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A.M. Costa Rica third newspage
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San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 5, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 68

Up a tree about where to stay in northern Costa Rica?

By Donna Lynn Norton
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

About 10 years ago, Carlos, José, and Osvaldo Morales del Castillo, noticed that land in Costa Rica was fast being converted for agricultural and housing use. The local animals were losing their habitat. So the trio decided to save some animal habitat by converting it into a combination unique tree house hotel with an animal and nature preserve. Some 78 acres in Santa Clara de San Carlos were chosen, and they began construction around 2002.

The TreeHouses Hotel, having exclusively tree houses, is unique in Costa Rica as far as the owners know. They researched how tree houses are built around the world. For one of the tree houses, they installed steel braces without damaging a large tree that grows in the middle of it. The other tree houses are anchored by steel braces to a tree. They brace each of the tree houses in such a manner as to allow them to sway with the wind, but so that they will sway in only one direction, to maintain safety and integrity of construction. The tree houses have been available to rent since 2003.

The owners planted 6,000 native fruit trees, to accommodate the animals in the area, including the cecropia tree, whose circular leaves feed the sloths. On the property is a sloth with babies, armadillos, howler monkeys (who live around the waterfall), kinkajous (honeybear), lapas (macaws), parrots, toucans, hummingbirds, butterflies, and motmot birds, which live underground, just to name a few.

The trails are for walking or driving. Anyone with a four-wheel drive car can travel the entire trails, for sure. Walking all the way from the front of the property to the end of the property took a reporter about three hours round-trip, going all the way to the River Vieja, stopping on the way to see the waterfall and natural pools. The natural waterfall is finished off with rocks and concrete, leaving the bottom of the pool natural. This flows into another natural pool, which flows into another, and then another. There are two change rooms with a bathroom and a balcony with chairs above the waterfall. At the end of the trail is the River Vieja, which is like a paradise scene from a movie. There are river otters and fish, and a very nice large beach and covered rest area. All along all the trails are several rest stations, one having an outdoor grill.

Travelers can’t miss the TreeHouses Hotel sign in Santa

A.M. Costa Rica/Donna Lynn Norton

This guest unit surrounds a growing tree.

Clara, Florencia de San Carlos, which is off the main highway between the very popular tourist area of La Fortuna and the town of Florencia de San Carlos. One of the tree houses is visible from the main road. Plus there is a map on the hotel Web page.

Right now there are three tree houses, with many more planned to be built. The tree houses are made from the wood of the trees on the land, are built up high on a platform, have an air-conditioner, a bed downstairs and 2 beds in the loft, a refrigerator, coffee-maker, and a hot-water shower.

Two of the tree houses have a walk-around balcony, and one has a balcony only in the front, but the price is the same: November 1st - May 29th, $75 per night for 2 people, plus tax. The rate is $10 less per night in the other months of the year.

Recent book becomes an excuse to start complaining

I have been reading Nora Ephron’s latest book, “I Feel Bad About My Neck.” Her book is a series of complaints about the changes wrought by aging. I am past ranting against aging but not past complaining, and she has put me in the mood.

My telephone was cut off early last week because, ICE said, I had not paid my bill for two months. Actually, my bank had not paid my bill, since it was being paid automatically. After almost two years they discovered a discrepancy between what the bank and ICE have as my cedula number. The fact that my bank and ICE occupy the same building and ICE is the telephone company didn’t seem to help them communicate. My upstairs neighbor also had his phone cut off for nonpayment. So we both dutifully paid what we owed, and an hour later he had his phone back on.

Not so mine. After two days I inquired about it (I was really getting to hate the recorded woman who kept telling me I couldn’t use my phone until I paid up — Once I even yelled back at her, “I have paid up you stupid person!” Or words to that effect, but they had no effect.) More visits to ICE resulted in being told that there was a glitch in the computer that handled turning on phones with my prefix. I told them about my neighbor whose phone has the same prefix. A shrug told me I could draw my own conclusion.

After going through a quiet weekend during which the phone never rang once, I decided perhaps it was finally time to get a cell phone. With the help of my friend James, I bought a nice phone and then got it connected through the same company that turned off my land phone. And now, after a lesson from James in how to operate these incredibly complicated and intimidating little bits of electronic, I am back in communicado with the world.

Even during Semana Santa I am a news and political junkie and, of course, have my opinions about both.
Colony Collapse Disorder is the label being given to the mysterious disappearance of bees in the United States. Some are dying by the thousands, others just disappearing. This is a grave situation because bees are vital for giving us honey and for pollinating so many

Living in Costa Rica

. . .Where the living is good

By Jo Stuart
jostuart@amcostarica.com

plants and trees that are essential to our health, not to mention the devastating effect it must have on the social order of bee communities.

