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.

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

Toshiba: R.I.P.

Well, that's it for the computer. . . Took the Toshiba laptop up to Pablo in La Fortuna the other day and it's toast. It could be repaired, but since computers and computer parts are so expensive down here, it's not worth it. We'll just have to buy another one when we get back to the States in November.

The bummer: it had our pictures on it (though we can transfer those over when we get the new one) and we could download new pics for the blog. That will be put on hold for a while.

Mini-B, the perpetual favorite. . .

For the three of you that can't get enough of the pooch pictures, here is Jack with Mini-B during his family's stay. Forget the monkeys, the sloths, the toucans, the other critters, let a kid near a dog and he/she is eternally happy.

Friends in Costa Rica. . .

Stew and his wife, Nioucha, came down for a visit a bit ago, our first friends to visit us here in the jungle of Costa Rica. I've known Stew for close to 15 years when we worked together at the Asahi Evening News in Tokyo. He's gone on to much better and grander things, is a published author (The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns).

He is working on another book at the moment as well, and I have part of the first draft with me here to get a sneak peek at.

So, for all you folks out there that have been dithering about whether to come or not: just think, you get to stay in a tree house and be immortalized in the blog.

Art dept. excuse, No. 452

This is actually somewhat plausible, as our computer has all of the pictures on it that Lucy downloads from the camera. Went to turn on our trusty laptop this morning, and it sounded like a dump truck backing up, beeping like crazy. So, it's off to the repair shop to see what's shaking with the Toshiba. If it's too much to fix, or can't be fixed, then we'll have to wait until we visit Wisconsin in November to get a new computer. There are cheers from the art department, but groans from the editorial.

Adios for the day. . .

Today's the fifth anniversary of when Lucy agreed (foolishly, most people say) to marry me. So, in a happy coincidence, there were no guests staying Sept. 30, so we vamoosed for the day/night to stay up in La Fortuna and will return sometime today, but won't be updating the blog.