Babies and Goodbyes

Rachel here. Well...sadly, our time at Aviarios del Caribe Sloth Sanctuary has come to an end. I am posting this blog from our air conditioned hotel room in San Jose. There are no bugs, (save for the roach that stowed away in Paul's suitcase...), no crabs, and no bats. You can flush toilet paper down the toilet. We had a lunch today that did not include rice and beans.Yes, we have returned to civilization.

Before I wax poetic about how difficult it was to leave the sanctuary, and what a great experience this has been, I would like to share something much more fun! On our last full day at the sanctuary, we had the opportunity to visit the "newborn" baby nursery/ICU. You see, the babies we have referenced in previous posts- the ones we get to take out during "baby time"- live in an outdoor nursery. These babies are a bit older (most of them around one year), and decidedly stronger and hardier. If you visit the sanctuary for a tour, you will get to see these babies. Tucked away in Judy's (the owner's) personal living quarters is a secondary nursery. This nursery is climate controlled, and it houses baby sloths who are newborn (or close to it), or requiring intensive care. These sloths are kept in incubators, and often times, they must be fed around the clock. This is why the nursery is attached to Judy's bedroom; it enables her to conveniently tend to the babies at all hours of the night (she does so tirelessly!). Accessing the nursery required us to walk through Judy's personal living space (yes, Judy lives full-time on the grounds of the sanctuary!), which is basically a moderately sized studio apartment. The apartment is air conditioned (a RARE luxury in this part of CR), and nicely appointed given its location. She has even rigged up a clever contraption entailing a large flat screen TV suspended from the ceiling on a swiveling mechanism, enabling her to watch TV in bed or from the couch in her living space. Not bad! And of course, sloth knick knacks dotted every surface.

On this day, there were four babies inhabiting Judy's nursery, all of whom were choloepus, or 2-toed sloths (Sadly, there should have been five. Earlier in the week, a baby 2-toed named Rolo passed away. We have tried to keep the blog light-hearted, but the sanctuary has its share of sad tales, to be certain). It was so interesting to observe the four little babies in the nursery, who are CLEARLY already developing very distinctive personalities. Without further adieu, I give you, the babies of Aviarios:

1. MOJO
Mojo is far and away the tiniest resident of the sloth sanctuary at the present time. He is 4 months old, and weighs just over 450 grams. That's a bit less than one pound. As a basis for comparison, the sloths living in the outdoor nursery regularly take poos that weigh 450 grams. He is incredibly tiny for his age; you will see in a moment what a 5 month old 2-toed looks like, and it will be apparent that Mojo has much catching up to do. Judy hypothesized that Mojo was probably a twin, which would explain his tiny size...sloths sometimes give birth to twins, but they are not equipped to care for two babies, so unfortunately one baby will be rejected. Mojo is already experiencing a variety of health challenges, including possible blindness in one eye, and more importantly, problems with digestion. He doesn't have a regular output schedule right now, and his tiny tummy must be aspirated on a regular basis to remove excess gas and fluid. Mojo has a long road ahead of him, but he does have a good appetite, and has already managed to double his weight since his arrival (if you can believe it). In any event, given his size, it's somewhat of a miracle that someone actually stumbled upon him, ALIVE, at that.

Introducing: tiny baby Mojo

Mojo, having a good snuggle with his stuffy

Not too tiny to enjoy an almond leaf snack!

2. Snickers
Snickers is a handsome, chocolate colored 5 month old choloepus. He was dropped off at the sanctuary during a 48 hour period that apparently featured an unusually high volume of new arrivals. Judy was trying to decide how to manage the slew of new sloths, and she found herself heading across the street to the little roadside pulpería in order to stress-eat a Snickers bar- hence the name :)  Snickers has a scrappy personality, and seems to enjoy giving fake-out kisses that quickly turn into nibbles!

Handsome Snickers!

Now that's a mischievous little face.

