Go fish!

Another busy week at Hush Valley Lodge. Last Sunday, we welcomed Nickie and Alex, a young couple from Chicago, Illinois. They were with us for two nights. On Monday morning, they witnessed the draining of the casita pond and the catching of the fish (which we do every Monday) for Roberto. After that chore, Kevin gave them the tour of the property, then they fished for their dinner, and after lunch they went on the coffee tour in Santa Maria.

You can read their guestbook comment here.

After we are done with cleaning the trout on Monday mornings, we dump the entrails into the river where other animals will feast on the spoils... usually, we can count on the vultures to make the rounds. One comes around to check what's available and flies away... within minutes there is a volt of vultures resting in trees along the riverbed. As scavengers, they scope, they dive, they dine, then they leave... they're pretty efficient. I think they've caught on that Monday is an all-you-can-eat buffet at Hush Valley Lodge. If you look closely, you will see black shapes on the branches... and this is just one tree... there were many more in surrounding trees.

On Wednesday, Kevin and I drove down to San Jose to buy a laptop charger. Mine was on the brink of disrepair. I couldn't move my computer without the wires disconnecting, which was worrisome and annoying. We found an Apple-equivalent store called iCon and bought a new charger to replace my defective one. Yay!

Thursday was clean-up day. Friday, we welcomed Isabelle and Guillaume - both from France, but currently living in New York. Although their English is perfect, I did get the opportunity to practice my French, which is always fun.

They, too, caught their dinner... an activity that is always a big hit.

It's not unusual for our guests to add doodles with their comments in our guestbook, but Isabelle outdid herself... she drew a whole storyboard with 'inside jokes' that no one else will understand except for Kevin and me. So, I won't bother explaining all the images, but I will share her creativity:

We said goodbye to Isabelle and Guillaume this morning. I quickly cleaned the guesthouse and did the laundry and welcomed Monserrat, Jefferson, Ariel and Victor. We had met Monserrat and Jefferson a year or so ago when they came to visit with our mutual friends, Diego and Fer. We received an email from Jefferson earlier this week asking if we could host them for the day. They came for lunch (yes, they caught some fish) and enjoyed an afternoon of eating, relaxing and walking around on the property. It was great to see them again, and lovely to meet their friends. Monserrat's father operates a coffee plantation and processing plant in San Marcos. They sell their coffee to Starbucks and they are one of the few farms that grows Geisha (a coffee variety). Geisha has a really smooth taste with no bitter after taste. We love it. We're thinking we might try to grow a few plants... Monserrat did mention that this particular variety would most likely do very well at our elevation because it likes the cooler temperatures. Good to know!

Here are Ariel and Victor having caught their trout. Ariel's is the biggest trout, we think, that's ever been caught at Hush Valley Lodge. It was huge!

As you can see, it's been another busy week. We're emptying the casita pond of all the remaining fish tomorrow. This week, we'll be transferring the fish from the big pond into the casita pond... then transferring the fish from the chicken pond into the big pond... and then some of the fish from the cedro pond into the chicken pond. And of course, we have more guests arriving later in the week, as well. Never a dull moment.

The weather has been glorious: blue skies mostly with a slight breeze. The days have been hot and the nights have not been too cold. Our guests have not needed to use the wood stove. We've had misty rain a few times, which is great for the grass and flowers, and lots of rainbows, too. I don't hear anyone complaining.