The real boss. . .

Bejuca is the real jefe here at Tree Houses, though she doesn't act like it most of the time. Part Black Lab, part Rottweiler, she really is a gentle soul (unless you try to take food away from her).

She pretty much lets Mini-B get away with whatever she wants, until Bejuca gets to a certain point, and then she'll put Mini-B in her place.

This is from a recent trip down to the waterfall at the end of the 3-kilometer trail here at Tree Houses and Bejuca was just relaxing by the water.

Awwwww. . .

The Art Department has come through! Now if we can get enough break in the weather to get a decent Internet connection, we can add some belated pics.

This is Mini-B (short for Mini-Bejuca). She's the noisy one of the bunch, and likes to let everyone know that she's here around the house and the hotel.

For all of her bravado, she's a real weenie when it comes to the rain and thunder and lightning, burying herself under the pillows and refusing to eat when it's storming outside.

Singin' (or cursin') in the rain. . .

Yesterday, the skies opened up and dropped several inches of rain in about 30 minutes. Luckily, we had cleaned out the gutters a couple of days before, though they were still overflowing. I went outside to check on the gutters and the drainage ditches about 10 minutes after it started dumping.

One of the ditches, that runs under the sidewalk/steps up to the house from the driveway, was blocked, and there was a nice, flowing stream of water about 2 inches deep running across the stairs.

I pulled out a metal pole that we use to clear blockages and after getting soaked for a couple of minutes, went to get a shovel, as I figured that there was something much larger stuck in there, or a lot of mud that had washed down. After another few minutes in the downpour, Lucy came out to see what I was doing. Slogging in the rain and the muck, I still couldn't get the blockage cleared.

At last, Lucy spotted the problem, after I had shoveled more dreck out of the ditch: There was a good-sized rock, about 15 pounds or so, that had washed down and was plugging up the hole. I reached down, plucked the rock out and the water shot through like it was supposed to. Just wish Lucy had come out earlier, and spotted the rock.

Lessons learned. . .

Normally, I'm not allowed anywhere near the laundry room as my folding skills (accusations of lack of interest have been bandied about) are constantly called into question.

On occasion, though, I do fold clothes, particularly when guests have a load of wash to do later in the evenings.

We have two standard washers and dryers here at the hotel, just like most folks have at home in the States. Hence, we can get a fair amount into them. Sometimes, even those aren't enough when a large family drops off their soiled articles.

Though I don't do it often, and am hardly an expert, there are some things that have been learned:

** Sequins, or even plastic stuff on shirts, drawers, etc., are very, very hot right out of the dryer.


** Hats off to the folks at department stores that can fold dress shirts so nicely, and don't leave them looking like they were run over by a bunch of bikers--it's just not possible.

** Trying to fold one-piece bathing suits is like trying to put the candy back into a pinata--It just isn't going to come out nicely.

** Hammocks are for lazing about and taking naps. . . THEY ARE NOT FOR WEARING.

It's that time of year, again. . .

When a thunderstorm will blow through for an hour or so in the afternoons.

This is torture for Mini-B, who will be playing, going all-out one minute, and then when the first rumble sounds, she will scamper for the bed and bury herself under the pillows.

She won't eat, she won't want to play and she doesn't want to even move.

Once the storm is over, though, she's ready to go and acts like nothing has happened.

When Mini-B wandered up here, she was (just about four years ago this month) she was most likely on her own for several weeks, and had to survive on her own during the storms and rainy season.

For the first few years, she was just fine, didn't let anything bother her, let alone keep her off of her food.

Now, however, she is a bundle of nerves at the first sign of a storm (even if it's clouds). There are no doggy-shrinks down here that we know of, so Mini-B will have to muddle through on her own.

Disco fever. . .

A few weeks ago, one of the restaurants near us added a disco on the second level.

Being the sedentary, mid-40-folks that we are, we laughed it off and thought it was a folly (then again, we aren't up on the trends and tend to think Facebook is the tool of the devil). . .

