Would you like some ice?

The other night, around 9 p.m., some guests came down to the house/office and rang the bell. They were definitely enjoying their time in Costa Rica.

When the editorial department went outside to see what the ruckus was. A young lady was outside with her friend, teetering every so slightly.

Editorial: Good evening, what can I do for you?

Teeterer: Can we have some more ice?

Ed: Not a problem!

T: Can we order pizza?

Ed: I'm sorry, but they're closed for the night.

T: Oh. . . Can we get some more ice?

Ed: Here you go.

T: Can we get a pizza?

So close. . .

Have you ever been waiting for a flight and then hear the folks at the gate calling for volunteers to give up their seats for travel credit, etc.?

That was the case for the editorial department when I was headed up to the States. The art department had left a few days earlier to get some time in California, and I was traveling solo.

I heard the call and bolted up to the desk and was first in line. The offer was a $500.00 credit, plus hotel and shuttle for the night. The flight would have gotten me to my final destination just 12 hours later, so it was perfect.

Traveling alone, it was a great opportunity to pick up some credit for future travel. After 20 minutes waiting at the desk, the fellow told me that someone skipped out, and I could get on the plane.

However, by that time, my seat was given away and rather than being on the aisle in the front, I was stuck in the rear of the plane by the window.

A bummer all the way around.

Anteater sighting!

Anteater cool sighting! Rolando and a couple of guests saw a young anteater just at the start of the trail down to the waterfall and river the other night.

The guests were walking with Rolando (who is here six nights a week) and got some pictures, which were really cool and hopefully they will put on the hotel's facebook page.

It was a rare sighting, they're usually further back in the jungle.

If you go to our facebook page, you can scroll around for the great video some guests took some months back of an adult anteater crossing a log on the river at the end of the trail.

Shudder. . . (snake). . .

While I was walking around and showing the owners some of the changes here at the hotel, I noticed a dark frog that was sprinting along, and went up onto the porch. I turned and watched the critter, pointing it out to the owner, who shrieked. I didn't realize she had an aversion to frogs. Turns out she didn't. There was a snake, about 2.5 feet long, that was less than 6 inches from my leg.

The snake had reared up and was eyeballing my calf like it was a turkey dinner. I scooted out of the way and the snake went into the brush. Just had a quick look at the critter and afterward, researching it with Rolando in the guidebooks, came to the conclusion that it was non-venomous. That's my story and I'm sticking to it, or else I'll wet myself everytime I think about it.

Good grief. . .

You just never know. The other day, some guests from Chicago checked in, and they thanked us for opening up the gate. Not a problem, we do that for all of the guests here at Tree Houses.

Then, they thanked us for having a sloth on the gate. Huh? Sure enough, there was a sloth hanging on the side of the gate. Miguel went up and got the critter off of the gate and put her up into a tree, where she was much safer (and happier).

You just never know when (or where) you're going to spot some of the wildlife.

First try at video. . .

Apologies if it doesn't come out. With being basically on dial-up down here, it can take forever to get a picture up and loaded, let alone a video. Hence, you may see several videos, one or none.

This is Akila, which our vet near here sent to us while we were lollygagging in the States.

Akila is the one with the bandana on the collar (art department's choice), and she is having a blast with the other pups.

Back in the saddle. . .

We returned from a great time in the States, where we were able to visit family and friends. Most of the time was spent in Wisconsin, where, truth be told, it was a wee bit on the chilly side. There was even some brief snow flurries one evening that had all of the TV meteorologists a-twitter.

It was a great and relaxing time and much food was consumed (much to the chagrin of the folks sitting next to the editorial department on the plane ride back) and was really great to catch up with everyone.

We returned to a full house (somewhat unusual for late October) and it appears that we'll now be pretty much fully booked until the end of August or early September of 2014.