As promised. . .

Here's a picture of the birthday girl riding with Alberto here near the Arenal Volcano last month.

Alberto is the brother of Juan Carlos, who does the volcano trips and hot springs as well as other outings.

Mom and dad hit the trails on Alberto's horses (he has the best in the area and has built his house over their stables) and Juan took the pictures.

More to come. . .

Happy Birthday!

To Ma Eidson, one of our faithful three readers here at the Jungle Journey. Ma and Pa were just down here and we're searching for some appropriate pictures to put up here on the blog, we just haven't found the incriminating, er, correct, ones yet.

If anyone wants to know how old Patricia Maxine is today, you can always ask her, but it's best done from afar!

Sloth alert. . .

This is something you don't get to see every day, even when you're living down here in Costa Rica.

Toot, toot, II

It appears that the hotel has picked up another Trip Advisor.com kudo. The other day, Lucy noticed that Tree Houses Hotel Costa Rica has been named the No. 1 hotel in all of Central America for families.

How this is all figured out is still a mystery to us, and it comes on the heels of the hotel being named best service in the region and No. 11 for service in Central America.

We did get a plaque for the first honor in the mail about a week ago (it was about three months after the hotel was first honored) so perhaps another will show up around July.

Construction update. . .

Yep, these pictures are a bit outdated, but we were gone and this is what we have. This is the Yiguirro tree house, the newest one. It's nearly all finished now. This is the view from the lookout point that extends 6 feet past the normal patio on the other tree houses.

The first guests are due to check into the Yiguirro on April 11 and while all the doors and windows are now on it, there is still quite a bit of work to do before the first folks arrive.

Update II

Here's a look at the inside. Now there are beds inside and the cabinets, etc.

This is from the back end looking out and you can see the front of the lookout through the door in the center.

Nearly everything is in place. However, being Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday was Semana Santa (Holy Week) not a lot is getting done during this time, as everything, save for tourist-related businesses, are closed down during this time.

Aw crud. . .

With the new tree house ready to open, we finally had a good rain around here (the first in a long time).

We all guessed wrong: The new tree house is facing the rain, so when it comes down, the lookout gets soaked and the first six stairs catch a lot of water as well.

Palomino and the boys are coming back on Monday and there will be a flurry of activity to get everything done and ready and keep folks dry on their porch before April 11, when the first guests check in.