Raising The Roof On The Voodoo Lounge

  Many moons ago I was involved with a timber operation in the remote wild lands of Central America. My accommodation during this adventure had gone from the front seats of vehicles, a hammock hung in the jungle, to a musty smelling tent. Things progressed along and it was decided the time had come to move up in the world, plans were drawn up on a notepad one night and some of the guys were put to work on a cabin located in a quiet corner off by itself.

 The timber was cut ourselves of course, and I recall it took under a week to get to the point of being ready for a roof. We used local materials when possible, and a native style thatch roof was the logical choice.

 Mendoza was the diplomatic jungle foreman, under his supervision a crew were dispatched to the woods to collect thatch palm.

 Bundles were stockpiled back at camp.

 Several of the most experienced hands were sent up to weave the palms into the roof structure.

Jose was a good man around camp, he was put to work cutting discs off of logs to be set in the ground as a walkway. I had seen this done at some resorts down there.

The completed structure, the Voodoo Lounge as it became known. Residence upstairs with a commanding view of the camp from the veranda, an office on the lower level, and just a short walk over to the cook shack. It was pretty bare bones in there, just a bed, with a wooden frame built over it to hold a mosquito net and a wooden crate or two for furniture. Note the log paving rounds Jose and his helper did. Someone suggested, it could have been me, to incorporate a skylight over my bed, just to make sure I didn't sleep in or something. Sounded like a good idea and with no little amount of effort a clear panel was procured from a distant city on the Caribbean coast and installed in the roof as the thatch was going on, and as far as I know may have been the first time a skylight was incorporated in a native thatch palm roof.

 Neither the skylight, or the thatch ever leaked a drop, even in the rainy season.