 3. Linus
Then, there's Linus. He is something else all together. My first introduction to Linus, a 5 month old choloepus,was this: Linus was sitting in a large plastic bucket, which was on the floor. I had my back to him, and I was standing near the bucket, looking at Mojo, who was in an incubator. Suddenly, I felt something repeatedly touching my leg. I turned around, and discovered two little sets of claws frenetically trying to grab me. Linus was hanging over the side of the bucket, violently flailing his arms, and gnashing his teeth, trying to bite and claw anything he could reach. He did this without resting for the duration of the time I spent in the nursery. Maybe it's because I work with kids who are more or less the human equivalents of Linus for a living, but I sure did find myself endeared to his crazy antics ("problem behavior" sure is a lot cuter when the perpetrator is a sloth, though, I must say...). He was just great. I could have watched him all day long. I predict that he will be able to graduate to the "outdoor" nursery before too long, though I am not sure how the volunteers are going to be able to take him out to exercise him. Maybe he'll outgrown his "bitey-ness"...then again, maybe not. One notable thing about Linus is this: if you look very closely at his pictures, his lower lip is slightly deformed. This is because Linus sucks his claw! This is the equivalent of a little kid who alters the alignment of their teeth from thumb sucking!

Grabby Linus!

He may look cute and cuddly, but I know the truth...

 

 

...and HERE IT IS!!

4. Sally
Last but not least, meet baby Sally. She is a pretty little 5 month old Choloepus. Sally is the sweetheart of the bunch. She has a lovely, mellow personality, and she loves to cuddle her stuffy. She enjoys being held, and she gives wonderfully sweet little sloth kisses.  I predict that she is going to become a real favorite amongst the volunteers once she graduates to the "big girl" nursery.

Sally...see her a lovely, full "mane"?

Paul and Sally

Paul gets some sweet Sally kisses. Look closely...see her little tongue?

 

She seems to be an equal opportunity snuggler.

Visiting the nursery was certainly a fun way spend our last morning at the sanctuary. Can you say cute overload?

The rest of the day was bitter-sweet, as we went on to complete our daily tasks for what would be the last time. It was more difficult than I imagined, knowing that this would be my last opportunity to spend quality time with these amazing creatures who I have grown so immensely attached to over the course of just two weeks. I would be lying if I said I didn't find myself more than a bit sad at the end of the day! We capped off our final evening by playing some silly card games with our new found friends, which was great fun. I will miss the wonderful people we met during this adventure ALMOST as much as the sloths. :)

We left the sanctuary at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning, and our bus arrived thirty minutes early, making our final goodbyes even briefer than we had anticipated. In all honesty, this was probably a good thing! At the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy, I received the best "goodbye" I could have possibly hoped for from Joy, my favorite sloth. I had genuinely been dreading this moment for several days; I knew it would be hard to say goodbye. I entered the area housing the adult sloths one last time, and since it was very early, I was not surprised to find that 95% of the sloths were still snoozing. Most of them wake up only once breakfast has been served (I guess the only thing greater than sleep is food!). Joy, on the other hand, was wide awake, climbing around her enclosure. As soon as she saw me standing outside of her cage, she climbed onto the chain-link door, stuck her head through, and gave me a series of sweet little kisses. You may recall that in an earlier post, I described Joy as a semi-crazed, "bitey" sloth who is constantly getting into trouble. She is a bit infamous amongst the other volunteers, and even the staff. In short, she doesn't really give kisses unless they quickly turn into bites. This morning was different...just kisses, no bites. When she was satisfied with our interaction, Joy retreated to the back of the enclosure, climbed under a towel, and went to sleep. I didn't even have to walk away from her. She let me know when it was time for me to go! It was a wonderfully sweet way to leave my friend.

Joy. I will miss this face.

