Time to vamoose. . .

For a week or so. . . We're heading out for our quarterly trip out of Costa Rica to renew our visa. . . This time, we're going a little further afield. We're flying from San Jose to Miami and then down to Buenos Aires. This trip serves two purposes: One, Lucy has never been to Argentina; I've been to Argentina, but not to Buenos Aires. Two, we can qualify for elite status by flying down to Argentina, which helps us out as we don't have to pay for checked bags and get to sneak into the bulkhead seats.

While in Buenos Aires, we're really hoping to get over to Montevideo, Uruguay, for at least a day as we have heard nothing but good things about the place. It's just a short ferry/hyrdofoil ride away from Buenos Aires, so it will be doable. Of course, we have to fit in some time to take a flamenco dancing class, or at least take in a show. Lucy claims I have no moves. I maintain that I'm way ahead of my time.

Either way, we should have a good time, though the blog is on hiatus until we return in early December sometime.

The birds. . .

We have been getting excellent bird sightings here at the hotel, particulary during breakfast. Whenever the first guests show up, we go and put out plantains or bananas on some feeders for the birds. We have had mott-motts, creepers, wood-peckers, fly-catchers, robins and others along with the usual gaggle of 20 to 30 hummingbirds.


Today, we had a great surprise. It was a aracari, which looks like a toucan, though its beak is more of a solid color of silver/blue than a toucan, which is a bright yellow. For the first time since we've been here, the aracaris came down and at first I thought it was a toucan, as it has the same shape and beak as a toucan.

The largest one swooped down and started scarfing up the plantain, while two smaller ones watched from the tree above. It was really cool to see and exciting, as I thought we were seeing a toucan. Just as close, though, so still pretty neat.

Slack-jawed, but still have all the teeth. . .

Went to the dentist here for the first time. . . A bit tardy, but who is in a hurry to go to the dentist? Went in for a cleaning and it was just like back home, little bit of pain, little bit of bleeding and a whole lot of spitting. . . Dr. Yorleny Mora did a fine job and only slightly scolded me for chewing tobacco. . . Even got my choice of cherry or mint polish at the end (cherry was pretty good, though I think I'll try the mint next time just for comparison's sake).

Doc Mora is about 20 minutes away from Tree Houses on the way to La Fortuna, kind of in the middle of nowhere. Not sure why she set up a shop there (she also has an office in San Jose about 3 hours away), but she speaks excellent English, so that's a major bonus for me, as I would hate to go in for a cleaning and come out with four extractions because of something I said.

A very nice perk, is that the doc's office is right next to an excellent little soda. After being scraped and de-plaqued, I went over to re-load the deposits on the pearly whites with combo No. 2: Hamburger with ham and cheese, lettuce, tomato and relish, with papas fritas (french fries) that came with a funky sauce of mayonnaise/sour cream/spicy ketchup (very good) and a glass of iced tea. All for 1,800 colones, or $3.

Makes it worthwhile to head to the dentist, methinks.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Huh?

It's that time of the year again. . . Though there's no snow down here, and likely never to be any, Christmas started rearing its commercial head a couple of weeks before Halloween down here. Christmas stores started sprouting up in the towns, and lights and other decorations at houses along the way soon followed. At first, we were scratching our heads, wondering what the sam hill was going on. Here at Tree Houses, we were going to wait until we got back from our trip in early December to decorate the place, as we didn't want to jump the gun. Then we started thinking with the herd: Hey, if everyone else is doing it, why can't we? After all, Thanksgiving is an American holiday and isn't celebrated down here. We're so ingrained in our thinking that it's jumping the gun to put up stuff before Thanksgiving. But no Thanksgiving on the calendar, no problem. Hence, we now have some Christmas decorations up and running here at the hotel. We've always liked doing the Christmas decorations, and since we've been in Hawaii the past eight holiday seasons, the lack of cold weather (previous exceptions noted with the cold weenies in the earlier entry), we figured let's get on board. So now we have some lights and some pine decorations up and going here at the hotel. Feliz Navidad!

Which brings to mind another question:

When should you put up your Christmas decorations?

Just before Thanksgiving.

Just after Thanksgiving.

Hey, if you've got 'em, light 'em!

Keep them up year-round -- make every day a holiday!

uggs

Are you kidding?

The other day, Keneth, Darleen and Lucy all complained about it. . . being cold. This is Costa Rica, folks. It doesn't get below 65 or so up here. Granted, it was raining at the time, but the way these folks were acting, you would have thought it was the Yukon in February. Everyone was bundling up and blowing on their hands to try to keep warm. I didn't notice any problems, and thought it was just about perfect. It wasn't even chilly, but rather a nice break from some of the heat and humidity that we sometimes get down here.

So that leads to another question:

When living in the tropics, what do you think of folks who say they are cold?

No big deal, it's all in the perception.

Maybe it was cold and you're being insensitive.

They all need medication.

ugg boots uk

Ma and Pa Eidson do Costa Rica. . .

For those keeping up with the blog after our long hiatus, you'll know that we were on an extended break for much of October, while my folks were down visiting for most of the month. We had a great time with them, and they had a great time down here as well.
These are pictures from when my folks took a tour of a coffee plantation near Alajuela, which is close to the San Jose Airport. The elevation and climate are just right for growing the coffee that most of you suck up at Starbucks, as this plantation, I believe, supplies exclusively to the Seattle coffeemaker.

