Happy 49th Anniversary!

To Ma and Pa Eidson. Of those 49 years, 45 have been, of course, completely blissful.

A tardy post, though we have had spotty Internet access and been just swamped down this way.

The folks celebrated with breakfast and dinner out today, and are planning a return trip here to Costa Rica next year. First off, though, is a train trip from Wisconsin to Washington, D.C., and back in a couple of weeks.

Next year is the big 50th anniversary, and everyone is invited. Just head on over to Madison and we'll find a place for you to crash and enjoy the festivities!

Really, this is how you vacation?

The other night, when Rolando--our trusty night watchman--was off, we had some guests that didn't close the gate when they drove back.

This is not a difficult task; we give the guests with cars a remote (it's a garage-door opener) that opens and closes the gate. You press the button once to open the gate, and then you press it again to close it. It's not rocket science, but it is nonetheless amazing to find out how many people cannot figure it out.

Anyway, some yahoos left the gate open, and around midnight, Lucy got up and decided to check on the gate. Sure enough, the gate was open. She closed it, and heard something on the side of the house.

She walked around and saw a mother and her teen son sitting in a car. They were North American, and had apparently driven in (despite the sign that says "No Vacancy" out front) and parked the car. The disheveled mother asked Lucy if we had any rooms for the night, and we did not. Then the mother asked if she and her son could sleep in the car in our parking lot. Hmmmmmmmmmmm, sorry, but you need to move on. They looked a little shifty and they went on their sleepy and merry way to Fortuna, just up the road about 25 minutes, where there are more than 100 hotels.

Very odd.

Where, oh where. . .

Is Cooter? We could use a good mechanic down this way.

Cars are expensive down here (a $2,000 beater in the States runs around $7,000 or $8,000 down here) and there is always something wrong with the cars, due to the rough terrain, etc.

We've been having issues with a 1998 Pathfinder down this way, and we thought we had a good mechanic, as he speaks English and is a genuinely nice fellow.

That was until he got ahold of the Pathfinder and in addition to fixing what needed to be fixed, he messed up several other things.

It went from being no cost for the fixes to six or seven times the amount quoted for the "quick fix" and now it's just a big mess.

Hence, I did what any red-blooded goober would do: Turned over the phone to my lovely, fluent-in-Spanish wife, who promptly bawled him out for dragging things out and running up the costs. It wasn't too long after that call, that the owner of the shop called and tried to explain things, but he didn't get far as the lovely and talented Lucy told him to shut up with the technical stuff and have the car to us in two days--or else.

We're still figuring out the or else part, but there's a good chance the car will be back with us sooner than later.

There are various theories about mechanics here in Costa Rica, and none of them are good: shiftless, drunken thieves seems to be the kindest terms. All of which means, I need to buy the "Idiot's Guide to All Things Mechanical" on our next trip to the States, in order to hopefully avoid situations like this again.

Tooth tales. . . again. . .

Well, it seemed that the ear infection was the major cause of the tooth pain. However, after all was said and done, and a couple of fillings were put in, about four days later: more pain in the same back molar. Only with the cold stuff. Very strange.

Back to the dentist, who sent me to another dentist with a full X-ray machine for the mouth ($25.00 cost). Back to the dentist with the film, and then some filing down of said fillings--as well as using some type of aerosol cold spray that she shot onto my teeth to try and find the problem--and probably some enamel as well (no charge).

Finally, the dentist said she could not find anything wrong. I told her it was probably all in my head, and she assured me it likely wasn't (very nice lady). She copied the X-rays and e-mailed them up to the lone dentist in this prefecture (kind of like a state) that does root canals and specializes in the big-boy jobs.

One thing about down here: When they treat you for something (medically, be it an ear infection or tooth issue) once they charge you, that's it. If the problem persists, they take care of it afterward for no extra charge.

For those that are curious, the two small fillings that were done cost a total of $60.00 ($30.00 each). That is out-of-pocket, no co-pay, nada, just the straight price. Considering that gringos/haoles/gaijin pay a bit more for stuff down here, that is still a very good deal. The all-around X-ray of the teeth was $25.00.

Tales from the Odd Side III

The other day, we had a guest come through our gate, and two cars tailgate through the gate. The guests staying here, drove up to their tree house, the other two cars pulled in. At the time, I was setting up a zipline outing for some other guests at our house here.

The folks that pulled up in their cars hopped out and the one lady said, "Hi, I'm Kathy, and we have a reservation."

No worries, this happens occasionally when folks roll through the gates before hitting the intercom. We were waiting for one other tree house to check in, and the name on the reservation was for a Kathleen.

I grabbed the reservation form and started talking to the guests, who were starting to amass around the cars they came out of. Kathy said that their numbers had diminished and they only had seven people, not the original nine that they had reserved for. I looked at the reservation sheet and and it was for four people. Something was amiss.

Turns out, the two carloads of people were booked for the next three nights, not the day they showed up. They had the same first names, which didn't clear matters up any too quickly.

The folks were initially upset "We booked these three nights!"

However, when we went to the e-mail string, the confirmation and reminder said three other nights, starting on the next day.

We found the folks two rooms at the university's hotel about 5 minutes away, and they returned the next day to check in, and everything was fine.

I did toy with telling the folks that we had been expecting them yesterday when they did show up for real to check in, but figured that would be too mean-spirited.

So much for that diagnosis. . .

There's a reason I never went to medical school. Turns out blisters and rash on my arm weren't caused by poison ivy.

I was talking with Rolando and he took a look at it and knew what it was immediately. It took a few minutes for me to figure out what he was trying to tell me, but it's from a spider. It's not a bite, it's spidey-wiz, pee, urine.

I sure didn't see a spider, and don't remember getting wet, but Patricia confirmed Rolando's diagnosis the following day.

The best thing for it is achiote, which is a fruit that has red seeds and grows in the jungle. However, it is also ground into a paste and people use it for cooking. It's bright red/orange and really stands out when you put it on a pasty fellow's arm. It seems to have done the trick, as the rash is subsiding (though it's hard to see through the red paste).

Rain? What rain?

The other day we got some e-mails and phone calls from concerned guests. They had seen the news (mostly on CNN.com) about the flooding in Costa Rica.

They were worried that they would be unable to get to us. The rains have been lighter than normal this year (we're not approaching drought stage, but it is very dry) so we were a bit baffled, until we looked around on the Web.

The Caribbean Coast, usually very dry at this time of the year, had been hammered by rain and the rivers were overflowing and a lot of roads were closed. That is quite a ways from us, so we didn't know much about it. We had some guests that made it from the Caribbean side to us a couple of days ago, and they said it took a while, but they were able to make it over just fine.