However, the disco has taken off and is drawing folks from all around the area. Then again, the only discos around are in Fortuna (30 minutes away) and in Ciudad Quesada (also 30 minutes away) so folks around here must be hankering for a place to shake the money maker.

Some younger guests went there the other night and just ate in the restaurant, while the disco was bopping and moving on the second floor. They thought about heading up, but decided to head back to the hotel for some rest as they were heading to various parts south in the country.

Easier said that done, as parking there was first in, last out. They were in front of three other cars and considering how packed the disco was, it took about 45 minutes to an hour for someone to locate the owners of the cars so they could get out. Who would have thought a disco would be all the rage here in this quiet part of Costa Rica?

Monkey alert. . .

The other day, two guests walked down to the river and the waterfall.

Now, there is a family of about seven or eight howler monkeys that hang out down there for about 5 to 6 days and then they come up here to the hotel for 2 to 3. They have babies now, so they are a little protective.

They don't attack or come onto the ground (ala "Congo") or anything like that, however you do not want to stand directly underneath the monkeys. It's been said before, and it will be said again: The monkeys know exactly what they are doing and folks have had to take an extra shower.

These guests were sitting by the river, and noticed that branches were falling down upon them. The wife joked that it was monkeys and they should be careful; the husband thought she was nuts.

The wife was correct.

Luckily, though, they escaped cleanly and were treated to a show of the howlers jumping around from branch to branch with their babies.

Ciao, Bella Verona. . .

Bella Verona, the wonderful Italian restaurant just a few miles up the road from us, shuttered its doors recently. The family opted to open up a restaurant in Ciudad Quesada, about 25 minutes from us. Quesada is a much larger city and the new restaurant, Italianissimo, is also much larger.

Guilliani and his son, Andrea, are running the restaurant and since it has opened, business has been booming. Patricia, the matron of the family, is going to open up Bella Verona on a limited basis to Tree Houses guests in the next couple of weeks.

We had some time a few days ago and were able to get up to Italianissimo to check it out and the place is gorgeous with several rooms, an expanded menu and wine selection.

Happy Mother's Day!

To Ma Eidson and Ma Aviles in Wisconsin and California, respectively. Also to Lucy down here, with her daughters Mini-B and Bejuca.

A happy day to all!

At last, license in hand. . .

Again, waiting at window No. 5, Lucy was the first to get her license. . . Luckily she noticed that the fellow at window No. 5 spelled her name incorrectly, so she was able to get it fixed then and there (if she would not have caught it, it would have been a massive process to get it changed later on).

About 30 minutes later, I was finally called, again, to window No. 5 and after the picture, my license was spit out of the printer about 5 minutes later, with everything spelled correctly.

Now, we are licensed to drive in Costa Rica with no issues.

The licenses are good for three years. If, by chance we let the license expire, then we're up the creek as we will have to take the written test (in Spanish) and the driving test. Can only imagine what the lines for that will be like (ugh).

Then, it was on to. . .

The actual office itself, the day after our exams. . . There are doctor's offices nearby the Cosevi, but considering there is a 1- to 2-hour wait for your blood type to be figured out, then more time for the physical, we opted to break it into two days. . .

It turned out to be a good thing, as we got to the office at 7:45 a.m. and were promptly shown to a shorter line for foreign applicants. We figured it was going to be smooth sailing, but the 30 or 40 Costa Ricans that were in another line, all moved through before it was time to open up the gate for the rest of us.

Step 1: Climb up the stairs, show our U.S. license with our Costa Rican residency card (three copies of each). A nice fellow looked them over, slapped some stamps on them, gave us back the copies and told us to head back downstairs to wait at window No. 5.

Window No. 5 wasn't moving quickly at all. This was where another fellow asked us if we wanted to get a motorcycle license as well, our address, etc., etc. Then he stamped some more papers, gave us a receipt and sent us off to the Bank of Costa Rica, where we had to pony up 4,000 colones to pay for the license.

This was only about a 5-minute walk, and I unluckily caught the fellow at the bank that does this on a coffee break. About 30 minutes later, I was back at window No. 5, about 10 deep by this time, waiting to return to show that I had paid for my license. . .

The first hurdle. . .

