Sloths!!

There were couple of reasons I was excited about Costa Rica..the beaches..and the sloths!! As you will read we visited many beautiful beaches which lived up to all expectations, and we also met a few sloths which I think exceeded our expectations! I don't think I had ever seen a sloth before, maybe in a zoo when I was a lot younger, but nothing that sticks in the mind, and the only thing I knew about them was that they are very slow animals that live in trees. We had heard all about the sloths of Costa Rica and were really hoping to see some in the wild, we were also very excited about visiting Avairios Del Caribe, a Sloth Rescue Centre that we had been recommended to visit by some friends.

Our first encounter with a sloth was in Cahuita, a lovely little uncrowded Afro- Caribbean beach town just north of Puerto Viejo. The town itself is great, sitting just next to Parque National Cahuita- a dense jungle of coconut palms and mango trees skirted by white sandy beaches stretching for miles. Another perfect beach..made even better by the group of howler monkeys playing in the trees above and behind us on the beach! One day after a long hard day of sunbathing and playing in the waves we walked back to our hostel and found a sloth walking around in the palm tree above!! Very exciting!! It was a two toed sloth and was lovely! He was so slow and graceful, we watched him for about an hour...and thus began our new found love for sloths!

The next day we got the bus half an hour down the road to the Sloth sanctuary, it was a very exciting bus journey..we actually couldn't wait to get there!! We met Judy, a lady from Alaska who started up the sanctuary. She had a B+B set up with her Costa Rican husband and one day 16 years ago, was brought an orphaned baby sloth. She'd never even seen a sloth before! However, she managed to nurse the baby back to health, named her Buttercup, and learnt everything she could about these mysterious animals- she now knows more than anyone in the world about sloths, and gets brought on average 10 injured or orphaned sloths per month to the sanctuary. So now Aviarios del Caribe rescues and rehabilitates injured sloths and cares for those that have been separated from their mothers. One of the main objectives, aside from caring for a growing number of resident sloths, is to educate the public about the sloth and to expose the truth about these creatures. We learnt so much about these amazing animals from the volunteers and the workers by chatting to them and actually meeting the sloths too!

We were very excited to meet Buttercup, the long time family member and star attraction of the sanctuary. The three toed sloth sat on her hanging chair and looked down on us wisely, every so often picking up a bit of greenery to munch on, but doing very little else! We met lots of other sloths who live at the centre, three toed and two toed. I think our favourite part of this wonderful day was meeting all the little babies- there were about 20 little ones in baskets and boxes all over the place, some of them had literally just been brought in the day before after sadly being found without a mother. They ranged from days old to months old and some were tiny! They were absolutely amazing...maybe the sweetest baby animals ever!! We watched them being fed and being given medicine..in fact we sat and watched them for hours!!


A few sloth facts we learnt..Costa Rica has both two-toed and three-toed sloths. Two-toed sloths are light brown and have lovely, seal-like faces, while three-toed sloths have the characteristic raccoon-like stripe around their eyes and a whimsical grin. Both types of sloths move as if in a tai-chi class--deliberate and in slow motion. Sloths spend most of their lives upside down in the trees and most of that time sleeping- an average of 15 hours a day (amazing!!). Camouflage in the canopy is their main form of protection, although they can also defend themselves with their sharp nails. They are incredible creatures and it was so good to learn so much about them, and spend so much time with them too!