Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Raccoons in lobby of Capitan Suizo Hotel

This looks like a house cat lounging around, but it is a wild raccoon who spends its days in the woods around Tamarindo and who comes to the Capitan Suizo Hotel in the evening for the food that the hotel puts out for raccoons on the balcony of the hotel lobby.

After dinner, some of the raccoons like to lounge around the hotel lobby. Similar to hotels in Hawaii, hotels in Costa Rica are usually open-air, rather than having walls. This allows the raccoons to wander in if they feel welcome. Guests enjoy watching the raccoons, and watching the reaction of people who walk through the lobby and initially see a raccoon from their peripheral vision and assume it is a cat, then do a double-take upon realizing that it is a raccoon.

I previously posted the bottom two photos on this website on August 9 and August 10 of last year. They show how friendly the raccoons are, as one of them walked right up to take a look at me and my camera, and the other raccoon was happy to groom himself as a human family sat on the floor with the raccoon family.


We will often see raccoons walking beside us along the street as we walk from our condo in Langosta towards Tamarindo for dinner. The raccoons live in Langosta, which is a quiet residential area, and they walk to the Capitan Suizo Hotel for dinner. At times we will see raccoons and olingos walking around our condo building.

The Capitan Suizo Hotel puts food out for the raccoons in dog dishes. The hotel also has an elevated walkway draped across the street from a telephone pole so that howler monkeys can cross from the forest across the street to the trees on the hotel grounds without having to walk across the road and risking being hit by a car.

The Capital Suizo hotel was built in the 1990's by a couple from Switzerland who had fallen in love with Costa Rica. The couple tries to help the Costa Rican environment by providing a habitat for animals on the hotel grounds and refraining from the use of pesticides in the hotel gardens. They also report on the hotel website that 90% of their employees are Costa Ricans.

The employment of Costa Ricans is an issue that made news recently. The Chinese are building a new stadium for Costa Rica in the capital of San Jose, at a cost of $90 million USD. Costa Rica is grateful for the aid. The Chinese have brought 600 Chinese construction workers to work on the project and are employing only 200 Costa Ricans. Their explanation is that they have scheduled the construction crews to work in shifts around the clock and it is easier to do that with crews who are living in temporary housing on the site.

The Chinese workers will be rotated in for two months at a time. The Costa Rican newspaper interviewed them to ask how they felt about the experience. Their comments were about the same as all visitors to Costa Rica. They said that they were amazed at the natural beauty of Costa Rica and they hoped to have the opportunity to travel around the country.

40 comments:

brattcat said...

I wonder if this is how the cat and dog became domesticated.

Kate said...

(This is my second attempt to post here; hope it works this time!) These photos are quite remarkable and emphasize the "domestication" of these particular raccoons. My niece once had a pet raccoon which eventually had to be turned over to the zoo (in St. Paul, MN) because it became too unmanageable as a household pet. I wonder why these particular raccoons have become so tame?

Sharon said...

He seems perfectly content there and not the least bit bothered by your picture taking.

Janet said...

This critter has got it made!

Julie ScottsdaleDailyPhoto.com said...

Raccoon City!

Judy said...

Raccoons are very cute to look at but I'm not sure I would want one in my living room. Interesting information about the workers.

Jilly said...

how absolutely amazing. I've only seen raccoons in Ohio and crazy wild ones who make a dreadful racket and can actually do a lot of damage. Incredible to see tame ones or pretty much so, it seems. Great shots. Lucky you.

glenda said...

This guy seems quite at home. Very smart animals to take advantage of the hotels hospitality.

angela said...

An interesting post. Whenever I've read about raccoons it always seemed like they were not welcome so it was lovely to see your photos of the animals in the hotel. What sweet faces they have. I liked the idea of the walkway for the monkeys. If I ever come to CR I'll stay in that hotel..

Anonymous said...

Yeah for your raccoons. I had a family stay here for one summer. They were magnificent animals. I really like your photos of them.

Unknown said...

