Disco fever. . .

A few weeks ago, one of the restaurants near us added a disco on the second level.

Being the sedentary, mid-40-folks that we are, we laughed it off and thought it was a folly (then again, we aren't up on the trends and tend to think Facebook is the tool of the devil). . .

However, the disco has taken off and is drawing folks from all around the area. Then again, the only discos around are in Fortuna (30 minutes away) and in Ciudad Quesada (also 30 minutes away) so folks around here must be hankering for a place to shake the money maker.

Some younger guests went there the other night and just ate in the restaurant, while the disco was bopping and moving on the second floor. They thought about heading up, but decided to head back to the hotel for some rest as they were heading to various parts south in the country.

Easier said that done, as parking there was first in, last out. They were in front of three other cars and considering how packed the disco was, it took about 45 minutes to an hour for someone to locate the owners of the cars so they could get out. Who would have thought a disco would be all the rage here in this quiet part of Costa Rica?

Monkey alert. . .

The other day, two guests walked down to the river and the waterfall.

Now, there is a family of about seven or eight howler monkeys that hang out down there for about 5 to 6 days and then they come up here to the hotel for 2 to 3. They have babies now, so they are a little protective.

They don't attack or come onto the ground (ala "Congo") or anything like that, however you do not want to stand directly underneath the monkeys. It's been said before, and it will be said again: The monkeys know exactly what they are doing and folks have had to take an extra shower.

These guests were sitting by the river, and noticed that branches were falling down upon them. The wife joked that it was monkeys and they should be careful; the husband thought she was nuts.

The wife was correct.

Luckily, though, they escaped cleanly and were treated to a show of the howlers jumping around from branch to branch with their babies.

Ciao, Bella Verona. . .

Bella Verona, the wonderful Italian restaurant just a few miles up the road from us, shuttered its doors recently. The family opted to open up a restaurant in Ciudad Quesada, about 25 minutes from us. Quesada is a much larger city and the new restaurant, Italianissimo, is also much larger.

Guilliani and his son, Andrea, are running the restaurant and since it has opened, business has been booming. Patricia, the matron of the family, is going to open up Bella Verona on a limited basis to Tree Houses guests in the next couple of weeks.

We had some time a few days ago and were able to get up to Italianissimo to check it out and the place is gorgeous with several rooms, an expanded menu and wine selection.

Happy Mother's Day!

To Ma Eidson and Ma Aviles in Wisconsin and California, respectively. Also to Lucy down here, with her daughters Mini-B and Bejuca.

A happy day to all!

At last, license in hand. . .

Again, waiting at window No. 5, Lucy was the first to get her license. . . Luckily she noticed that the fellow at window No. 5 spelled her name incorrectly, so she was able to get it fixed then and there (if she would not have caught it, it would have been a massive process to get it changed later on).

About 30 minutes later, I was finally called, again, to window No. 5 and after the picture, my license was spit out of the printer about 5 minutes later, with everything spelled correctly.

Now, we are licensed to drive in Costa Rica with no issues.

The licenses are good for three years. If, by chance we let the license expire, then we're up the creek as we will have to take the written test (in Spanish) and the driving test. Can only imagine what the lines for that will be like (ugh).

Then, it was on to. . .

The actual office itself, the day after our exams. . . There are doctor's offices nearby the Cosevi, but considering there is a 1- to 2-hour wait for your blood type to be figured out, then more time for the physical, we opted to break it into two days. . .

It turned out to be a good thing, as we got to the office at 7:45 a.m. and were promptly shown to a shorter line for foreign applicants. We figured it was going to be smooth sailing, but the 30 or 40 Costa Ricans that were in another line, all moved through before it was time to open up the gate for the rest of us.

Step 1: Climb up the stairs, show our U.S. license with our Costa Rican residency card (three copies of each). A nice fellow looked them over, slapped some stamps on them, gave us back the copies and told us to head back downstairs to wait at window No. 5.

Window No. 5 wasn't moving quickly at all. This was where another fellow asked us if we wanted to get a motorcycle license as well, our address, etc., etc. Then he stamped some more papers, gave us a receipt and sent us off to the Bank of Costa Rica, where we had to pony up 4,000 colones to pay for the license.

This was only about a 5-minute walk, and I unluckily caught the fellow at the bank that does this on a coffee break. About 30 minutes later, I was back at window No. 5, about 10 deep by this time, waiting to return to show that I had paid for my license. . .

The first hurdle. . .

Is the medical exam. This can be done at any doctor's office that has the right forms, etc. This consisted of height, weight, blood pressure and some whacking of the extremities with a rubber mallet to test the reflexes.

There is also a blood test to see what your type is.

The exam itself took about 10 minutes each and most of that time was taken up with the doctor filling out the forms and asking us various questions. . .