Behold the snake tamer. . .

Or more appropriately, the snake killer. . . Sorry for the misdirection, this is a family blog, after all.

Anyway, folks who know me will not find this a huge surprise: I'm terrified of the serpents. Flat-out, wet-my-BVDs, scream-like-a-first-grader scared. Once, when I was backpacking through Nepal, I stopped to check out a snake show in Kathmandu. Being the only white face in the crowd, the wrangler/handler came over to me in search of a donation. I promptly emptied my pockets in the face of the cobra he was handling and vamoosed. And there are plenty of snakes here in Costa Rica. There are non-venomous snakes, and there are a lot of venomous slitherers as well. I don't have an eye for the critters, so every snake elicits a Depends-reaction from me. Lucy is much better, having seen a coral snake (very venomous) and thinking it was really cool.

Kenneth, one of our ace employees here at Tree Houses, stumbled across his fair share of the slitherers in just two days time. Two of the snakes he dispatched of down on the back property, and two were on the hotel grounds. The two that he took care of here near the hotel are of the poisonous variety -- both fer de lance snakes.

If you have the misfortune to get chomped by one of them, or their cousins in the viper family, you have about 2 to 4 hours to get to a hospital. The nearest hospital is only about 20 minutes away, luckily.

This is a small bugger, but I remember reading in junior-high earth science that the small snakes (this is a fer de lance and can get up to 6 feet long) pack the most venom per bite, as they don't know how to control the release of the poison when they chomp on something.

Sooner or later, I'm going to run into a snake and I can only hope that I have the presence of mind to hightail it quickly. Or that the snake is repulsed by the sight/smell/sound of a grown man wetting himself in the jungle.

Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (aka Blue Jean Frog)

Can you see it? if you click on the picture you can get a bigger image of it...they are so small, these frogs are sometimes difficult to see...but what makes them stand out are their colors...so vibrant that even though they are small, you can spot them...this is strawberry poison dart frog (aka blue jean frog)...getting it's name from it's blue legs - makes it look like it's wearing blue jeans. http://www.anywherecostarica.com/costa-rica-amphibian/blue-jeans-frog.htm...now that we are coming into the rainy season the frogs are making themselves more known...we've had guests spot these frogs down by the waterfall pools and even around the treehouses...they are just the cutest creatures, but beware because they are poisonous.

Gardening 101

This is our attempt at putting together our very first international garden. . . We cleared off a decent-sized chunk of jungle and dug up the ground by pick-axe (no roto-tiller around, unfortunately). . . We got some plants and seeds from Steven at Finca Luna Nueva, an organic farm/hotel not too far away from Tree Houses. We even put in an irrigation system, albeit inadvertently. . . While I was digging out a footpath going from top to bottom of the garden, I noticed that one of the water pipes for the hotel ran through the garden. . . I wisely moved over about a foot and a half, and started digging the trench anew. . . When I was about two-thirds of the way down, I struck water and had a nice geyser going. . . When I stepped back, I had noticed that I was digging crooked with the pick-axe. . . Not to fear, Miguel was around and he got the water stopped to that area, and then we put a vertical pipe and a spigot on it, so now we can water the garden when it's not the rainy season (around November). . .

As for what's in the garden? A lot of it, we're not sure of, but it's a lot of different varieties of lettuce and spinach. . . Steven really knows his plants, and most of the stuff he gave us is over our heads, but it does taste good. . . We also got some chilis and small tomatoes that we cut open to get the seeds out of, and they're already about 2-3 inches high. . . We do have one pineapple plant, and are hoping to plant some watermelons as well. . . Maybe in the future, we will have enough for a salad!

Bella Verona

This is Costa Rica. And we're pretty much in the boonies of the country, save for the 20-minute drive to La Fortuna, a very nice tourist hub. So, you wouldn't expect to find truly exceptional Italian food in the area. However, at a place called Bella Verona, we have found food that is truly outstanding. It's owned by Guilano, an Italian fellow who came over from Italy about 15 years ago. He was a chef in Italy, and it shows here.

