Toucan loft

Here is the loft of the Toucan. There is a smaller double bed in the loft here. The other tree houses have two single beds in the loft, but there's not enough room in the loft of the Toucan.

Inside the Toucan

Here's the inside of the Toucan. Just like the other tree houses, there is a refrigerator, security safe, coffeemaker and air conditioner.

The Toucan is set up a bit differently, in that there is one room with a toilet and sink, and the shower is in another room on the other side of the tree house. In this picture, the toilet and sink can be seen on the other side of the bed.

Merry Christmas!

To everyone near and far and the three loyal readers! Hope you're having a great day and spending it with loved ones and family. Thanks for checking in occasionally and dropping lines, it's really great to hear from folks.

'Tis the season. . .

For sending out and receiving Christmas cards. Sadly, we're not nearly organized enough to get cards together and in the mail by Halloween.

Yes, Halloween would be about the time we would have to send out cards in order for them to arrive in time for Christmas.

We got a reminder of this when on December 20, Lucy received a birthday card from some friends back in Honolulu. They mailed the card about 10 days before her birthday and it did find its way down here.

Lucy's birthday is October 21. So you can see how we aren't quite in the holiday mode in late October to get our stuff ready and in the mail.

So, please consider this a woefully inadequate Christmas card from us down here in Costa Rica and Merry Christmas!

Toucan -- going up

Here's a picture of the ladder leading up to the loft of the Toucan tree house. Toucan, Rana and Perezosa all have lofts, and there is a ladder that is pretty much vertical that folks have to climb to get up to the lofts.

The new tree houses don't have the lofts, as it's not easy to get up and down with a load of sheets, blankets, etc.

Lessons learned. . .

Recently, we noticed that there were bees hanging around on the outside of the Toucan tree house. Just far enough so we couldn't lean over and get to them. That turned out to be a good thing, as Miguel (who's afraid of very little) didn't want to get any closer to the critters than he had to. The supposedly swarm and sting pretty bad.

So, Miguel came up with a way to smoke them out from under one of the boards on the outside of the house where they have gathered.

Lesson 1 learned: The smoke alarm inside the tree house works just fine.

Lesson 2 learned: The fire extinguisher inside the tree house also works just fine.

Nothing major as far as damage, and the bees appear to have been smoked out for now.

Toucan porch

Toucan has a front porch, plenty of space to hang out at the table and enjoy the surroundings. The Toucan, however, does not have a wraparound porch like the other tree houses. As I said in the previous post, this was the first tree house built by the original owners. They must have figured out wraparound porches were the way to go on the Frog and Perezosa. When we built the Congo and Colibri, the porches do go all the way around.

Casa de Toucan. . .

Here's a shot of the outside of the Toucan tree house. It's the smallest of the group, and was the first one built by the original owners. At times, when the wind is going somewhat strong, the tree house will rock back and forth pretty good. Some folks think they're sleeping on a boat, as it does sway pretty good at times.

This is also close to the highest of the five tree houses, if it's not the highest. Plenty of steps to get up and down.

Perazosa tree. . .

Here is the tree inside the Sloth tree house. . . We wrap towels around the bottom of the tree on the floor, as when it rains hard and the wind is blowing, water runs down the trunk. The towels do catch the water most of the time. However, we always remind guests to not lean their luggage up against the tree, as it could get a bit soggy.

Inside Perazosa. . .

Here you can see the sliding glass doors on the main floor, along with the tree. Upstairs, like the Rana, there are two twin beds.

The sliding glass doors offer a great view, as guests can open up the curtains and get a great shot of the jungle surrounding them. However, like the tree that goes through the house, it's a great idea, but a maintenance headache.

Since the tree house is always moving, the tracks for the doors are always moving as well, so we have to adjust these on a regular basis.

Perazosa porch. . .

Not as large as the Frog porch, but it has a great view of the rain forest from the trees.

The small table over to the left is a tree that formerly went through the deck and the roof. However, some bugs got the better of it and it didn't last, so we cut it down to a few feet off of the deck, found a nice wood slab to put on top and turned it into a table.

The tree, with the V-shape in front of the table, is a monkey favorite at times. Once, when the guests were hanging out in their chairs relaxing, a monkey came down right into the V and hung out there, about 6 feet away from the guests and myself, and just relaxed for 30 minutes or more.

