Shut down II

As mentioned yesterday, most things shut down during Semana Santa (Holy Week) as will this blog. The Monday after Easter, we are heading back home to the Islands to see some friends and soak up the sun and fun of being back home. We'll be back in mid-April and will start the blog at that time, unless something arises that catches our attention on Oahu.

Shut down. . .

This is the last day before Holy Week starts here in Costa Rica.

Aside from tourist activities (excursions, hotels and restaurants that cater to tourists) the whole country pretty much shuts down on Wednesday and remains closed until the following Monday. Some places will open up on Saturday and Easter Sunday, but will be closed on Thursday and Friday.

Banks, hardware, grocery stores, etc., will close down and the lines at all of these places will grow exponentially leading up to Wednesday.

This always creates an interesting situation at the hotel. People that forget to make an alcohol run (most places, save for tourist hot spots, will not sell any alcohol on Thursday or Friday) will call the hotel, or their friends who work with us, to see if they can get some. We're in the same boat, as we have to budget our drink order from the distributor to carry us through the week.

There is likely a market out there to make some fast money, but we're just too busy and don't have the time or desire to do something like that.

Oldie, but a goodie. . .

For 90 percent of the folks in Costa Rica, there are no hot-water heaters like back in the States. A lot of the smaller hotels have the same systems: Hot water on demand, heated by electricity as the water goes through the shower head.

Some folks like to call them suicide showers. We have them in our house and never had any electrical issues and a million or so folks that live here use the same system. It's efficient and you never run out of hot water.

For some folks, however, it proves to be a Rubki-ian puzzle that they spend days trying to figure out (with some griping and whinging--"whinging" is for our occasional U.K. reader).

It's really pretty simple: The more water pressure you have, the cooler the shower. The less water pressure, the warmer the shower. It cannot be too low of a flow, or else the heating element will not turn on, or it will burn out--thus ensuring you will have a cold shower until we can get up to repair it.

Try as they might, some people simply cannot figure it out. We go up and play with the shower, and it comes out warm. They show up at breakfast the next day and say there's no hot water. We go down again, and it's working fine. It's just a matter of tweaking the water flow.

When people check in here at the hotel, we give them the directions for the shower (though to be fair, it takes 5 minutes to give folks the run-down on the showers) and we also tell them that there is a page in the hotel information book that explains how it works.

Sometimes, you just can't get it through, though.

Always a question. . .

Sometimes, even after a guest leaves, they have questions. This was a bit more of the serious nature and it came more than two weeks after the guests left Tree Houses.

The other night, there was a phone call here, and on the other end was a guest that had stayed with us at the beginning of March.

She was sobbing; her rental car had broken down and she and her boyfriend were stranded in no-man's land on the Caribbean side of the country. Not exactly an ideal situation to be in, with darkness setting in quickly.

She was panicked and wanted some help. We are about 5 to 6 hours from where she was at, and the rental car company was on its way, though it had a ways to drive as well.

We got on the phone and started making calls, including to the rental company, and to make multiple phone calls and broken conversations short (their primary language was German, ours is English, the rental agency is Spanish) they were picked up safe and sound.

New addition V

Here she is, in all of her glory!

It's a 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser.

We busted the bank and ponied up 2.5 million for her (let's see who can do math and get the price in dollars).

We're going to add some doo-dads and doo-hickeys to her in the future. A couple of things that we want to add are:

A luggage rack/carryall up on the roof;

A winch on the front;

And a hydraulic system that will make it bounce in time to whatever music we have going on the radio (that's the art department's request, though editorial is fine with pimping it out);

Also, at some point, we'd like to paint it lemon yellow (keeping the roof white).

There are some quirks to the car.

For example, when you start it first thing, you have to pull out the choke, turn the key in the opposite direction for 15 to 20 seconds, and then slowly and gently, turn the key forward. Then she fires right up.

When it is time to turn her off, you turn the key, gently again, back to the off position, and then pull out the kill switch on the dash.

Also, at times, you need to pump the brakes a time or two to make sure the brake lights on the rear turn off.

New addition IV

Here's a shot from the back side. A pretty, little thing with the bonus of the lightning bolts painted on both sides.

That means, when we're tooling along at top speed (45 or 50 mph), we'll feel like we're doing 75 mph.

New addition III

Those in the know, understand that the editorial department comes from a long line of the mechanically challenged. Oil changes are an all-day affair, accompanied by plenty of sweating, swearing and odd-ball ideas to make it easier the next time around.

