Day 2: Sloth Sanctuary

Well I hope you like pictures of sloths, because that's mostly what you are going to get today.  We barely made it to our 7 am tour at the sloth sanctuary, but just made the 6:30 public bus and got there 3 minutes early.

We went on a canoe for wildlife watching.  We saw a few things, but most exciting was our/my very first wild sloth!  A 3 toed male, and a pretty good view.  After that we had breakfast and joined some others for the standard sloth tour.  After that the behind the scenes tour began.

We met Buttercup (bottom left), Oprah (right) who was super active, and you have no idea how badly I wish I could remember that other sloth's name.  He was weaned too early and used to suck on his hands and has the same condition that happens to children who use a pacifier/suck their thumbs - an open bite, meaning his teeth don't touch, meaning there is nothing to hold his tongue in.  Pretty funny.

Next we got to see the toddlers climbing around their jungle gym.  The two bottom corner photos are from the nursery, those sloths are just a few days old.

Next we met Samantha.  Samantha was easily the highlight of this tour, and quite possibly the highlight of our whole trip.  Here she is crawling out the door, dying to meet us.  She was seriously so excited.

She very clearly chose Aaron to hold her first.  Everyone has asked about the claws, we did not feel threatened by the claws, although in the wild they will use them for protection.  The interesting thing though is that they can squeeze tightly with them.  Press all your fingers together, then fold your fingers toward your palm.  That's kind of how those claws work.  She grasped pretty hard with the claws on her legs, and even left little holes in Aaron's shirt.

Video here:

Oh man, I love her.

In order to process all this wonderfulness, we needed lunch, so we got our first casado.  Rice and beans, protein (or veggies), plantains in some form, a salad, and often extra things like half a hard boiled egg, cheese, or whatever they have on hand.  It is my favorite and I ordered it many times.  I like that you always/never know what you're going to get.  This one had patacones, the fried plantains on the bottom left.  We learned how to make these.  I much prefer these, which are made from plantanos verdes (green plantains).  Plantanos maduros (ripe plantains) are often pan fried lengthwise and taste more like bananas, which I abhor.

Then we had to reflect some more over plantain chips at the hotel.

Then we wandered over to Cahuita National Park for wildlife watching.  Lots of monkeys.

Another wild sloth!  What, you don't see it?  I am not feeling bad for not seeing a single one on my first visit to Costa Rica, those suckers are hard to see.  Someone showed us this one.

Here it is in all its glory.

The beach

Hermies everywhere.

And another casado...mmm.