I don't really know how to put into words what an incredible experience this has been. The memories we have made over this short two week span are sure to last a lifetime. The sloths have left a series of permanent, two-toed and three-toed imprints on my heart. :) I will not soon forget the (human) friendships we made during this adventure; it would not have been nearly as much fun without the wonderful group of volunteers we shared this experience with. Finally, special thanks to Judy Arroyo, for sharing her home and her precious family with us. The hospitality extended to us throughout our visit was amazing, and it was incredibly touching to see how much passion Judy continues to possess for these incredible creatures, even after all these years. It is highly evident that every new sloth who arrives to the sanctuary is just as important and special as the first (OK, OK...maybe as important and special as the second. Buttercup is a different story...). This is a special place, run by special people. If you ever find yourself in Costa Rica, I strongly encourage you to seek out the Aviarios del Caribe Sloth Sanctuary. Take a tour. Meet some sloths. I promise, they won't make you clean up poo (that costs extra). I hope this was not my last visit to the sloth sanctuary, and somehow, I don't think that it will be. So, in conclusion: Pura Vida! Thanks for reading!

Sloths on the Move!

Howdy folks! Paul here, checking back in from Costa Rica with some of the latest happenings here at the Sloth Sanctuary as our time here winds down (update: still full of sloths).

Our days have a fairly set work schedule, beginning at 6am and ending around 3:30 or so… but sometimes, situations dictate slight changes here and there. Lately, we’ve had an influx of volunteers, and with our numbers as they are we’ve been able to split tasks and get more done. For instance, most days at 11am, we all begin the process of peeling/chopping/cleaning vegetables for the afternoon feedings… the past couple of days, however, some of us have missed “veggie time” (darn!) in lieu of tasks like yard work, etc… Yesterday, while Rachel and I were raking leaves (and hauling them to the compost pile in the adjacent jungle), we heard a call from the balcony above. The balcony belongs to Judy Arroyo, the founder and head everything of this place (well, human-wise, anyway. Buttercup would object.). Judy, who is an amazing woman with a complete dedication to her passion project here in the Central American jungle, was asking our help with a project; and when Judy asks, you answer! It so happens that two sloth babies (2-toed variety, Becca and Bianca) were ready to graduate from the tiny infant nursery in Judy’s upstairs apartment (more on THAT house of cute wonders in an upcoming post) to the regular nursery downstairs under Claire’s watchful eye. To get the big nursery ready for the babies’ arrival, Rachel & I were asked to move a large bookshelf up a few stairs into a small loft area above the nursery, clearing space for two new babies on display in the nursery. This is big news, because it’s not only a major step in the lifecycle of the sloth, it’s also a major stop along the tour when guests come and visit the Sanctuary….. so as of yesterday, Becca and Bianca are open to the public!

There was still much ahead in the way of movement, however….  One rare case here at the Sanctuary is that of Juliet and Joy, mother & daughter 2-toed sloths who were separated into different enclosures a while back once Joy became an adolescent. Joy, who was on Rachel’s original sloth roster, is wonderful and completely crazy. She flies around her cage, tries to grab passersby, and has literally ripped apart her charts (which hang on a clipboard outside her door).  Recently, Judy & her staff made the decision that Joy was going to hurt herself and needed to move back into her original enclosure with her mother, Juliet. To do this, Juliet was simply carried over to the old enclosure, while Joy had to be completely sedated. Once this was done, we were put on shifts watching Juliet and her sedated daughter Joy in their old/new home, making sure they were adapting well and there was no fighting or other incident once Joy came out of the anesthesia.  I went into the enclosure and surrounded a sleeping Joy with almond leaves, since she would undoubtedly be hungry and could use the food and comfort they’d provide once she came to. Luckily, once Li’l Crazy finally came to, they got along smashingly! This morning, we arrived to the cages around 5:50 to see them asleep together, huddled under a towel. Seems like Mom & Daughter are happy to be back together again!

Then, there’s the case of Harpo, the juvenile (and very fuzzy) 2-toed who hails from the Monteverde area (meaning he has a MUCH thicker coat than most sloths). We noticed that Harpo’s stomach was incredibly bloated… it looked like he’d swallowed a volleyball. He’s already on a special diet, and on his chart we could see he hadn’t used the restroom in a while, both causes for concern. The Sanctuary veterinarian, Marcelo, gave Harpo a sedative before examining him…. Moments later, while we were in another enclosure, we heard a light “thunk” behind us, only to spin around and see little Harpo had clunked off his little pole and fell onto his platform (just a few inches, no worries, but I think the sedative kicked in!!). Later, we heard Marcelo had effectively drained 2 liters from his stomach, and today he’s been good as new (and much slimmer, I might add!).

