Up For Grabs IV

The mites are not contagious, and he wasn't mal-nourished (despite the upchuck in the car). It will be a couple of weeks with some IV treatment and antibiotics and he will be as good as new (hopefully).

This is a part of Costa Rica that is not hidden, but still is a problem. Dogs are not considered pets, and are left to their own devices, for most of the part.

Yep, you guessed it, this fellow (age 2) is up for adoption. Shipping and handling are included and you will have a great one for a long time.

Up For Grabs III

Here is a side view. This fellow was infested with mites (which according to the vet, every dog has, it just depends on their immune system if they can fight them off or not).

Unfortunately for this fellow, he didn't have the system and most of his fur was gone and he was scabbed up all over the place.

There was pus coming out of his eyes, as well, but he was not mean or surly. His tail was wagging happily.

Up For Grabs II

This is the pooch. An extremely sweet fellow. The art department was actually able to coax him into the car (where he promptly lost his breakfast of rice and vegetables in the back of the car).

When he showed up here at the hotel, the rice and veggies were all over the back seat, but he was wagging his tail and happy to be shown some attention.

After a quick clean-up, he was whisked away to the vet to get the necessary treatment, which is plentiful. Unfortunately, the spots are not natural.

Up For Grabs I

The art department does most of the errands, getting out and about and paying the bills to keep everything solvent.

There are a lot of small towns around, and the art department passes through a lot of them on the way to/from the errands.

In El Tanque, however, it seems to be as if that is a magnet for the art department and lost pooches. That is where Akila came to us from and the other day, there was another pooch.

This other pooch, who has not yet been named, is recovering at the vet's. It will likely be there for a while as he was in pretty poor shape.

Yes, it's been a while. . .

As we have been busy with a full load of guests and Ma and Pa Eidson have come down for a regularly-scheduled visit.

The Eidson patriarchs have been enjoying the nearly 100-degree swing (below zero in Wisconsin, 90-plus here) since they arrived.

No promises, but we will try to keep you up to date, though now that 2/3 of the loyal followers are here, it may not happen frequently.

Bird time. . .

Which is the Collared Arakari. A cousin to the toucan that comes to visit the rancho and various tree houses several times per week.

This is why we love the hotel and its environs.

Aaaahhhh II

"Thank you so much for your help, what can we bring down to you?"

That question actually happens pretty frequently, and some folks actually follow up.

Since we can get booked up six months to a year ahead of time, you will, naturally, build up an online relationship with folks.

It is always very nice for folks to ask, and the one thing that we always like to have here is doggie treats for the brood. They are kind of expensive down here, and not the best quality, and the pooches always like the fresh stuff.

Aaaaahhhh, I

At times, it is great to vent and whine about the difficult goobers that we get here at the hotel.

The goobers do make for interesting reading, which is why their stories are posted here and we remember them. The goobers are a small part of the folks we meet.

Then there are the great and fantastic folks that show up here and have a blast and we really enjoy getting to meet them. Rightly, or wrongly, the goobers are mostly remembered for being, well, goobers.

There were two Greek gentlemen that came to stay with us just shortly after we started managing the hotel. Very nice, very polite folks. They were on a round-the-world-trip that started in their home country of Greece, and after their time with us, they went down south to Ecuador, to the Galapagos, then to Tahiiti and up to Hawaii where they met their families. After some time in the 50th state, they all went back to Greece.

Every year since we have been managing the hotel, we get a warm holiday greeting from the two fellow from Greece. Sometimes the e-cards are full of hope from Greece, though lately, not so much.

This is why our job is the best around.

After exhaustive research

By the art department on the Web, this is as close to identifying Akila's lineage as we're going to get.

At first, it seemed like she was a Min-Pin and German Shepard mix, though that is really odd and, let's face it, a German Shepard and a Min-Pin is most likely not going to end well for the Min-Pin mother.

The coloring is the same as pictures that we have found, though upon further research, it seems like a beagle mixed with a min-pin makes more sense, so that is what we have settled upon.

This is not an actual picture of Akila, though this is really close to what the art department came up with.

For those of you curious enough, just come on down and visit!

This family. . .

Has been showing up pretty much daily for the past two weeks at the rancho.

It's the agouti and there is a family of at least three or four that live behind the rancho and scramble down regularly to scoop up fruit and scurry back into the jungle.

It's a reason why we keep the pooches in the house at breakfast: We don't want them scaring off the agoutis at breakfast. Our dogs couldn't catch them (the agoutis are much faster than the dogs) though we don't want them to be scared away by Bejuca, Mini-B and Akila.

Why do you charge for children?

A simple reason. We are a small hotel, and children are prone to night-time accidents.

Recently, we had a great family that stayed with us for six nights, and they had kids from ages 5 to 9.

All of them were the nicest and sweetest kids you would love to meet. Unfortunately, at least two, and probably all three of them, had nocturnal issues.

Sheets were changed daily and a lot of disinfectant was used to clean up the tree house daily.

Again, they kids were very nice, as were the parents, but in a smaller, enclosed space, a little whiz goes a long, long, long way, unfortunately.

So, yes, we do charge for children.

Feliz Ano Nuevo!!

Yep, the editorial department is making a late push to equal/surpass the blog entries from 2012. Not going to happen, and we are not going to inflate our numbers.

Suffice to say, we are still having a hoot and a holler down here and enjoying the job (for the most part--aside from the yahoos; which are few and far between).

In 2013 we had some friends and family down here and we are looking forward to more visits in 2014.

We have been down here for pretty close to 5 years. Guests always ask us how long we are going to stay. We always tell them that whenever we get tired and don't run out of the house/office to see monkeys, sloths, toucans, armadillos, etc., then it is time to move on.

That isn't likely to happen anytime soon, though you never can tell with the winds of change and ownership. Hence: Get yourselves down to Costa Rica in the next year or three.

Have a great and prosperous new year!