Blog 8: To Sleep in a Tree

 

 

I don’t think I ever imagined what it would be like to sleep in a tree but now that I have, I can say that the experience is magical. Wendy’s friend Kurt has made an enviable life for himself in Mal Pais, which is a surfer’s town south of Playa San Miguel by about 20 miles. It took us nearly three hours to drive there however, due to the rutted conditions of the dirt road, three river crossings

This crossing was shallow due to the dry season: we shared the crossing with a herd of cattle

and the numerous stops we made to check out trees, photograph birds, and enjoy the beach scenery.

One two mile section of the road runs along the beach: this is a tighter section below cliffs

Kurt is an inventor, welder, surfer and all-around do-it guy. He and some friends built this swimming pool because they were getting hot building his house and once those were completed, he started looking up at the immense trees on his jungley property and imagining houses in them.

Kurt's homemade swimming pool

This is the first one that he built which you enter via a trapdoor in the floor that is counterweighted by welded together rocks which makes it easy to open and close.

Trap door counterweights

The treehouse is cozy but has everything a regular house does including bathroom with shower, fully equipped kitchen and a balcony perched up in the tree branches. The same branches wind through the rooms and remind you where you are let you forget because of the space and comfort there.

View from upper bedroom of kitchen area with balcony beyond

How much a part of the jungle I felt going to sleep cradled in the branches of that huge strangler fig and waking up again in between the rustling leaves!

As good as that was, the troop of White faced Capuchin monkeys that tried to break in while we were gone to breakfast was an added bonus to life in the trees. Curious, agile and incredibly athletic, these little old men primates, poked and prodded the door, picked at the windows and then as we approached, hopped into the giant bamboo and literally ran along the curving tubes.

Once in the safety of a fig nearby, this little fellow searched around, picked insects off the branch, and then got comfortable on his version of a big comfy tree couch.