At the end of the day, Claire, the volunteer coordinator, called a meeting and announced they were changing the layout of the “sections” of sloths in the enclosures. It’s much clearer now, with color coded numbers on the clipboards, etc., but it was a bit of a bummer when the shape of my section completely changed and I lost several of my sloths. Still, my new crew is pretty great (looking at you, Pokemon and Gypsy!) and I’ve enjoyed “meeting” some new sloth friends these last few days.

Our dinners are getting longer and longer as our volunteer numbers grow, which has been fun. We’ve met lots of new friends, and have had a great time over dinner the past several nights. Wednesday night after dinner, we took a nighttime jungle walk led by Judy’s grandson Jeff, and then last night we had “movie night” on the big screen in the exhibition hall where tour groups start their way through the sanctuary.  The jungle walk did reveal plenty of spiders, scorpions, “leaf bugs”, etc., and I was kinda-sorta prepared, armed with my iPhone flashlight app (I told you, I’m a city guy, and I know this). What could have been a negative – there were way too many of us in a single file line, and we were mostly unable to hear Jeff up front- turned into a positive, as we spent 90% of the time laughing hysterically at nonsense with our new friends Phil and Yvette, who are as delightfully crazy, fun, and hysterical as we could hope. Movie night (Puss n’ Boots won in a group vote) was cool, as we filled bowls of popcorn, lit some mosquito coils, and watched the movie together on the big screen. The only negative was how stinking creepy the Humpty Dumpty character’s face was.

Our group of volunteers has grown by two since we last checked in, adding Eitan (Israel) and Bec (Boston). It’s a wholly eclectic group, with tons of different age groups, backgrounds, and interests (including some who errantly drink blue chemical water at dinner thinking it’s juice and some who bring a suitcase of tiny hats and mustaches to try and dress the sloths in). Unfortunately, it will soon drop by two, as Rachel and I head north to San Jose for a couple of days of “decompression” before flying back to Texas. I’ve had an amazing time, but would be lying if I said I wasn’t salivating at the thought of air conditioning and restaurants.

Anniversaries, 3-toed Sloths, and Poison Oak

Rachel here! Well, I just got done taking a nice, hot shower, complete with a 2” cockroach peeping Tom perched atop the shower curtain rod, voyeuristically staring down at me for the duration of said shower. I actually smiled after noticing him up there…9 days in the jungle and I think I am officially cracking up. Anyway, I will take a few minutes to catch up our faithful readers (a.k.a. our moms?) on the high points of the last two days.

Monday was our first wedding anniversary, and to celebrate, we had our second and final day off from work here at the sloth sanctuary. We slept in for as long as we possibly could, relishing every minute in bed beyond 5:30 AM, and then left the sanctuary in the early afternoon to take the bus into Puerto Viejo. While we were waiting for our bus, an amazing critter suddenly appeared on the ground in between Paul’s feet. We have seen countless weird and exotic looking insect species here in CR, but I feel that this guy deserves his own special picture: 

This handsome guy was about the length of my index finger

 He looks like a rubber party favor toy, does he not?! Speaking of pictures, the reason we don’t upload very many to the blog is that, on average, they take between 5-8 minutes apiece to upload. The wifi connection here gets the job done, but it isn’t great. And did I mention we are sitting outside, at night, while we are waiting for stuff to upload? You get the picture (no pun intended). 