Hence, the question: Has anyone guessed the year, make and model of the new addition?

Also, does anyone know of a good resource book to aid the editorial department?

And, lastly, we're looking for a name. We're kick several around, but haven't quite settled on one yet.

New addition II

She is 10 years younger than the editorial department (bonus points for one of the three loyal readers that can answer which year it is) and has her original motor (diesel) and no major body damage or rust.

As you can see, she offers plenty of room for folks in the front or the back or for hauling things.

She is also a 4x4, which is a nice bonus down here, especially on some of the roads, particularly when it's raining heavily.

Here she is. . .

This is our new baby. After long thought and much deliberation, we have added a new ride to our stable. Actually, it's the only ride to our stable.

It's reliable, built like a tank and can go pretty much anywhere in Costa Rica (though we may want to add a snorkel muffler at some point).

The editorial department has always been keen to get one, though the art department wasn't quite as hot, until she stumbled across this while driving back from a shopping run in San Jose.

New addition to the family. . .

We have added a new piece to the family here at Tree Houses. We're both thrilled and will have pictures and more details tomorrow.

Fun with birds. . .

Unfortunately, no picture with this, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit.

Yesterday at breakfast, we were in the rancho with the guests, when suddenly, a racket kicked up high up in the skies.

Patricia and Seidy came out of the kitchen really quick and started yelling "Lappas, lappas!"

It took a few seconds for the editorial department to process lappas into English, and by that time, I had missed the opportunity.

They were Scarlet Macaws, two red ones and one blue one. They are rare in this area and we don't see them very often. Beautiful, big birds with brightly colored plumage.

They sound like geese being waterboarded, though, a very disturbing noise.

Miguel and Keneth were able to see them flying over as they were down on the driveway working at the time.

Sometimes you don't need to. . .

be the one that drops the egg on someone's head. As the three followers know, breaking an egg(s) over someone's head is a birthday tradition in Costa Rica (along with other occasions).

The other day, Miguel asked for a letter as he was applying for a loan, and needed employment verification. Keneth, who works with Miguel, was being nosy and asked Miguel why he needed the letter.

Miguel told Keneth that it was a reference and that he was leaving here to go work at a large hotel in Fortuna. Keneth was disappointed and asked everyone, everyone, if this was true. This went on for two days.

Finally, in the morning, I confirmed to Keneth that, sadly, it was true, that Miguel was leaving, and the next day was to be Miguel's last.

I told Keneth that since Miguel will expecting an egging the next day, we would have to get him today. Keneth gladly accepted the egg and about 20 minutes later came running up with a wide grin on his face. Miguel wasn't entirely thrilled and was wondering what had just happened.

Keneth told him: "Felize viaje!" which is happy journey.

A good suggestion is just as good, or better, than doing it yourself, it appears.

Lounging about. . .

This is what the monkeys typically do when it's hot. Not much action, just waiting for it to cool down so they can go jumping around and swinging about. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

Hanging about. . .

This fuzzy little dude looks like something out of "Land of the Lost" swinging about.

This is about as active as the sloths get and it may look like it's moving fast (thanks to the blurriness of the picture courtesy of the editorial department) but it's not moving hardly at all. It was just stretching out its hands and would occasionally scratch itself.

The little one

You can see the youngster just below an adult (apologies for the pic, the editorial department was doing the snapping).

When it gets warmer, the monkeys like to lay low and sprawl on a branch. They are more active in the mornings and late afternoons.

The little one hasn't quite figured this out yet. On another occasion, when Lucy was watching them in a different part of the hotel, the little one was hopping around and bouncing off the resting adults.

The little one pushed it just a bit too far and bounced on an adult, who rolled over and backhanded the little fellow away. The little one wasn't hurt, it caught a branch, swung away and kept hopping around (out of the reach of the adults).

Snowtime V

Back to the snow! OK, this is the last one. . .

Once Mini-B got her footing, there was no stopping her from bounding through the snow.

She did extremely well on the flights from Costa Rica up to Madison and back. We did get a tranquilizer from the vet and only gave her half of what he recommended.

She was able to fly in the cabin with us and was part of the carry-on baggage, tucked under the seat in front of us.

Compared to here, she was extremely mellow and didn't wriggle or struggle to get out of her soft carrier at all. She did great and we'll probably take her on another trip in the future.

