This is the veiw down from the second floor, its quite high. there is a person in red on the rock in the middle of the picture, this is where the previous shot was taken.

This is the lower floor by day complete with Tobys exellent benches. Can you imagine a finer place to drink Rum? The wall to the right of the picure looks down to the top of the waterfall many meters below. It was not untill we slept there that we noticed that you can actually here the water all the time, we were working so hard we never noticed

Here is a night shot of the lower floor lit by candles. I like this one.

Finally the Pictures!

Here is the Structure seen from underneath, it gives some idea of the scale of it, it towers above. You can clearly see the 'Rum Shack Chic' look we were going for to full afect!

Back. This evening finds me in Hackney, tired and traveled and more than a little sad. It seems a little like a strange and wonderful dream that i have just awoken from. Nothing like the mean streets of Hackney to bring you back to earth. Its cold here. There are no trees. I miss Las Pozas.
Its not all doom and gloom though, its been great to see friends and share the experience with them and also a sense of relief and pride to have actually done what we set out to do. We built a Tree house, shit, we built a really good Tree house and all in 8 days. It has two floors and a roof, is at the top of a cliff and can house 20 people or so, i am happy about this. I didn't know how or what we were going done in the time we had and was really dreading a scenario were we made something we weren't happy with. It has seemed quite a responsibility to be putting something in this amazing place and also to be among the first to do so. Its a honour and a privilege but it can keep you awake at night.
This last week has been a test of both mine and Toby's physical and mental strength, it has been really hard. Just getting to work in the morning leaves you breathless and dripping with sweat and not in a good way. But we have been lucky. We knew that time was really tight and that for us to pull it off we would have to have no set backs. So many stages of the build could have thrown up a heap of different problems and any one of those could have cost us days. Days we didn't have. every project i have worked on before has always had this element to it, that unseen problem or mishap that you haven't accounted for. Now, i am not saying that we planned this to such fine degree that we negated this, far from it. We were just really lucky. Here's a good example; for the second floor we had to fix a bolt to the tree, from this bolt we had to attach a steel cable for the beam to sit in. this in turn had to correspond levelly (is that a word) with the upright. This could have taken a couple of hours of messing about but the first cut we eyeballed approximately just happened to be absolutely bang on. Now this is all well and good but it also needs to relate to the opposite side of the structure whose level is dictated by the position of the branch on which the beam sits. Again just eyeballed the initial cut was again bang on. This could have taken an epic amount of time, indeed i pretty much expected it to but no, it just worked. The Tree house Gods have smiled upon us.
This has not been the work of just two people though and there are many people i wish to thank. First and foremost Zaira Linnan, an incredible, wonderful woman who made the whole trip possible and looked after us all with amazing grace, pinche Zaira! Bob Pulley, again this trip could not have happened without the trust and faith that this man put in us. Toby Rzepka, the silent partner in this blog, nice boots man. The dudes of Las Pozas, Unhill, Fleur, Benjamin, Obert, Carlos, and all the rest of them, muchos gracios amigos! To the Tipi folk, Rudolpho and Gina, super chido man! To Fanni, the beatiful girl with the beautiful words, thanks lady, your a professional! To Hugo and Didier, cool road trip man, shame about the the chingaro policia. To the people of Xilitla, Erica, the master of ceremonies and a cool girl alround, to Don Kako for his warmth and hospitality, to Pein and Ronaldo suppliers moi fria cereza at the end of a hard day. To Dex, it was great sharing this experience with you. There are a whole heap of peole that i am probably forgeting at this point but i haven't slept for 2 days or so, forgive me.
It has been an incredible adventure and something that will always stay with me, i love Mexico and the people within it. Still no pics, my camera wanted to stay, pics soon, for my sake as much as anyone elses.
i got to sleep..........

a week in treehouse making in the jungle can be a long time. This time last week i was, to be frank, shitting myself about how this project was going to turn out. Today we have run out of wood and are well òn the way to finishing the structure. The week has been busy and incredibly hard work, carying 6 meter lenghts of wood that is so heavy it sinks up the side of a mountain is about as bleak as it sounds. It has been worht it though, to see the tree house take shape has been really rewarding. We have had good help this week, firstly by a great guy called gaetan, he really got theproject kick started and then later by the workers of Las Pozas. We have the first floor completed and the structure of the second floor ready for decking. the ecound floor is what we are most proud of, its maye a 100 feet of the river below, the veiws in both directions are just mind blowing. We have been so lucky to get to build something where we have, in England they would have just laughed at us, the health safety people would have just freaked. It feels safe and secure but you definetly need to have a head for hights. I know that pictures have been repeatedly promised and as yet still no pics, i think it may have to be next week now, best things come to those who wait.
The time is coming to an end and this is sad. Have met some incredible, beautiful people and have felt really welcome and at home here. The experince has felt like some strange dream and i think it will be a while before what we have done here sinks in.
more news soon but for now, good bye

The Swiss Ambasador

OK, this shall have to be quick. Wood Update: still none. Hopefully though, by the end of the day we should have 300m of Atate, a kind of Bamboo thats used in local construction. How we get 300m of Bamboo up a near vertical cliff face in a wet jungle, real quick i am not sure. Its going to be really good to get have some materials but its als quite frustrating as we cant start until we get the Pairaiso tomorro. Mañana, mañana. So tomorro we take delivery of this paraiso stuff, its very durable, lasts up to 50 years and has a fine grain almost like box wood or something, really excited to be working with that. So tomorro should be when it all gets started, that is it would be were we not having lunch with the Swiss Ambassador and his family. Just another day in the life. Have been in 2 diferent newspapers this week, the Casa de Arbol is already big news, though at the moment it is a pretty modest structure of one beam! Things should start moving quickly once we get thwe materials we need, its been really tough this week, we know we have so much to do but have not been able to get stuck in. Time is so precious at the moment, we have so little of it. Going to look into changing flights and maybe get a little more time, we can but try.
keep promising pictures and yet again have let you down, pictures soon, pictures soon.
All things considered life is good, we are all having a good time of things but will sure feel a lot better once we are able to start working properly. To describe this week in a line; character building..........