ANYWAY. Puerto Viejo. Our anniversary. We spent a few minutes wandering around town, where we made a feeble attempt at doing a little bit of shopping. Sadly (or maybe gladly, if you ask my husband), nothing really struck my fancy. Many of the stores and restaurants were closed, as we learned that Monday in PV is the equivalent of Sunday in the states; lots of businesses are closed for the day. The restaurant we had intended on trying was unfortunately included in this category, so we had to scrap our intended lunch plans. As luck would have it, we wandered into an “eclectic” restaurant called El Dorado for lunch, which actually ended up being very enjoyable. We both ended up ordering Tex Mex style dishes, and I have to say, everything was every bit as good as I would have wanted it to be back home. The only real oddity was the use of shredded mozzarella cheese atop both of our dishes, and while it was a diversion from what you would expect, it actually worked very well! Before we headed back to the sanctuary, we stopped off for gelato…yes, Costa Rican gelato. It was actually delicious, even though I was heartbroken to discover that they were sold out of the cinnamon flavor I had so desperately wanted to try, after watching a fellow volunteer order some on our outing the other night. We hopped a bus back to the sanctuary before dark (along with an unsmiling man who was wielding a machete- no, I am not making this up…yeesh, and I was worried about whether the bus driver would let me on with an ice cream cone…) and spent a nice, lazy evening back in sloth country with the rest of the volunteer crew. In conclusion, it was a nice little day, amidst an amazing trip, and I am not sure how any of our future anniversaries will ever be able to top this one.

On to Tuesday! Today was a day of change. Our assembly of sanctuary volunteers has been rapidly expanding over the course of the past several days, having inherited a couple from Spain, a guy from Austria, and another guy from Israel. As a result, in order to accommodate all of the new folks, some “shuffling” has taken place regarding our sloth assignments. Basically, I was informed that I would be taken out of my section and moved to a different section, effectively losing “my” sloths, that is, the gang I have been caring for over the course of the past 9 days. There were logical reasons for doing this that I will not get into right now because they are somewhat logistical and boring, but in any event, I was still a little bit bummed upon hearing the news. As I have previously stated, it was ridiculous how quickly I became attached to all of the sloths in my section, and how quickly I had come to know their individual personalities. Anyway, I have been moved into a section that features something like sixteen 3-toed sloths, and four 2-toed sloths. I spent the morning learning how to care for the 3-toeds, as they have a completely different maintenance regiment than their 2-toed cousins. Even their diet is completely different! They do not get veggies, like the 2-toeds- they strictly eat the leaves and flowers of the cecropia tree. Despite my initial feelings regarding the switch, I am still certain that this is going to turn out to be a really great experience for a number of reasons. First, the 3-toed sloths have extremely different temperaments compared to the 2-toeds; they are far more sociable, and really seem to enjoy being around people. Many of them routinely ask to be picked up, and they seem to genuinely enjoy being held (case in point: Buttercup is a 3-toed sloth). In contrast, you cannot safely pick up an adult 2-toed sloth. I am also excited that I will be sharing this section with my new friend Yvette, from Australia. 

 She is a riot, and we have really been enjoying the company of her and her husband Phil on this trip. So, I think this will be fun!

We had a fun “baby time” today, of course! Paul especially enjoyed it, as he got to have his turn taking out Matty. As you may recall, Matty is the tiiiiny “fuzzy starfish” baby 3-toed I took out a few days ago. I will maintain my assertion from the other day: it is not possible to look at baby Matty without smiling. I took out a 2-toed name Poko today, and while Poko and I did not have any problems getting along, he was having a bit of a rough time relating to his sloth friends on the jungle gym. Namely, he was chasing them down and trying to bite them. Bully! Eventually, naughty Poko got the boot, and he was transferred to a secondary, private jungle gym made from PVC piping. This seemed to suit Poko just fine, as he didn’t seem to understand the big deal about climbing in the first place. In fact, he took this opportunity to lay down on the sidewalk and shimmy along the bottom rung of the jungle gym while scooting his back along the concrete. I’m pretty sure that he thought he was doing a very good job of convincing his onlookers that he was actually getting some exercise. This may be the laziest sloth behavior I have seen to date. It was really very funny.

Paul with baby Matty

I mean, seriously. Are you kidding me?

Naughty Poko, pretending to exercise. We're onto you, bud.