When we got back to Costa Rica, the first thing she did (after going up to let Bejuca sniff her) and wander around a bit, was to stretch out on the rocks in the driveway and soak up the sun and the warm temperatures. She may have enjoyed playing in the snow, but she is a Costa Rican pooch and enjoys the tropical weather.

This is a rain forest. . .

After barely a drop of rain since our return on January 1, it started raining here on March 1 or so and lasted for four days or so. Not a typical rain, but a constant drizzle, with plenty of cloud cover (like Western Washington).

We needed some moisture, as things were starting to get pretty dry and this was the perfect type of rain, not the hard, driving sort that happens a lot of the time. The gentle drizzle allowed a lot of plants to soak up the moisture and the rain went into the soil, rather than cascading over it.

This brought out some flowers (quite a lot of orchids have opened up), we've spotted more sloths around (when it is dry, they head deeper into the jungle where it's cooler and there's more moisture) and some of the bushes and trees that were wilting a bit have sprung back to life.

It has also brought out the questions from guests:

"When will it stop?"

"It's not supposed to rain in March, why is it raining?"

"It's raining, what can we do?"

The answers: We don't know, we don't know and you can do anything in the rain. It's still in the 80s (or maybe mid 70s) when it's raining, it's not a cold rain.

Understandably, some folks are upset when they come to Costa Rica expecting sun and they get wet. A friend of ours, who owns a hotel, said she had some guests ask for a refund because it was raining so much.

Above the iguana. . .

Was the family of howler monkeys. Above are two of them that turned their backs to the camera (not very cooperative) and another that looked up to howl at us and the guests who were watching them (all the while keeping an eye on the iguana to see if it would move).

There was a baby hopping around with the adults and it was a cute little thing, moving really quickly through the trees.

Back to the jungle. . .

On a warmer topic, this little bugger was just lounging about on the footpath up to the rancho (where breakfast is served) a while back.

This was in the afternoon when the iguana was soaking up some heat from the rocks. Its tail is a bit longer than what is shown and it's not nearly the largest one that we've seen.

It's one of the few times we've seen them on the ground, rather than high up in the trees, so that was cool.

Right above the iguana were a bunch of monkeys, including a baby.

Snowtime IV

Here she is, chasing the elusive snow armadillo (perhaps the yeti of the dog world)?.

For a pooch that had never been in the cold before, she did really well and enjoyed getting out and into the white stuff a lot more than we did (especially when the temperature was in the single digits).

She has no problem burying herself in the snow and coming out covered in the white stuff.

When she went to shake off the snow, she didn't have much purchase on the icy driveway, and her legs would fly out in several different directions.

Snow time III

One of Mini-B's favorite things here in Costa Rica is to dig into holes and search for armadillos and other critters.

There was nothing like that back in Wisconsin, but that didn't stop her from seeking out something.

The little goober would go crazy and try to burrow her way into the snow bank in search of who knows what.

Snow time II

Once Mini-B found her footing, literally and figuratively,
she was a snow demon.

It seemed that she couldn't get enough of the white stuff, even though we were freezing while walking her.





She seemed to be on the prowl for something, but there was nothing moving out there in the white stuff, though that didn't stop her from perking up when she thought she heard or saw something.

Snow time, I

Two days after we got to Madison, 18 inches of snow came flying down.

This time we traveled with Mini-B (she actually did quite nicely on the flights--more on that later) and being a dog from Costa Rica, she wasn't quite sure what to make of the white stuff.

At times, she would take off at a full run, then try to stop. Imagine running across a skating rink and then trying to stop or make a sharp turn, and you'll get an idea of what happened to Mini on a couple of occasions. No injuries, just a lot of flying legs going in multiple directions and a confused look, followed by a soft landing in a snow bank.

Back in the saddle. . .

Thanks to the three faithful followers who wondered what the sam hill happened to the blog.

Nothing much, just a general lack of inertia on the editorial department's behalf. Around the last post, the editorial department came down with some type of crud, that has just recently cleared up.

And, the hotel is now using Gmail, which is nice. However, since Google owns everything in cyberspace, it seems, it means having to sign out of the e-mail account of the hotel to sign into the blog.

In the huge time gap between posts, we have been to Wisconsin to celebrate Christmas with the Eidson family in Madison and got more than a taste of snow and winter weather.

We're back, in the middle of high season and will be posting pics and news on, hopefully, a regular basis.