In the groupe photo, from left: the guide, my dad, mom and Jody. Jody is part of Jody and Wilson's Transport, the best private transport company in all of Costa Rica. Shameless plug: If you come here and don't rent a car, then contact them for transportation to anyplace in the country.

Not-so warm and fuzzy. . .

Miguel, our handyman and jack of all trades here at Tree Houses, came across this little beauty while walking between the neighbor's property and ours. It's off the path where any tourist ever goes. I think this is about 2- to 3-feet long. And it's very poisonous. Miguel said that he was walking over cutting brush when he came across the bugger. I believe it's a fer-de-lance, though I can't remember what it is called in Spanish. Miguel took care of it and brought it down to show me, knowing I'm terrified of snakes. This is one of the more venomous snakes in the area, and if someone were to be bitten, they would need to get to a hospital within 15 to 20 minutes. The nearest hospital is about 20 minutes away. This is the first big snake we have seen here, and I hope it's the last. I have a cousin that is considering coming down here, so Tip, don't worry, it's fine, this was just an exception!

Warm and fuzzy. . .

The other day, we looked out at our gate on the road, and saw a gaggle of tourists out front, snapping away with their cameras. Sloth or monkey, we figured, as this often happens: a sharp-eyed drive spots something while driving past and stops to let everyone get an up-close look. It was a sloth, hanging out in the trees outside of our gate. The next day, Miguel and I were driving to the hardware store to pick up some supplies, and I was telling him about the sloth in the tree. I hit the gate opener (it works like a garage-door opener) and Miguel yelled out: "Stop!"

The crazy sloth was hanging on the chain and getting a ride as the gate opened. This has happened in the past, as we have found sloth hairs in the chain, but this was the first time we had actually seen it. The sloth did not want to let go of the greasy chain or the metal supports. Miguel and I had some large branches and finally got the sloth to grab onto one, where we swung it back into a tree. It was moving pretty quickly for a sloth, and climbed out over the gate and was hanging precariously on a small limb over the cement by the time we got back from the hardware store 10 minutes later. It didn't fall, but wandered back and is now hiding somewhere in the trees.

Things that glow in the night. . .

OK, this isn't a real picture, and even if I did have the camera, there was no way it was going to turn out. The other night, I was shining the light on our front gate, which is about 750 meters or so from the house. We do that to make sure that guests close it when they come in and out of Tree Houses. This evening, though, while seeing the red reflectors we have on the gates, I also saw a pair of green eyes staring back. No idea of what it was. The eyes would be there for about 10 to 15 seconds, then they would be gone. Then they would come back again. Guess whatever it was didn't appreciate having a big spotlight shined in its direction. Could be anything from a sloth to a jungle cat of some sort or a monkey, though I doubt monkey, as it wasn't that high in the trees.

Which brings us to the question:

What was staring back in the night, halfway up a tree?

Sloth

Monkey

Jungle cat

Something from Alien vs. Predator

Breaking the law. . .

Albeit inadvertently.

Had a chance to show off my Spanish the other day, and failed miserably. Lucy was in La Fortuna running errands, and I was watching the place while she was gone. An official from the region came up and had a police officer with him. I assumed they were making their rounds and was chatting along in my poor Spanish. After a few minutes, I realized this wasn't a social call when Patricia and Keneth -- knowing my limited language capabilities broke it down for me. Due to a banking snafu, the business license for the hotel had not been paid for several months, and they were here to collect, with the police, for five months of back dues. Pony up, or we're closing you down was the basic message. Of course, while they were here, two groups arrived at the same time to check into the hotel, and another person called from out of the country to make a reservation. Finally, all was worked out, Patricia and Miguel hustled up to the offices to make the payment and order was restored -- after I had picked up 27 more gray hairs.

The mural. . . it's done. . .

OK, in reality, the mural has been finished for a couple of weeks, but we have been laggards in posting much of anything (see Homer below). The mural looks fantastic, and the images really jump out. The eyes on the monkey look as if they're boring into you; the sloth has just the right tint of gray and green (it does grow moss/mildew/other green stuff on its back for camouflage); the ants are amazing crawling up the tree like they do; and the details on all of the birds are just as good as in a guidebook. Keneth, his cousin Darleen (who also works here) and Keneth's nephew (Antonio) all pitched in and all signed the piece when it was done. Keneth worked in the early mornings and on his days off to finish it up. It's really nice, and it looks even better in person.

OK, we're slugs. . .

We've had a tough time getting back into the groove of blogging since the folks (Herb and Pat) have vamoosed for the colder climes of Wisconsin. We got used to not blogging and it hasn't been easy to get back into the swing of things. However, we're going to make more of an effort to do so in the coming days and weeks. We're almost due for another out-of-country trip, so that will provide some more fodder for the Web after we return in early December. And, in our defense (yes, we're pathetic enough to toss out feeble excuses) we've been busy with maintenance here in the off-season, varnishing tree houses, replacing stairs, clearing brush, etc. Still, there should be enough time to pop up a few words now and again, and we promise we won't go as long in between missives as this last time.