I don’t know who came up with the phrase colony collapse disorder, but it seems an appropriate definition of what is happening in much of the human world. It even could apply to a sick human body, which is, after all, a colony of cells. Meanwhile, all over the world, human colonies seem to be collapsing or in disorder.

In the U.S., President Bush and some Republicans repeatedly have made the charge that politicians in Washington should not try to micromanage the war. They should, we are told, leave that to our generals on the ground who are trained to do this work. It is generally acknowledged that for the past four years the generals on the ground and the secretary of defense have botched the job of managing the war. It is hard to imagine that Congress could do worse.

And finally, the escalating crime that is threatening not just the people who want to live here peacefully, but the reputation of Costa Rica itself.

Ms Ephron’s complaining resulted in a best seller. I have a feeling my complaining is just going to result in letters to the editor telling me to stop complaining.

Jo’s book, “Butterfly in the City: A Good Life in Costa Rica,” is available at the 7th Street Book Store, Lehmann’s and Liberia Internacional. Or contact Jostuart@amcostarica.com.


	From a hotel owner: 'At this time we have a deposit and all looks good!! Thank you for your help, and I must say your paper is impressive, and I had no idea you had such a circulation around the world. Received many inquiries for our hotel for that reason.' She used our classifieds!

You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE!

A.M. Costa Rica fourth news page
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San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 5, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 68

Calderón government targets the powerful drug cartels

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

A top Mexican official says the new government plans to take action against the country's powerful drug cartels.

The official, Deputy Attorney General Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, said the goal is to greatly reduce the power of the cartels by the end of the six-year term of President Felipe Calderón.

Mexico's drug cartels are considered by many experts to be the most powerful, and deadly, in the Americas. More than 2,000 Mexicans died last year as a result of drug-related violence. Calderón, installed in office in December, has already sent more than 30,000 federal police and troops to a number of areas, including his home state of Michocan in western Mexico, to root out traffickers who are terrorizing local people there.

Santiago Vasconcelos, who is in charge of combatting organized crime, said the drug cartels' power must be curbed by at least 70 percent by the end of Calderon's six-year term.

Mexico is an important transit point in the illegal drug trade of the Americas. Many of the drugs originate in Colombia and pass through Mexico on their way to customers in the United States. Sharing cross-border intelligence with the United States, Santiago Vasconcelos says, is key to defeating the cartels.

"The principal tool of the fight is cooperation and the interchange of intelligence. The intelligence is the circulatory system of the body of the state," he explained.

The deputy attorney general said he believes the forces dispatched by the Calderón government have already made important strides against the cartel, but he says it is essential that the pressure be maintained.

"It's very important to continue the efforts and continue the application of the law. It's very necessary," he added.

Santiago Vasconcelos concedes that many more Mexicans will die before the illegal drug trade is defeated, but he says the forces of law and order, and ordinary people, must be prepared to pay that price.

Military men linked to bloody rights abuses in Latin America held in U.S.

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

U.S. law enforcement officials have announced the arrest of three former South American military officers, an Argentine and two Peruvians, who are suspected of war crimes.

The officials say former Argentine military officer Ernesto Guillermo Barreiro was arrested in Virginia, about 75 kilometers west of Washington, D.C. He is alleged to have been the chief interrogator at a clandestine detention

facility during Argentina's so-called Dirty War in the 1970s and 1980s.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say the two other suspects, former Peruvian military officers, are alleged to have been involved in the 1985 killing of 69 people in the Peruvian village of Accomarca.

Telmo Ricardo Hurtado was arrested in Miami, and the other suspect, Juan Manuel Rivera-Rondon, was taken into custody in Baltimore.

Castro continues his criticism of using agricultural crops to produce ethanol
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services Ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro has published his second editorial in a week criticizing U.S. President George Bush's bio-fuel policies. In the state-run newspaper Granma Wednesday, Castro repeated his argument that using agricultural crops to produce ethanol for cars could deprive developing nations of food and condemn millions to hunger and death.	Castro has not appeared in public since temporarily handing power to his brother, Raúl, last July before undergoing intestinal surgery. Cuban officials have said the 80-year-old leader is recovering, and could soon take a more active role in government. Cuban media have released photographs and video of the president, however, to put down rumors of his demise.

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San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 5, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 68

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A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage
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San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 5, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 68