The Rufus Mot-Mot

One of the more striking birds that we get to see down here at the hotel. The tail breaks into two pieces and looks like two ping-pong paddles.

The Rufus is larger than most of the mot-mots that we see down here, and is always great to come across.

A cousin to the toucan. . .

If you look up high and in the middle, you'll see a Collared Arakari, a cousin to the Toucan. These birds swoop down regularly for breakfast at the rancho and will make appearances regularly at the tree houses in the mornings as well.

Chacalaca!

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This bird has a name that sounds like something from the SyFy channel (in Spanish, that would be the Canal SyFy).

The Chacalaca, in Spanish, loves to scoot around until it needs to take flight, so we are fortunate enough to see it around here regularly.

They are larger birds that shoot around, mostly on the ground, until they feel/hear the pooches, then they take flight.

The Chacalacs can kick up some serious noise when they want.

Just cool. . .

This little dude was spotted around and was just too cool to pass up. Non-lethal, just fun to watch hop and jump around.

Growing up. . .

Lucy came upon Akila one day when she was driving back from Fortuna. Akila was just a wisp of a pup, and was hop-scotching between traffic on the main road between us and Fortuna.

Lucy pulled over, dashed into traffic and pulled Akila out. Akila was tiny, weighing 1.2 kilograms at the time, and could barely walk from one end of our house to the next.

Now, Akila is a maniac and tears around the grounds.

FYI: Her name comes from a kilo (2.2 pounds) when we found her, though since she is a girl, in Spanish, there is an "a" on the end of her name, hence Akila (just a bit over a kilogram). She has long-since outgrown her name.

Akila. . .

Here is Akila. Lucy pulled Akila out of traffic on a busy road 2 years ago and she has been living here ever since.

Akila is 3 years old now and is just a wild one when in the jungle.

Her underbite endears her to everyone that visits Tree Houses.

Relaxing. . .

Just for a brief moment. Coquita is growing rapidly, and sometimes is very, very mellow. Coquita is one of nine pups from a litter. The family dropped off all nine at the vet, and we chose Coquita, who was the runt of the litter at the time. The other day, Lucy was at the vet's office, and someone brought in one of Coquita's siblings. Unfortunately, Coquita's sister was much smaller, had lost a lot of fur and was all-around not as healthy as Coquita, who is more than chunky and happy here at the hotel. If you look close at the paws and ears (especially those gi-normous ears) Coquita isn't even close to done growing. Still, she thinks that she is a lap dog and will jump up on us at any time.

This is Coquita. . .

And she has grown a bunch in the past few months. She is about 5 months old now and loves to chew on anything that isn't completely, absolutetly and firmly nailed-bolted-screwed down. In the past couple of months, she has doubled in size, and she will double again (at least) before she is done.