Once we had finished up with our daily chores, Jeff- the sanctuary owner’s grandson (around our age), who lives here and conducts tours for guests- offered to take several of the volunteers out on a canoe trip. We took him up on his offer, and our canoe adventure started out routinely enough. We spotted all kinds of brightly colored birds (including teeny, tiny humming birds), Jesus Christ lizards, blue crabs, bats, turtles, etc. After a while, Jeff stopped off at a tiny island to cut down some coconuts for us so we could have some coconut water. I thought it wasn’t bad…I don’t think Paul was a fan. 

Coconut water, fresh from the source!

Not a bad view

                                    

 Eventually, we made our way back to the dock, where another group of volunteers were hanging out, waiting for us. I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow, a canoe race was proposed. The other group put another canoe in the water, and we set out on the most frenzied, mismatched boat race ever. Our group’s canoe was powered by Jeff, who essentially does this for a living, and the other canoe was powered by, well…the combined efforts of a bunch of people who are just like us (essentially clueless). We quickly and predictably got so far ahead of our friends that they were virtually out of sight. Unfortunately, somewhere in the middle of the frenzy, our canoe drifted alongside the riverbank, and Jeff asked us to give him a hand with “pushing off” from the shore. I stuck my hand into the clumpy grass and shoved as hard as I could, and instantly, my hand, wrist, and arm began to feel like they were on fire. I started to see stars, and with a polite smile, I calmly asked Jeff, “so, is there poison ivy in the rain forest?” Jeff enthusiastically responded, “Oh, yeah!” Within seconds, my hand and forearm broke out into a series of maybe a dozen impressive welts. It didn’t feel great. Jeff informed me that I had probably in fact touched poison oak, and promised to give me something for it when we returned to the sanctuary. True to his word, he gave me some kind of fantastic liquid medication to put on the welts, and they almost immediately went down. They haven’t really itched since. If I survive this trip with only one little poison oak outbreak, and one little sloth bite (Wait. What? Did I not blog about that? Don’t worry, it was a baby bite, and hardly worth mentioning…), well, I think I will count myself lucky (you should see the bug bites on Paul’s legs. It’s not pretty, folks). 

Oops.

Signing off,

Rachel

Catching up with the Sloths (which isn't hard to do, mind you)

Well, being a couple of days behind (Paul here, by the way), rather than bore you with pages of rambling narrative I’ll kind of meander through bullet points covering our last couple of days here…

-          It’s definitely the rainy season here. From apparent weeks with minimal rain to, essentially, significant bouts of rain every day. They spring up out of nowhere, and are often gone just as fast (with the exception of the one half-day downpour). In fact, I’m writing this just after scrambling across to our room from the volunteer dining table in the midst of a sudden and steady rain…. And yes, it still makes the sloths go crazy each and every time. 

-          Speaking of crazy sloths, we’ve been woken up more than a few times in recent days by the screech of sloth mating calls. It just so happens that when the female sloth is in heat, she periodically lets out a loud, high pitched squeal. Apparently, the need to mate knows no clock, and this squeal has become a viable and predictable part of the ether here. Imagine the patience the females have to have… I mean, they’re sloths. It’s not like the boys can get to them very quickly, amirite?

-          We’ve begun cycling through volunteers rather quickly. In the past two days we’ve lost Nora (New York) and Alice (Australia), and gained Kate (Canada), Brianna (Washington), Mark (Australia), and Jorge & Angela (Spain). Tomorrow, we lose original Angela (Minnesota) and gain Robin (Germany).  Meanwhile, we soldier on with our established crew of Phil & Yvette (Australia), Jorge & Dusty (Peru/New York), and Michael (California). Got that? Good….. Seriously though, it’s a fun group, and the chemistry is good. We spend our days working with the sloths, and (early) evenings joking around the dinner table, which is fun (despite serving as a porterhouse for mosquitoes).