How cool to have a racoon as a pet! He looks like a cat or a dog on someone's house. So cute!

How wonderful your collection of old books must be! A 1791 edition?! Fantastic! I don't collect them, those volumes belonged to my grand-grand father and are now with me as well as a few others.

Lilli & Nevada said...

Now that is a fantastic photos he looks right at home

Anonymous said...

What exactly are some great Tumblr blogs where
you can submit photos, to get more followers?

My web blog: Bloghi.Com
My web page :: Dental Plans

Anonymous said...

I know this site provides quality based articles or reviews and additional stuff, is there
any other site which offers such stuff in quality?

my web-site :: Root Canal
Feel free to visit my weblog ; PBA Dental

Anonymous said...

Therefore i'm not familiar with joomla but I would like to use to create a website. My only trouble right now is getting it attached to Yahoo hosting I how to start what to do... Can anyone direct me to some site or forum with this or tell me just how do it? Greatly appreciated, thank you..
My site : a

Anonymous said...

Wow, awesome weblog format! How lengthy have you ever been running a blog for?

you made running a blog glance easy. The full look of your
website is great, as smartly as the content material!


Also visit my web page :: http://donshost.x10.mx/
Here is my web-site - dental plan

Anonymous said...

How can i use my wordpress theme on my regular subpages?



my web-site ... wiki.owars.de
Take a look at my webpage ... Paxil Birth Defect

Anonymous said...

Everyone loves what you guys tend to be up too. This kind of clever work and reporting!
Keep up the excellent works guys I've included you guys to my blogroll.

Also visit my webpage: revitgg.nl
Also visit my web page ... affordable dental plans

Anonymous said...

I seriously love your site.. Very nice colors & theme.
Did you create this amazing site yourself? Please reply back as I'm planning to create my very own website and want to learn where you got this from or what the theme is called. Thank you!

Also visit my page: http://communityoftalents.nl/w/index.php?title=How_Can_You_Get_Vaginal_Yeast_Infection
Also see my webpage :: cheap dental plans

Anonymous said...

The big drawback is that the tabs are submitted by users, and
they are often inaccurate. Ultimate-Guitar has licensing deals with several major publishers,
but some music publishers say many of these tabs also
represent an illegal use of their copyrighted material.
Controversial Cell Phone Ad http://Tinyurl.com/bx5hgfb Sawyer joked with Stephanopoulos Tuesday morning,tweeting, "Hey @GS tephanopoulos, know you're in the middle of @GMA but let's talk. Ringing you now." Last Resort
If you have tried the above suggestions, and still have problems leaving your device, consider getting a cheap cell phone to use
when you are not at work. You will still be able to
make phone calls and send off a text message, but fewer features will mean fewer interruptions.
Maybe you will even decide you do not need that
$30 data plan that your cell phone carries and save
yourself over $400 a year.
Also visit my web-site : reverse cell phone look up

Anonymous said...

Thanks to my father who informed me on the topic of
this blog, this web site is in fact awesome.


Here is my web site - what is a root canal
My web page - what is a root canal

Anonymous said...

Wonderful post however , I was wondering if you could write a litte more
on this subject? I'd be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Bless you!

Have a look at my web blog - Http://ut-s.flash-it.org.ua/?Q=uk/node/227888
My web blog ... discount dental plans

Anonymous said...

Is really a computer science degree any good for computer forensics?


Also visit my web site ... transvaginalmesh411.net
Stop by my web blog ... transvaginal mesh lawyers

Anonymous said...

This page really has all the information I wanted concerning this subject and didn't know who to ask.

Stop by my website ... 2810.a.hostable.me
my website :: dental insurance plans

Anonymous said...

I'm extremely pleased to uncover this site. I wanted to thank you for your time due to this fantastic read!! I definitely really liked every bit of it and i also have you saved as a favorite to look at new things in your site.

My homepage - http://artsonet.Com/index.Php?Do=/profile-29491/info/
Also see my site > individual dental plans

Anonymous said...