Is the medical exam. This can be done at any doctor's office that has the right forms, etc. This consisted of height, weight, blood pressure and some whacking of the extremities with a rubber mallet to test the reflexes.

There is also a blood test to see what your type is.

The exam itself took about 10 minutes each and most of that time was taken up with the doctor filling out the forms and asking us various questions. . .

Back from San Jose. . .

And yes, we do know the way, for the most part, only getting lost when we couldn't tell the cab driver where to go.

Anyway, besides taking in a movie, eating ourselves silly and just relaxing, we did get away to get our Costa Rican drivers license.

For the first-time applicants in Costa Rica, the only place to do this is at the main Cosevi office in San Jose.

Of course, there are hoops to jump through. . .

Trivia time. . .

In honor of Ma and Pa Eidson's pilgrimage to Cooperstown, N.Y., and the Baseball Hall of Fame, there is a bit of trivia (which two out of three of our loyal readers aren't allowed to guess):

Which is the most popular exhibit at Cooperstown:

A) Babe Ruth
B) Lou Gehrig
C) Hank Aaron
D) Barry Bonds
E) Hideo Nomo

Hitting the highways. . .

While we will be toiling in the bureaucracy of the driving license department in San Jose, Ma and Pa Eidson will be cavorting in Cooperstown, N.Y., the site of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Cooperstown is one of the highlights that I would like to see before I kick the bucket. Since my parents never took me and my brother to Disneyland (sniff, sniff and messages of sympathy will be read, and appreciated, in the comment section).

Nonetheless, Lucy and I will still hope to make it to Cooperstown one day to check out perhaps the greatest museum in the States.

The red tape charge. . .

We're going to be heading out for a couple of days and may or may not update the blog while we're gone.

Our main objective (other than seeing movies--The Avengers is out down here ahead of the U.S. release and it was very, very good!!) is to get our Costa Rican driver's licenses.

In theory, we just show up, get an eye exam, blood test and then present our valid Hawaii licenses and that should be it. However, nothing is ever that simple down here, and what should be a 2-hour process could very easily turn into a half- or full-day outing. If we can find the right people to help us out, it will speed the process. If we don't, we'll return with tales of woe and bureaucracy.

The Avengers. . .

Very cool movie. Any thoughts of going to see it, do it. It was very enjoyable from start to end. Kind of nice that it opened up down here and in other parts of the world before the U.S. release.

All the characters meshed well with each other, good dialogue, action, comedy, etc. One cliff-hanger that I believe won't be answered until the sequel (and with the money this thing has been taking in, there will probably be at least one more) involves a somewhat minor character that hopefully will be brought to light in previews for the next movie or in the sequel itself.

That's all, not going to give away anything, just hoping to see it again tomorrow.

Nature's battle

The other night, while I was walking around to close up the laundry room, I noticed a big bamboocha cockroach scuttling around on the tiles.

The big bamboochas are the ones that eat their little brother/sister cockroaches, so no big deal.

I was just going to scuff it off the deck and into the gutter so the bamboocha wouldn't freak out any guests that may come up, when all of a sudden, a lightning-fast critter shot out and scooped up the bamboocha.

It was a cane toad. The cane toads can get to be about as large as a fist and they are the homeliest critters you'll see (whereas the bamboochas are just plain ugly). The cane toad took a couple of audible chunks out of the bamboocha and then backed off. . . The bamboocha was on its back and flipping its legs around when the cane toad came in for another chomp and finished it off.

This goes in all the time, of course, but it was the first time that I had witnessed the life and death of the pequeno mundo first hand.

Rough day. . .

Yesterday, we had to let an employee go for theft. This was our first experience in doing something like this, and it took a lot of talking, mulling, waffling on everyone's part. However, the majority decision was that if the employee stole from us, it was time to go.

What made it more difficult, was that it was the son of our best and most trusted employee. Needless to say, the father took it hard and we spent a lot of time with him telling him that we didn't blame him or hold it against him. No idea if that was much of a consolation, but probably not.

No one denied the theft, tried to justify it, just admitted it. It was not a fun day at all.