After that, the little fellow got tired of looking at the weirdos up in the trees with him and he took off.

Casa de Perazosa. . .

The Sloth tree house is the most popular of the three original tree houses. It has a tree that goes through the inside of it and there are sliding glass doors all the way around.

Looks great, maintenance headache. The tree is still growing and when the wind blows, it stretches out the metal roof, so Miguel and Keneth head up to the top a couple of times per year to do some repairs.

The Rana porch. . .

Here's where folks sit out on the porch and see what they can see as far as wildlife, birds, etc. You can see the outline of the Sloth tree houses from the porch here, but you can't see inside or make out anyone who may be on the porch of the Sloth tree house, so there's a fair amount of privacy.

All of the tree houses are pretty private, which is a nice thing as no one wants to come out and hang on their porch in the morning and see some other yahoo 10 feet away in another tree house.

Inside Rana. . .

This is the upstairs (left) and the downstairs. No worries for a family of four as mom and dad can have the larger bed downstairs and the kids are good to go up in the loft with the two single beds. At times there are five folks in there, and we'll put down a small mattress on the floor between the two single beds. It is a tight fit, but we've had a load of five-person families in here and in the Sloth tree house.

Feliz cumpleanos senor Eidson. . .

Today is my brother Matt's birthday. That's 41 years for those keeping score at home. Hard to believe that we've come from fighting over toys and candy decades ago to just agitating our folks for fun's sake.

Matt will be in the L.A. area for his birthday, and then will be heading back later on to spend holidays with the folks in snowy Wisconsin.

Casa de Rana. . .

Here's a picture of the Frog tree houses. . . This is the tree house where we stayed on our two visits to Tree Houses when we came down as tourists.

It's down a little hill away from the main house where we live and is really surrounded by trees, so there's always a lot of shade around it. It's one of my favorite tree houses.

Sloths can squeal!

We never knew that until the other day. Lucy found four sloths all within about 50 feet of each other in two trees down the driveway. One was a tiny little thing, and it looked like it was either trying to latch back onto its mom, or was having a sibling spat with another. The two were hanging on a small branch, about 40 feet above the driveway, and the little one was swiping at the larger one.

The larger one was swatting back, and a high-pitched shriek was the result. Not sure which of the sloths was emitting the squeal, but it was pretty loud.

I have heard sloths hiss before when they are upset, but this was a first to really hear a distinct squeal.

The little one eventually gave up and moved on to another tree. It was moving fast -- for a sloth. Not like a monkey, but compared to other sloths, this one was moving at warp speed.

Baked Huevos Rancheros. . .

This is a twist on regular huevos (eggs) rancheros.

In this version, everything is baked in a ramikin. You put a small tortilla at the bottom and then layer it with salsa, pureed black beans, salsa, cheese, egg, another tortilla and more cheese.

Then you polish it off with a few dollops of guacamole or black beans and serve it up.

On the side is fried yucca, which is pretty much like hash-brown potatoes.

The approach to Tree Houses. . .

This is another great picture by the McKays of part of the driveway up to the hotel.

It's about 150 yards or so through the jungle to get up to the house where we live and check people in.

The tree houses themselves are scattered around the 8 acres to give folks enough privacy to relax and enjoy the jungle surrounding the tree houses.

Coconut french toast. . .

This is one of the favorites here at Tree Houses; coconut french toast.

It is made like regular french toast, except coconut milk is added to the dredge for the bread and fresh coconut is sprinkled over the top.

For those with a really sweet tooth, you can drizzle syrup over the top.

Another look at the waterfall. . .

This is more from a lower-level view of the first pool at the waterfall.

As the three of you know that read this blog regularly, there are three pools at the waterfall.

We drain and clean the pools every 10 to 12 days (the pools are man-made; the waterfall is natural) so they are perfect for jumping into (no diving, they're only 2 or 3 feet deep) and cooling off after the 3-kilometer hike to get there.

Now, this is cool. . .

This is from the photographers who came to stay with us in October and took some amazing pictures of the grounds and tree houses; David and Ally McKay.

With their lenses and computers, they create some amazing images and this is of the waterfall at the end of our trail.

To get to the waterfall, it's about a 3-kilometer hike and there are three pools at the falls where you can jump in and relax in the cool water after the 30-minute hike (faster if you're younger and more energetic).