Hurrah! At last I got a website from where I know
how to actually get helpful information regarding my
study and knowledge.

Check out my web blog; pba-dental.com
Here is my weblog : PBA

Anonymous said...

I will immediately clutch your rss as I can not find your email subscription hyperlink or newsletter service.
Do you have any? Please allow me understand in order that
I may subscribe. Thanks.

Here is my blog: Root canals
my website > Root Canal

Anonymous said...

Hello, Neat post. There is a problem together with
your web site in internet explorer, might test this? IE still is the marketplace
chief and a big component of folks will omit your great writing because of this problem.


Also visit my blog http://marketbookmark.com
Feel free to surf my weblog - affordable dental plans

Anonymous said...

I every time used to study paragraph in news papers but now as I am a user of net thus from
now I am using net for content, thanks to web.

Here is my homepage: africanamericansupersite.com
Look into my page - individual dental plans

Anonymous said...

Hi, I do believe this is an excellent blog.

I stumbledupon it ;) I may revisit yet again since i have book marked
it. Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be
rich and continue to guide other people.

Look into my weblog; schule.bbs-haarentor.de
Visit my page - individual dental plan

Anonymous said...

Good day! I simply wish to give you a huge thumbs up for your great info you've got right here on this post. I am coming back to your website for more soon.

my page cost of a root canall

Anonymous said...

Does your site have a contact page? I'm having problems locating it but, I'd like
to shoot you an email. I've got some suggestions for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great site and I look forward to seeing it grow over time.

Here is my webpage; American Health Advantage Scam

Anonymous said...

An interesting discussion is worth comment.
I think that you ought to publish more on
this topic, it may not be a taboo matter but generally people do not talk about
such subjects. To the next! Cheers!!

Feel free to surf to my web page: www.pipeyanguas.com

Anonymous said...

Admiring the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information
you present. It's nice to come across a blog every once in a while that isn't the same
unwanted rehashed material. Fantastic read! I've bookmarked your site and I'm adding your
RSS feeds to my Google account.

Also visit my weblog: www.yallapedia.com

Anonymous said...

I have been surfing online more than 2 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.
It is pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all webmasters and bloggers
made good content as you did, the web will be a lot more useful than ever before.


Also visit my web page - Root Canals

Anonymous said...

I would like to change my home page to a different page with
wordpress, is it feasible?.

Also visit my homepage :: Http://Armaua.Com/Blog/41437/Foul-Mouthed-Disco-Diva-Labelle-039-Hurled-Bottle-Of-Water-Over-Pregnant-Mo/

Anonymous said...

Hello there, You have done an incredible job. I'll certainly digg it and personally suggest to my friends. I am confident they will be benefited from this web site.

My web blog :: Root canal treatment

Anonymous said...

Hello there, You've done a great job. I will definitely digg it and personally recommend to my friends. I am sure they'll be benefited from this website.


Here is my website :: http://www.Hollandenetwork.com/DawnaSpra

Anonymous said...

I do not drop a leave a response, but after looking at through a few of the remarks here "Raccoons in lobby of Capitan Suizo Hotel".
I actually do have a few questions for you if it's allright. Could it be simply me or does it appear like a few of these responses appear as if they are left by brain dead individuals? :-P And, if you are posting on additional online social sites, I'd like to keep up with everything new you have to post.

Could you post a list of the complete urls of all your social networking sites like your twitter
feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?

My weblog ... Ccgi.Jonkerr.Plus.Com

Anonymous said...

Fundamental Elements For shoes Explained
A Guide To Factors In bag
No-Fuss Methods For bag - An Analysis
A Background In Advice Of bag
No-Hassle bag Programs Considered
Painless Plans For bag Described


http://www.tenxu.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1630256
http://www.wanggoutiantang.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2707733
http://assagenti.my-jet.net/it/node/17791
http://first-led-lighting.com/led/blog/comments/81602.html
http://www.fhyt1.com/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=17527&extra=

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...