Mama and baby. . .

Here's a picture one of our guests took of a sloth and its baby hanging out in the trees near our house here at Tree Houses. Not really sure how many times sloth give birth a year, but we seem to find our fair share of moms and kidlets around the place year-round.

The babies will hang onto the moms for quite a while, as we've seen some that are pretty good-sized, still clinging.

Mom does most of the climbing, with the youngster wrapped around the front. Occasionally, the kid will venture out a few feet on its own to get some leaves before retreating back to mom. Once the babe is a certain age, it's on its own and pretty much stays to itself--until mating time.

There's always something. . .

About six months ago, Miguel and I were working at one of the tree houses and there were a swarm of little insects that were going in and out of some of the perling. Miguel said we needed to spray some of the garlic bug spray in there, so I got it and got ready to spray. Before I did, I asked him if these bug bit or stung.

"No, no, no, Mark. No pican," was his reply, with pican being the word for bite.

I gave them a good hosing and surprise, surprise, they did bite and I got a few stings, much to Miguel's delight.

The other day, when I was getting ready to take down a termite nest near where we are building the new rancho, I ran into a swarm of the buggers, getting them stuck in my hair and doing a funky hoe-down in the woods to get them off. Miguel wasn't around, so I told him I couldn't reach the termite nest, and would he please go and do it.

He gave me a look of disgust (basically calling me a weenie with his eyes) and stomped back into the jungle to take care of the critters.

Fortunately for Miguel, bummer for me, he spotted the bugs just before they got to him and he came jogging out saying we needed to stay away from there. After about 30 seconds, I lost it and started rolling and Miguel realized I had tried to set him up.

Still not sure how we're going to get to the termite nest.

Construction finished!

The other day, Palomino, Marlon and Norman finished up the Hummingbird tree house, so both of the tree houses are finished. We have had guests in the Monkey tree house, but not the Hummingbird, as that's probably about 2-3 days away from being ready for guests. We're still waiting for one of the beds, and that's kind of a key factor for a hotel.

No pictures, sorry, as with our computer down and out, we can't upload any new ones. The computer we're using wouldn't be able to handle the images, so we're in a holding pattern.

Palomino and the lads will be back soon, as they're going to start work on a rancho, so we can serve breakfast to the guests there. Currently we do breakfast at the house. However, when all five tree houses are full, we're going to be hard-pressed to fit everyone around the patio here at the house; hence the rancho. Another added bonus: with no tables to gather around the house, we'll have a bit more privacy with more folks gathering at the rancho, which will be about 100 feet or so from the house.

Now there are three. . .

Si-Si is no longer at Tree Houses. The friendly pooch (the white one on the left) is winging her way to Providence, where one of the owner's father is going to adopt Si-Si.

Si-Si came to us with three puppies after she and her pups were abandoned by a family when they moved house. We found homes for the pups and were thinking Si-Si was going to be a permanent addition to the hotel, when the opportunity came to let her go to Massachussetts (Providence airport is closer than Boston for the folks adopting Si-Si).

It took a bit to get everything coordinated (vaccinations, paperwork, etc.) before Si-Si was taken to the airport for the flight up to Providence. It probably cost around $600 or so for everything, including the plane ride.

So now, it's Mini-B (center) and Bejuca (right) and Sweetie (not pictured). We're pretty sure that the brood will grow at some point as there are a lot of strays around.

The Blue Morpho

There is probably a scientific name for this critter, but we know it as a Blue Morphy Butterfly, and it's one of the more striking butterflies that we see down here. In the sunlight, the blue is extremely bright when it's fluttering about, and it never fails to draw oohs and aahs from the guests. This photo, taken by a guest, is of an older morpho, as the blue is a little darker and duskier than the ones that are flying about. Pretty sure this critter was near the end of its lifespan.

Bamboo. . .

Did you ever wonder where your, or your friend's, bamboo floors come from? Probably not here, but still this is bamboo. There are quite a few bamboo stands on the trail to the waterfall and they can grow up to 50-plus feet high. I'm sure that all three of you know that bamboo is not an actual tree, but part of the grass family. The inside is hollow, and when one of these buggers fall across the trail we have to head down with a machete to cut up the pieces to clear the way. Of course, being hollow, snakes really like to hang out inside of fallen bamboo, which always makes things interesting. Did I mention we take machetes with us?

From inside and up high in the sloth tree house. . .

This is a guest picture taken from the loft of the Sloth Tree House. Yes, there is a tree running through the house. Great idea, though very tough for maintenance, as a tree constantly is growing and when the wind blows, it sways and that means getting up on the roof every six to eight months to keep the water from coming down. We wrap towels around the base of the tree to soak up the water that comes