Happy 49th Anniversary!

To Ma and Pa Eidson. Of those 49 years, 45 have been, of course, completely blissful.

A tardy post, though we have had spotty Internet access and been just swamped down this way.

The folks celebrated with breakfast and dinner out today, and are planning a return trip here to Costa Rica next year. First off, though, is a train trip from Wisconsin to Washington, D.C., and back in a couple of weeks.

Next year is the big 50th anniversary, and everyone is invited. Just head on over to Madison and we'll find a place for you to crash and enjoy the festivities!

Really, this is how you vacation?

The other night, when Rolando--our trusty night watchman--was off, we had some guests that didn't close the gate when they drove back.

This is not a difficult task; we give the guests with cars a remote (it's a garage-door opener) that opens and closes the gate. You press the button once to open the gate, and then you press it again to close it. It's not rocket science, but it is nonetheless amazing to find out how many people cannot figure it out.

Anyway, some yahoos left the gate open, and around midnight, Lucy got up and decided to check on the gate. Sure enough, the gate was open. She closed it, and heard something on the side of the house.

She walked around and saw a mother and her teen son sitting in a car. They were North American, and had apparently driven in (despite the sign that says "No Vacancy" out front) and parked the car. The disheveled mother asked Lucy if we had any rooms for the night, and we did not. Then the mother asked if she and her son could sleep in the car in our parking lot. Hmmmmmmmmmmm, sorry, but you need to move on. They looked a little shifty and they went on their sleepy and merry way to Fortuna, just up the road about 25 minutes, where there are more than 100 hotels.

Very odd.

Where, oh where. . .

Is Cooter? We could use a good mechanic down this way.

Cars are expensive down here (a $2,000 beater in the States runs around $7,000 or $8,000 down here) and there is always something wrong with the cars, due to the rough terrain, etc.

We've been having issues with a 1998 Pathfinder down this way, and we thought we had a good mechanic, as he speaks English and is a genuinely nice fellow.

That was until he got ahold of the Pathfinder and in addition to fixing what needed to be fixed, he messed up several other things.

It went from being no cost for the fixes to six or seven times the amount quoted for the "quick fix" and now it's just a big mess.

Hence, I did what any red-blooded goober would do: Turned over the phone to my lovely, fluent-in-Spanish wife, who promptly bawled him out for dragging things out and running up the costs. It wasn't too long after that call, that the owner of the shop called and tried to explain things, but he didn't get far as the lovely and talented Lucy told him to shut up with the technical stuff and have the car to us in two days--or else.

We're still figuring out the or else part, but there's a good chance the car will be back with us sooner than later.

There are various theories about mechanics here in Costa Rica, and none of them are good: shiftless, drunken thieves seems to be the kindest terms. All of which means, I need to buy the "Idiot's Guide to All Things Mechanical" on our next trip to the States, in order to hopefully avoid situations like this again.

Tooth tales. . . again. . .

Well, it seemed that the ear infection was the major cause of the tooth pain. However, after all was said and done, and a couple of fillings were put in, about four days later: more pain in the same back molar. Only with the cold stuff. Very strange.

Back to the dentist, who sent me to another dentist with a full X-ray machine for the mouth ($25.00 cost). Back to the dentist with the film, and then some filing down of said fillings--as well as using some type of aerosol cold spray that she shot onto my teeth to try and find the problem--and probably some enamel as well (no charge).

Finally, the dentist said she could not find anything wrong. I told her it was probably all in my head, and she assured me it likely wasn't (very nice lady). She copied the X-rays and e-mailed them up to the lone dentist in this prefecture (kind of like a state) that does root canals and specializes in the big-boy jobs.

One thing about down here: When they treat you for something (medically, be it an ear infection or tooth issue) once they charge you, that's it. If the problem persists, they take care of it afterward for no extra charge.

For those that are curious, the two small fillings that were done cost a total of $60.00 ($30.00 each). That is out-of-pocket, no co-pay, nada, just the straight price. Considering that gringos/haoles/gaijin pay a bit more for stuff down here, that is still a very good deal. The all-around X-ray of the teeth was $25.00.

Tales from the Odd Side III

The other day, we had a guest come through our gate, and two cars tailgate through the gate. The guests staying here, drove up to their tree house, the other two cars pulled in. At the time, I was setting up a zipline outing for some other guests at our house here.

The folks that pulled up in their cars hopped out and the one lady said, "Hi, I'm Kathy, and we have a reservation."

No worries, this happens occasionally when folks roll through the gates before hitting the intercom. We were waiting for one other tree house to check in, and the name on the reservation was for a Kathleen.

I grabbed the reservation form and started talking to the guests, who were starting to amass around the cars they came out of. Kathy said that their numbers had diminished and they only had seven people, not the original nine that they had reserved for. I looked at the reservation sheet and and it was for four people. Something was amiss.

Turns out, the two carloads of people were booked for the next three nights, not the day they showed up. They had the same first names, which didn't clear matters up any too quickly.

The folks were initially upset "We booked these three nights!"

However, when we went to the e-mail string, the confirmation and reminder said three other nights, starting on the next day.

We found the folks two rooms at the university's hotel about 5 minutes away, and they returned the next day to check in, and everything was fine.

I did toy with telling the folks that we had been expecting them yesterday when they did show up for real to check in, but figured that would be too mean-spirited.

So much for that diagnosis. . .

There's a reason I never went to medical school. Turns out blisters and rash on my arm weren't caused by poison ivy.

I was talking with Rolando and he took a look at it and knew what it was immediately. It took a few minutes for me to figure out what he was trying to tell me, but it's from a spider. It's not a bite, it's spidey-wiz, pee, urine.