There is a picnic table and restroom down at the waterfall, so folks can make an afternoon of it.

If you have the capability, click on the picture and see it in full-size.

Mas frutas. . .

And lest you think Patricia, Darleen and Sedie fall into a funk in serving breakfast, here is another version of the fruit that is served with breakfast.

Geez, maybe I need to petition Brooke Johnson for a gig at the Food Network?

Anyway, it looks great and it takes them just a few minutes to get everything all set up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since all three of the readers are from the States, hope you all have a great day today!

We are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving on Sunday, as we have four checkouts and four checkins tomorrow, so there won't be much time to relax and enjoy the turkey and fixins.

We do have a turkey, a Butterball, in fact. However, this comes at a premium, since the turkeys are imported to Costa Rica. We ended up with about a 15-pound bird, one of the smaller ones at Maxi Bodega and it came to nearly 25,000 colones. . . That would be close to $50.00 for those not up to speed on the exchange rate.

We're going to have our neighbor, Carlos, over for dinner on Sunday afternoon for some food and fellowship and hopefully a good time will be had by all.

Food time. . . again. . .

And after you polish off the fresh fruit, there is the main course for breakfast. We change things up here, so folks don't have to eat the same thing every day. This is one of our favorites: spinach and potato quiche.

Real men may not each quiche, but if you try this, you may very well change your mind. Light and flaky crust, with a solid and hearty filling.

Yes, I sound like a schill for the Food Network or something funky like that, but it is really good stuff. Patricia, one of the ladies who works here at Tree Houses and is a culinary wizard, came up with the recipe and it is outstanding.

Revolt at Tree Houses. . .

OK, not really, but kind of close. The other day, we received an e-mail request from a person who wanted to stay with us for a couple of nights. Unfortunately, we were all booked for that time period in December.

We sent back a reply telling them that there was no room at the inn, and the response came back thanking us for letting them know, and did we have any recommendations.

On the tagline on the reply, was an e-mail signature and it said: Brooke Johnson, President, Food Network.

Now, for those of you who know Lucy, you understand that she loves the Food Network and everything about it.

There was a quick debate (tears were shed, agony and misery) about booting other folks out, but after cooler heads prevailed (thanks to Mr. ESPN, SkySports, etc.) the realization set in, that Lucy was just plain out of luck.

Perhaps next time; and maybe there could be an Iron Chef Tree Houses version in the future?

Food time. . .

A full breakfast is included here at Tree Houses, and it always includes fresh fruit, juice and all the coffee you can guzzle. Here's a picture of the fruit that is served here, and it comes fresh pretty much year-round.

This is some pineapple with banana, mango, sour orange and other good stuff.

The upside to a cold. . .

At least that's how I'm thinking of it. After an excellent visit in Wisconsin with the folks and my brother, I picked up a cold that knocked me out for about a week. The usual regimen was followed: injection, some over-the-counter medicines that you need a prescription for back home, rest, fluid, etc.

It was finally beaten into submission and the other day I was feeling much better.

Now, there is no scientific basis for my little theory, but when I was down and out, I didn't get a single mosquito bite. Not one. The morning I woke up and was feeling in fine fettle, I went outside for a morning walk and came back chewed up silly.

Maybe the rotten buggers don't like the cold bug? Anyone have a thought?

Coffee + safe

does not equal a good thing, as some guests recently discovered. There are security safes, like the one pictured, in all of the tree houses. They are large enough for passports, wallets, small cameras, etc.

However, they are not built to withstand dumping coffee on top of them (go figure). After an evening of dinner and libations at one of the local restaurants, a couple decided to have some coffee. How, exactly, the coffee got on and into the safe isn't exactly clear.

There are combinations to all of the safes (though that doesn't stop some folks from trying to program their own and locking themselves out) and they are battery operated.

Apparently, the coffee got the batteries wet and the connections, so they couldn't open it up. We have keys for all of the safes, so we can use those to open everything up. That's what we did, and the couple retrieved their passports and wallets before heading on to their next destination.

Congo porch

Here is the porch of the Congo tree house. The picture was taken before we put up the table with benches, so there's more seating room out there now. The railings were done entirely from fallen trees, and had to be skinned, sanded and varnished before they were cut up and put around the outside of the house.

