Lattice House

26/09/2021

26/09/2021

Recently seen in orchard Sept. 2021

26/09/2021

The staff has seen our beautiful resident boa down near the orchard several times recently. This video was taken in the evening and you can hear how excited Ana's girls were to see it. We have been looking, but so far haven't been so lucky.

26/09/2021

Back at Lattice House in the beautiful rainy season. So far, glorious mornings and cooling tropical rains in the late evenings. Most mornings wakened to the howlers and a huge family of young coati mundis visiting the tropical sapote tree outside the bedroom. This morning there were both coati mundis and white faced capuchins in the tree together, a rare sight, plus a male and 3 female Great Currassows struting around below. So happy the Currassows have stayed around after taking up residence during the pandemic. They are usually very elusive, but seem perfectly content to emerge from the jungle periodically and hang around.

08/11/2020

The borders have opened up and I am sohappy to be back at Lattice House. Thanks to tropical storm Eta, it rained constantly the first few days, but finally we have gotten a break. The birds and animals have appeared, including this beautiful anteater, who we spotted up a tree. He casually climbed down, the ambled across the lawn, oblivious to the attention.

04/07/2020

July 4 and I am reminiscing about all the raucous 4th lifeguard fundraising parties at Roca Verde--great music, dancing, barbecue, and flowing margaritas!

This year, all quiet in Reserva de Achiote. A beautiful boa (as yet to be named) has been hanging around the Lattice gardens. Orapendolas, which I had seen flying around Lattice in October, have finally started nesting in a palm by the road. Love their long, hanging nests, but glad they have set up house further down the road--they can be unbelievably loud. The trails are cleaned and waiting for us to return, and the mangosteens, "mi fruta favorita," will be ripe later this month. I will sure miss them!

27/06/2020

Update from Costa Rica: Costa Rica continues to monitor Corona cases actively, tracing and quarantining any new cases and contacts. The government announced yesterday that they plan to reopen the airports on Aug. 1 to international travel from countries that have contained the virus. They have not said yet which countries that includes, but officials have indicated the EU, UK, and Canada are the most likely. They are putting strict airport arrival protocols in place.

It seems as though it may be quite a while before I can return. In the meantime, I am reliving some of my fondest memories through photos. These are from a visit two years ago this week by my dear friends Terry and his lovely wife Nivien. Nivien took the beautiful photo of Terry and me sharing my favorite time of day--- dawn when the rainforest begins to wake up and I begin to to wake with it with a great cup of strong Costa Rican coffee.

We celebrated Nivien's birthday with a tropical fruit "cake" and had a fascinating lunch with Jack Ewing, an iconic figure who originally came to our area as a cattle rancher in the 70's. He soon saw what ranching was doing to the environment and became THE leader in the area to protect the rainforest and the animals in it. All of us and all the animals who now live and prosper in our area of the southern coast owe him a huge debt of gratitude for his foresight and continued dedication to the cause.

04/06/2020

The latest update from Costa Rica. CR has started opening up very slowly, with restaurants and businesses opening at reduced capacity, driving restrictions lessened and beaches slowly opening (from 5 am to 8am, insuring locals only). The June 1 government update extended the international travel restrictions to June 30, with the hope that flights and tourist activities can resume by July. However, there were 37 new cases (mostly in the north) yesterday and 57 the day before, the largest daily increases to date. We are all anxious to open up travel and tourism. I, myself, cannot wait to get down to Lattice House, but we are thankful that the government is being so cautious. I know when I finally make it, there will be no safer, more healing place to be than Lattice House. One bonus: Ana reports that with so little comings and goings on the property, the animals are teeming. We all hope that they will continue to feel so safe and protected, and we can all peacefully share and enjoy Reserva de Achiote.

In keeping with my pledge to post more pictures, I am taking a point of personal privilege and posting a few family pictures from last summer's trip by two of Jim's sons, Tom and Jeff, and their families. Jim would have been so happy that the kids and grandkids love it as much as he did.