

Since I was the primary on the immigration status (so why did I just get one year and Lucy two? Who knows?), I had to be the primary on the bank accounts as well.

We needed to set up a dollar account and a colone account. One of the hitches to our type of residency (called rentista) is that we have to change $2,500.00 per month into colones; not an insignificant sum. However, as everyone we talked to (including our lawyer, the ARCR folks, etc.) told us, there is a loophole. Once we change the dollars into colones, we can change the colones back into dollars the same day. So, we just need to keep the money revolving in and out of the accounts and make sure we change it monthly.

We set it up to do it automatically through Banco Nacional, so now we don't have to stand in line as much.

Fire. . .

We interrupt the usual drivel with a bit of late-breaking news.

Last night, the power went out here at the hotel. Not a normal occurence (maybe once every few months) but since we have been waiting for a new transformer and power lines, it has happened a bit more as the old lines just can't handle the load.

Lucy headed up to the box by the front of the hotel to flip the switch. She hauled back here to the house toot-sweet and said the power lines were on fire.

I got to make every sportswriters' dream call, when I called Miguel and told him, for real, we were "En Fuego".

The lines that go from one side of the road to the other were shot and that caused the meltdown and loss of power. The meter box up front was also fried and nearly melted completely down, which was pretty neat to see.

The power company came out and we had power restored in less than 2 hours.

The power guys were happy to climb the poles in the dark and hang out up high while Miguel and I (the only two idjits wearing shorts) stuck to the ground with flashlights to help the guys out. We got chewed stupid by mosquitoes and the electric company guys weren't keen to head back to the meter box, as it's a few yards back into the jungle and they were worried about the snakes.

This, hopefully, will light a literal fire under the electric company to get out here and put in the new lines and transformer.

Line II

Getting to meet the other couples was nice, as we got to hear about where they lived (one up by the beach in Guanacaste and the other by the Poas Volcano) and we learned one nice little bonus: We could save some moolah on our mandatory health care.

We found out about the ARCR: Association of Residents of Costa Rica. By joining the group ($60.00 per year) we could get our La Caja for just $77.00 per month, as opposed to $190.00 per month on our own. A nice bit of savings.

So, after our time at immigration, we hopped a cab and went to the ARCR where we joined up and got the information for joining La Caja under their umbrella.

It's a very helpful bunch of folks and when they heard our story of what we needed to get done to enroll in La Caja in the first place, they all looked at each other and the general conclusion was that our main La Caja office in Ciudad Quesada is the hillbilly capital of La Caja offices.

They gave us useful information on how to exchange our money and good advice on which bank to use, and so with more information and some introductory letters we were off to the bank.

Line I

Our first appointment down in San Jose was at the immigration office,
where we met Manyane, the very helpful assistant here in Costa Rica for the firm that took care of our immigration paperwork.

Here's some of what we needed to get to the offices to get the process rolling: Certified copy of our birth certificates; a criminal background check; a certified copy of our marriage license; proof of bank accounts in the United States and Costa Rica.

Those, of course, needed to be translated into Spanish and then put into the system. It took nearly a year before we got the official stamp of approval, and then we had to go to San Jose to get things taken care of.

We arrived at the offices at 9:30 a.m. and met two other couples that Manyane had been working with as well. I spoke the second-most Spanish of the group, so Lucy was the main translator for everyone. Around 11:15, we were told that we all could now go stand in line outside of the main office.

Around noon-ish, Lucy was called back to the offices, while I waited. About 15 minutes after Lucy was done, it was my turn.

It was pretty straight forward: Make sure the name is spelled correctly, the date of birth is fine, etc.

After that, a printout was made and this was our official certificate-in-waiting until our cards were done.

We had two options for our cards: Return to the office in San Jose in 12 business days to collect them, or pony up 3,500 colones (around $7.00) each and the cards (or carnets as they're called here) would be at our local post office in La Fortuna in three days. No brainer on that call.

We now have our cards. However, Lucy's card is good for two years, while mine is only good for one. The reason? No one really knows. This way, I suppose, I'll have an idea of what it takes to renew next July

Back home. . .

After a week down in the city, much taken up by appointments, etc., we're back home here and it's good to be back. We're heading into the slower part of the year, so not fully booked all of the time, which is a nice break. We had a couple of nights where we had two and three tree houses open (the first time that's happened since last year at this time) though starting tomorrow, we're fully booked for about the next two weeks. Then, it will be somewhat sporadic with some nights full, others not so much, until late November, early December, when we'll be back to full capacity, most likely, until August/September of 2012.

Actually had some folks book five nights for Christmas--2012--already.