I sure didn't see a spider, and don't remember getting wet, but Patricia confirmed Rolando's diagnosis the following day.

The best thing for it is achiote, which is a fruit that has red seeds and grows in the jungle. However, it is also ground into a paste and people use it for cooking. It's bright red/orange and really stands out when you put it on a pasty fellow's arm. It seems to have done the trick, as the rash is subsiding (though it's hard to see through the red paste).

Rain? What rain?

The other day we got some e-mails and phone calls from concerned guests. They had seen the news (mostly on CNN.com) about the flooding in Costa Rica.

They were worried that they would be unable to get to us. The rains have been lighter than normal this year (we're not approaching drought stage, but it is very dry) so we were a bit baffled, until we looked around on the Web.

The Caribbean Coast, usually very dry at this time of the year, had been hammered by rain and the rivers were overflowing and a lot of roads were closed. That is quite a ways from us, so we didn't know much about it. We had some guests that made it from the Caribbean side to us a couple of days ago, and they said it took a while, but they were able to make it over just fine.

Pilgrimage. . .

This is the scene from the main church in Cartago, Costa Rica.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people make the pilgrimage to the church for blessings by the Virgin of the Angels.

This main church is in Los Angeles, Cartago. There are a lot of towns called Los Angeles in Costa Rica, including one about 8 miles from Tree Houses.

Folks will flock to the churches in Los Angeles, and they mostly do it on foot. Some do it on their knees, traveling a long distance, while other go in cars, bikes or by horse.

It makes for some very congested roads around anyplace dubbed Los Angeles, though it is a really cool sight to see, all of the people walking, talking and celebrating.

This is what happens. . .

When you wander into the jungle to cut back some brush and don't pay attention. Yep, poison ivy, or something akin to that from down here.

A nice swath of irritated, blistered skin up and down my arm that burns and itches at the same time.

I've picked this up several times, and still cannot figure out what plant is exactly the cause of the irritation. I'm sure this won't be the last outbreak, unfortunately, as it takes about 30 to 45 minutes after contact before the irritation starts.

Cue music, cue lights. . .

Now, if they would have just cued the pictures. Unfortunately, we are missing the hoopla of the Summer Olympics down here, as SkyTV, which is the broadcast partner of the Olympics, has decided not to show it down here in Costa Rica.

The national channels do show some of the events--when there is a Costa Rican athlete involved. Considering that the entire Costa Rican team consists of 12 folks, the options are somewhat limited.

With an extremely slow Internet connection, we are reduced to reading about things after the fact (which kind of sounds like a lot of folks back in the States with NBC delaying a lot of the coverage). Unfortunately, we can't watch the streaming online events, as it is too choppy and cut up. Maybe in 2016, as we can't foresee any larger team from down here for the Winter Games.

Tales from the odd side II

Also once in a while, we will get folks that e-mail us with their business Web site or other things as their signature at the end of their e-mail. Always kind of fun to see who is coming here, as we have seen actor's bios, TV executives, etc., down here.

This happened recently with a couple from the States, and the Web site tag read "relaxation and therapy masseuse". . . That sounded intriguing, and so I clicked on the Web site to find that the woman was a relaxation therapist that specializes in all kinds of wellness therapy "for the body and spirit."

Interesting, but nothing earth-shattering. I figured it would be a nice conversation piece for breakfast one morning.

The couple never made it to breakfast. On two of the three nights they were here, we called them a taxi where they went to the local grocery store and brought back six to eight bottles per night (and it wasn't soft drinks). They never made it to breakfast, and on the last night they were here, they decided to have a screaming match from inside their tree house. Unfortunately, we didn't hear it here at our house, though the guests in the next tree house (about 75 yards away) heard it loud and clear at 4 a.m. and asked if everything was OK. They did make it up for their ride to the airport and no one was injured.

The driver that took them back to the airport had some interesting observations of the two, but since this is a family blog, we won't pass those along.

Tales from the odd side. . .

Occasionally, we get folks down here that aren't going to be happy, no matter what. That was the case about a week ago when a mother and her teen son came here for a couple of nights.

They were in the rana house, as per the request of her travel agent. They were from France and perhaps didn't feel comfortable making the reservation on their own, though the mother did speak good English.

After about 5 minutes in their tree house, the mother came storming up and demanded to be moved. Unfortunately, the other tree houses were booked and that was the one her travel agent asked for. We explained to her that we had no other houses available, and she huffed and puffed and stomped around and called her travel agent on her cell. The travel agent promptly called us, and while Lucy was talking with the agent, I was talking with the lady.

She demanded to be moved. We told her there was nothing that we could do. She demanded again, we politely told her that the other tree houses were booked for the next three days and this was what her travel agent requested.

She demanded more and looked to be on the verge of a breakdown with spittle flying and veins bulging. We felt badly for her, but when she started saying that the road noise was worse than Paris: "Worse than Paris! Do you understand??!! It's more noise than Paris!!" I had to duck inside, as I lost it and couldn't keep from laughing. Never a good thing with an upset guest.

She and her son ended up staying at a cookie-cutter resort in Fortuna, closer to the main road than we are. We did give her a refund as we ended up renting out the tree house to a nice family that came by shortly afterward, and they had a great time.

It was an ear infection. . .

Who would have thought? After a couple of trips to the dentist, she finally suggested that I had an ear infection and that was the cause of the tooth pain.

I relented and went to the doctor, and sure enough, it was an infection. The ear didn't hurt at all (until I was told I had an infection, of course) and then some antibiotics, drops and a shot in the tuckus cleared it right up.

The tooth is still a little tender, though I'm heading back to the dentist later this week to get the temporary filling replaced with a permanent one.