About two months ago, a gentleman who grew up in Switzerland, was asking about the local restaurants. I told him about Bella Verona. "No! No Italian food in Costa Rica! I grew up 20 miles from the Italian border, and I cannot eat food that is not truly Italian."

Fair enough, I reasoned. However, something happened a day later on the way back from La Fortuna. Perhaps his kids pestered him into stopping at Bella Verona, or maybe he had a morbid curiousity and couldn't wait to pick the place apart. The next morning at breakfast, he came up to me, and said, "Mark, my family and I ate at Bella Verona last night." My eyebrows went up and I asked how it was. "The man is an artiste!" he replied. "His pasta, al dente, is magnifique! Just like when I was growing up."

Bella Verona is more expensive than the average Costa Rican joint, but well worth the trip. We just got back a couple of hours ago and the food is truly specatcular.

The one caveat: Guilano is looking to sell the place. When he goes, who knows what kind of food will be on the menu.

We interrupt your normally scheduled blog. . .

For a word on television. There are no TVs, phones or anything like that in the three tree houses. We do have, in our house, satellite TV. What do we get? Pretty much the same fare that we got back home. However, on the satellite system down here, the shows are typically on whatever network is the producer of the show. There is no CBS, ABC or NBC. There is a Fox, and we get plenty of Simpsons (three to four episodes nightly, woo-hoo!!). So, "The Mentalist" is on the Warner Channel, as it's produced by Warner Brothers. The same with "Cold Case", while "Law and Order" is on the Universal Channel. It's been a while for the Sony network, as there's not a lot of new stuff on there, it seems.

It can be a challenge to try to find a show. Most of the shows are delayed from when they're shown in the States. We love "The Amazing Race" and it's on the AXN network down here (no idea what that stands for), but was running about six weeks behind the episodes on CBS back home. We just saw the finale yesterday. We do get TNT (only movies, none of the series--those are on other channels); ESPN and ESPN2 (primarily soccer--ugh); CNN International; Fox News (though there are no commercials, just news fillers); the American Network (loads of Dr. Phil, Oprah, Rachael Rae, etc., which Lucy loves); also the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and the Biography Channel.

One bonus: We do get the NFL Network, which will come in very handy when autumn rolls around, if for nothing else than highlights.

Nice perks of the job. . .

We are getting a chance to meet people from all over the world. Most of the guests at the hotel are from the U.S. or Candada (about 80 percent) and the rest are from Europe, for the most part. We have some guests coming from South Africa later on this summer. Not a lot of folks from Asia, thus far. It's a long haul from there to here. Here's a picture of two great Greek gentlemen who stayed with us back in early April, just shortly after we started. It had been their dream to come to Costa Rica, and they were in the country for a few weeks, before making their way to Los Angeles, then onto Tahiti to meet up with their wives. From there, they were going to travel around the islands before taking a cruise back to Europe. They sent us a nice e-mail and some photos of their time here just a few days ago when they got back. Always fun to meet people from different parts of the world and get their take on things.

Holiday haze. . .

Happy Fourth of July! Not being in the States, the holidays that are uniquely American tend to creep up on you, and if you're not careful, pass you by. We were reminded of today's holiday on several fronts: Lucy's mom's birthday is July 4; my parents and I talked about the holiday this morning; and a very nice British family, living in the Netherlands, wished us a Happy Fourth as well.

For Memorial Day, we had to think twice and check out a calendar down here. I imagine it will be the same for Labor Day.

Costa Rica has quite a few holidays as well, and we're reminded of them by the folks who work at the hotel, as they either get the day off or get double-time. Just like we used to count the holidays back home when we were working for our companies, it's the same down here.

No fireworks on tap for today, unless a thunder and lightning storm rolls in, though.