Outside in daylight. . .

Here's the Congo tree house in the daylight, so you can get a more direct view instead of the artsy approach of the night shot. There is a wrap-around porch and plenty of room on the front. There is a table with benches and a rocking chair for folks to sit out front and watch the wildlife from up high.

Yes, there are bathrooms

In the tree houses. That's maybe the top question I get asked. Sometimes folks wait until they arrive before they ask about that, and I typically tell them that the bathrooms are 1.5 miles down the trail through the jungle.

Sometimes they are not amused, but I am always amused by their reactions.

There is a sink, toilet and shower in each of the tree houses. The showers have two large screens on either side, so it's nearly like showering outdoors.

Inside the Congo tree house

Here's a shot of the inside, with the two queen beds and the single bunk above.

Yep, the bunk looks like it's two single beds, but trust us, it's a queen-size on the bottom.

The new tree houses are very private and farther back on the property and are really nice.

Casa del Congo

Here is a picture taken by David and Ally McKay, professional photographers from Sacramento. They took some shots of the tree houses while they were here and provided us with some shots that will soon be on the Web site.

This is one of the new tree houses from the outside, the Monkey tree house.

It's cold in Wisconsin. . .

But is it that cold? According to Lucy, it is. So, when we stepped off the plane the other day in Madison, Wis., we were greeted by my folks -- and a fur coat for Lucy.

Yes, it's real fur. And it's a rental. Lucy, who has never been one to weather the colder climes well, is now wrapped in a warm and fuzzy coat for the duration of our time here in Wisconsin, just a couple hundred miles south of the "Frozen Tundra" of Green Bay and the mighty Packers.

OK, it's not politically correct, but everyone is happy and warm.

Vacation feeding. . .

OK, we're here in the land of Wisconsin: Mucho cheese, beef, beer and chips. Basically a lot of the good stuff that will send you to the hospital in your later years.

Today, while trolling up and down the aisles searching for things that we can't find back home in Costa Rica, we came across a gem that seemed too good to be true: Dutch Crunch Hot Buffalo Wings with Bleu Cheese potato chips.

We figured that we would buy a bag to see what it was like, and it more than lived up to its promise. These are some outstanding, artery-clogging chips that are definitely worth picking up at some point if you happen to stumble across them.

Outta here!

For the next 8 to 10 days or so. We're driving down to the San Jose Airport before flying out on Nov. 1 for a week in Wisconsin to see the folks. As a bonus, my brother is flying out from California, so we'll have an early Thanksgiving.

The one hitch: After being in Hawaii for nearly nine years and down here for going on two years, we don't have diddly for cold-weather gear. Could be a little frigid for us (especially Lucy) while back in the Midwest for a week.

We'll be back on November 10 or so, and will put up some pics of the new tree houses and the area taken by some real pros so everyone can get a good look at stuff.

Everyone at Bella Verona. . .

OK, here's the whole group of us in front of Bella Verona, with Lucy and Ruby definitely upping the class of the photo with their presence.

We were at Bella Verona for a couple of hours and had focaccia, carpaccio, pizza, pasta, salads, you name it, we ate very well.

Like I tell you all the time: get yourselves down here and you too can be enshrined in the Jungle Journey blog.

Good fellas. . .

Now this picture came through much nicer. This is Bruce with Guiliano at Bella Verona.

We all went for dinner while Bruce and Ruby were here and were treated to an outstanding dinner at Bella Verona.

Believe this is the first picture of Guiliano on the blog, though we have been there quite often.

Sometimes, you never know who's staying

At your place until after they leave. This is Michael Mastro (left), an actor of accomplishmen, who stayed here at Tree Houses for a few nights earlier this month.

He told us that he was an actor when we asked what he did, but being somewhat stunted in our big/little screen knowledge, we didn't know him and didn't want to press. And, he said that he does mostly Broadway stuff, which we don't have access to.

Turns out, he has done some episodes of Law & Order (the regular, SVU and Criminal Intent) as well as movies (Kissing Jessica Stein) and was in the 2009 remake of West Side Story on Broadway.

People often ask if we have famous folks stay at Tree Houses, and we say "not that we know of." Now, we can say yes, we have had some famous folks stay here.

Twice a year, will keep

This fellow away.

