Swaying away. . .

The newest tree house here, the Yiguirro, now has what we like to call around here, a "Hammock Garden."

Under the tree house, there are now two hammocks where guests can hang out, relax and enjoy the jungle without getting soaked when it's raining.

Despite how easy the Skipper and Gilligan made it seem, hammocks are not for the coordination-challenged, as you can easily flip out of them if you just throw yourself in. Hence, we have the hammocks lower to the ground for the hammock-challenged folks.

More birds (starting to see the theme?)

By now, all three of the loyal readers should be able to identify the three birds bellying up to the feed table at breakfast. Luckily for us, it never gets old watching the critters come around.

Birding

It's not too terribly difficult to become fascinated with the little feathered folks that come down daily. No matter how many times you see the Red-Legged Honey Creeper, it seems to change colors depending on how the sun is hitting it. Very colorful and active birds, they're always fun to watch flitting back and forth between the fruit on the stumps and the water in the hummingbird feeders.

Frog, again. . .

Told you that it warranted more than one picture. Here you can see a bit of the orange and blue on the underside of the frog, which is what makes it a favorite of guests.

If it weren't for the eyes and the underside, most people would walk by it and not even see it.

We're still not sure how Rolando can find them in the dead of night and bring them out for guests.

FYI: These frogs do not secrete any toxins or poisons, so it's OK to pick them up, but for the others, you should always check with a guide before you do so.

Just too cool for one pic. . .

This is a Gaudy Tree Frog. It's a basic green, except for the bright red eyes. On the underside, though, it has some great blue and orange colors. This little bugger is on a lot of travel book covers for Costa Rica and what a lot of folks are hoping to see while they are here. Luckily, Rolando (our night watchman and night-time guide) can find the buggers based on their call at night and he heads into the jungle to bring one out for guests whenever he can.

Skating with the dorks. . .

Then, of course, when the rain stops and the sun comes out, that present an entirely different challenge.

There is ceramic tile in and outside of the house here and once it finally stopped raining and the sun came out, everything was slicker than goose gizzards (to paraphrase Cooter from the Dukes of Hazzard).

The walls inside and out were sweating as were the tiles and it made for some treacherous treading at times.

Mini-B went bolting for the front door when some guests rang the doorbell and she couldn't stop, skidding about 6 feet before banging herself into the screen door. No injuries, but very entertaining.

Another time, the phone in the house rang and we were at opposite ends of the house, and we were pretty much slipping and sliding to get inside to answer the call.

We would like to think that Mini-B (and us) learned a lesson, but sadly, that isn't the case.

Maximum saturation. . .

We are coming out of the "Green Season" or what most folks call the rainy season. However, the past four to five days have been much wetter than normal. It rained for nearly four straight days, and everything was reaching maximum saturation levels.

The grounds were soaked through and we were worried about high winds (especially considering the cyclone that came through in September) that would bring down a lot of trees that were weakened at the roots from all of the rain.

This was very abnormal for our area at any time of the year. It was more like the Northwest, where it will drizzle all day, every day, for six months. Typically here, it will cloud up and rain for an hour or two and then clear up. Not this time.

Luckily, we escaped any falling trees, though it made for some slippery footing around the place once the rain finally stopped.

It doesn't get much more jurassic than this. This is an iguana, which we see pretty often down this way, though not so much on the ground. This fellow was getting long in the tooth (it had lost a good portion or its tail which is a primary defensive unit) and was hanging out on the ground.

These critters can move pretty quickly, surprisingly so at times, and their tails can whip around really fast when they want (and have them).

We are guessing that the longer the waddle (or whatever you call the baggy under-the-throat-thing) the older the iguana is.

They really like to get up high in a tree and sun themselves, and just take in the sights.

You said what??

On occasion, there are some head-scratching questions from guests and potential guests.

This was one of the better exchanges of late:

Guest: We would like to stay with you on 23, 24 and 25. Please let us know your availability.

Us: Which month are you coming? Please let us know and we can tell you our availability.

Guest: We are coming on 23, 24 and 25, or we can come on 28, 29 and 30. Please let us know.

Us: It does appear that you're asking for November or December of this year, and we are completely full for those days during in November and December.

Guest: Why didn't you say so?

A mouthful and then some. . .

This is a great bird, from the turkey family. If you look closely enough, you can see perhaps part of a waddle on another bird that finds its way to Thanksgiving tables every year in the U.S.

When you hear it, it does warble like a turkey, though it is just a fraction of the size of the birds that we carve up every year.

This is the Montezume Oropendula, and they're a blast to see flitting from tree to tree and warbling like a turkey. Their tail feathers are a bright yellow and when they're flying away from you (which is most often the case) you can see the great colors.

Ya Yellow-Bellied. . .

This is one of our favorite birds--particularly for its name. It's a very striking bird (all yellow and black) but its name invokes a time gone by, when you called someone out.

This is a Yellow-Bellied Siskin and it is jet black with bright yellow around the wings and on the underside (hence the name).

It's great to spot these birds in the morning flitting around among the more common ones, as we don't get to see them all of the time.

Creepy-time

The Red-Legged Honey Creeper is one of the more colorful birds around. I suppose it gets part of its name from its legs, naturally.

This is a picture of a male creeper, and they are just a striking blue, nearly luminescent. The females are just a regular green, though with the same red legs. When the sun hits the male birds just right, they seem to glow.

The creepers are also the only other bird that we have seen down here that will also eat from the hummingbird feeders that we put out, as well as the fruit.

Tanger time. . .

The Blue-Gray Tanager is a great little bird. It looks like pool chalk, and is smaller than a lot of the birds that come down to feed, but it holds its ground very well. It is somewhat ferocious and will chase off the larger birds (Clay-Colored Robins, Kiskadees, etc.) when it wants to eat.

Bird time. . .

This is the Blue-Crowned Motmot. One of the larger birds that we see regularly down this way. The motmots come down fairly regularly in the morning when the guests are eating breakfast and are always a crowd pleaser, as they are larger than most of the birds and their tails swish back and forth, like a pendulum. They have long tails that split at the end with round feathers that look like miniature tennis racquets.

We're back! At least for now. . . There are plenty of excuses: health, sanding and varnishing the tree houses, general malaise. . . For the three loyal followers, we're back for the time being and will attempt to put up some news you don't need and pictures that you will hopefully find more interesting than the accompanying words.

Since the last post and our anniversary, we have been to Las Vegas to see some old friends (alas, we did not win enough money to retire and have someone else write the blog); turned three tree houses inside out with sanding and varnishing; planted a machete into a shin; discovered a bot-fly in the skin and have managed to have a good time.

Now, we're on the cusp of the busy season here when we'll be chock-a-bloc with guests and it's also great bird-watching time, so we have some pics of the birds to put up in the next few days (until the art department rebels once again!)