Twice a year, we take two pills with breakfast for three mornings. These pills, which we can get at any pharmacy, are to keep the parasites away and out of our system.

If you're going to be living in Costa Rica, then you need to take these pills to avoid getting sick. We know some folks who have been laid low for quite a while with the intestinal bug.

Since Lucy's birthday is in October and mine is in April, we just take them around our birthdays, since they're six months apart and that's the recommended time that you're supposed to take the drug.

Yes, even the people who were born and raised here take the pill twice a year, so it's something that we figure we shouldn't miss.

No more conehead. . .

Mini-B now is cone-less. She had the cone around her head for a couple of weeks while her stitches took, and then a couple of days after the stitches were removed.

She had some tumors on her noggin, but luckily none were serious. She moped around while in the cone and wasn't her normal energetic self.

About an hour after she had the cone off, after much scratching and rolling, she bolted after some lizards, drawing Lucy's ire and some "timeout" in the bedroom.

Happily, she's back to normal and doing just fine. Sorry for no pics, still awaiting the computer answers. As an aside, if you do a search of Santa's Little Helper on google images, and don't specify The Simpsons, you may be surprised at what's considered to be Santa's helper. Definitely some images that you would not put on a family blog.

Honolulu Marathon Clinic in Costa Rica. . .

Jack Scaff, the founder of the Honolulu Marathon Clinic, has a thing about folks sporting clinic gear in different countries. So, when Bruce and Ruby visited us from Honolulu, Bruce and I couldn't resist strapping on the gear and lining up for a pic.

The two of us started at the clinic back in 2003, I believe, and that's where I met Lucy, so the clinic has a warm spot in my heart.

Though Bruce and I didn't take to the road for a run (it was raining, we were tired, we're just old, etc.) hopefully this will meet Doc's requirements for a pic from a different country.

The picture was taken up by our front gate, about 100 yards or so from our house and the rest of the tree houses. Apologies for the quality. It's a huge file, and it takes forever to l

So, for all of you folks that are pondering a trip down this way, I'll repeat it again: Come on down, and you will be enshrined in the annals of the Jungle Journey blog.

Breakfast time II

This is gallo pinto, the traditional dish of Costa Rica. It's black beans and rice with some vegetables (onions, chile dulce, cilantro). We serve it with eggs, tortillas and baked plantains.

Patricia and Darleen either put cheese and sour cream on the plantains or sugar and cinnamon, depending on what's on hand and their mood.

This is a stick-to-your-ribs breakfast that will get you off to a good start for the day.

Holy. . .

Insert whatever corny 70s'-phrase from the famed series here. . .

This is looking up at the outside roof of the sloth tree house. There's usually around six or seven fruit bats that hang around during the day time.

At dusk (around 5:30 p.m. here year-round) they drop off the ceiling and head out for the night to hunt the mosquitoes and other insect critters that are hanging around.

A while ago, some of the bats had babies, and if you looked through a zoom lens or a pair of binoculars, you could see tiny little wings flapping off of the mother's bellies.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To Lucy, who turns XX years today! No one actually thought I would be dumb enough (even during these dark days between the art and editorial department) to actually list an age, did they?

This will be Lucy's second birthday here at Tree Houses and we're hoping to get away for some dinner at a great little steak place near the base of the Arenal Volcano, though we'll have to see how that all works out with guests coming and going, etc.

So, for those of you who have been procrastinating in sending Lucy and e-mail or leaving a message on the blog, now's the time!

Kind of cool. . .

You never know what you're going to see or find when walking along the grounds of the hotel. Sometimes you'll get skunked and see absolutely nothing; other times you can see all kinds of cool critters.

This is another guest shot taken while they were hiking back to the waterfall and river. Two of the more colorful frogs that we have around here. To get to see them right next to each other is pretty rare and cool.

Breakfast time. . .

We have several different breakfasts here at Tree Houses. Some are from before we got here, and some are recipes that Lucy has found and tweaked here at the hotel. I've never thought of taking a picture of my food while on vacation, but luckily some guests have and posted them on TripAdvisor.com.

OK, it's not the largest picture, but hey, the art department is on strike (or until the computer is fixed!).

This is banana-stuffed french toast, which is a big hit with guests. It's two pieces of bread, cooked like french toast, with a creamy banana filling in the middle. It's topped off with some banana slices, cinnamon and whipped cream.