-          Speaking of, on the night of the 7^th we all went back down to Puerto Viejo to celebrate a combination of departures/birthdays, etc…  mastering the all-Espanol public bus system was much easier the second time around. We all headed down as a group after work, walked around the town a bit and had a nice dinner at a place called KoKi Beach (capitalized as they do). KoKi Beach felt out of place in the quaint beach town of Puerto Viejo…. PV itself is very small, very laid back, and devoid of flash or pretension of any kind. Things open late, the pace is slow, and you can literally walk the entire town in a matter of an hour or so. The restaurant, meanwhile, could have been in the lobby of a large Caribbean resort; trendy seating, thumping music, repurposed light fixtures, slick presentation, and an upscale Caribbean menu (not just Puerto Viejo upscale, Upscale upscale). Still, I’m not at all complaining…. Like everything in PV, KoKi was entirely open air… I don’t think there’s A/C in the entire town… and the breeze coming off the sea felt fantastic. And so, an evening with a table covered in steaks, salads, fruity drinks, and cuba libres with a view of the Caribbean (did I mention we were right on the beach?? Oh yeah.. that too.)… yeah, I’ll take it…. A welcome break from the rice & beans of the volunteer kitchen. Also, not to go off course, but you know how you can tell when a place is fancy? When the sink is full of volcanic rocks. That’s how.

-          A quick aside- when cockroaches here lie still on their backs for extended periods of time, they’re not necessarily dead. Just FYI.

-          Today during “baby time” Rachel got to take out Buttercup, the queen sloth herself. Buttercup is the reason this whole place exists, and is the oldest known sloth in captivity at 20+ years. .. she has a special throne (hanging wicker basket) upstairs, and she runs this place and knows it. Rachel was incredibly excited to get to take the Queen for a walk, and Buttercup seemed to enjoy it quite a bit as well. In the Sloth World, it felt a lot like getting some one on one time with a huge celebrity. Big moment.

-          One bonus of getting new volunteers in is the division of work. We’re all assigned sloths to clean up after and feed, and when we get enough volunteers we can split our sections. In the past day I’ve gone from being on my own with 20 sloths to sharing the load with a new volunteer. This allows me to spend more time with the sloths individually and to help out with other chores like hosing off cage floors, washing dishes, helping other volunteers feed, etc… it’s been nice to get the flexibility, and it feels comforting and even a bit surprising to feel in such a rhythm with all our duties. We’ve gone from being virtually clueless and tentative to confidently going about our business in a matter of days (though I’ve no doubt there’s still tons to learn!).

-          Oh, and since Rachel did it, I feel obligated to send a shout out to my crew: Grace, Li’l Angel, Fibo, Dulcinea, Cocoa Bean, Lightnin’, Opal, Pearl, Rosie, Bentley, Nala, Bodhi, Billy, Gabriella, Tippy, Mitzi, Oliver, Snap, Brandy, and Mowgli. That’s my sloth team, and the group that I’ve grown a good bit attached to the past 8 days. They each have a unique and amazing story of how they got here, and they each (really) have a very unique personality I’ve very quickly gotten to know. I’m gonna miss these guys, but it’s a good feeling to know they’re in such caring hands here at Aviarios. 

-          Also, what does it say that I learned my sloths’ names far faster than I learn my kids’ names each fall?

-          Tomorrow is our first wedding anniversary (what better way to say “I love you” than by being surrounded by sloths?), so we’re taking our second day off and heading into town for some shopping and a nice dinner.  We’re equally as excited about not waking up at 5:30am tomorrow, if we’re being honest here.

Well, in short, all is well here. We’ve fallen into a comfortable routine; the sloths are fantastic, as are the people. There are stories around every corner, and there’s nothing here that’s not beautiful and/or very interesting. I’ve come to enjoy unexpected things, like laughing like crazy at volunteer dinners, keeping sloths from bumping into each other on a jungle gym, the feeling on covering my legs in anti-itch cream, and the thrill of finding the spot with the best exchange rate in town (did I mention that PV has a guy who specializes in WORM BITES?? Try finding THAT in Dallas). Off to town tomorrow, with updates soon to follow. Adios!

Puerto Viejo and the Buttercup "Incident"

Rachel here! Well, today was our day off. Therefore, it was the most un-slothful day we have had to date here at the sanctuary…with one significant exception, which I will explain a little later. 

We celebrated our day off from sloth wrangling with a luxurious morning of slumber, staying in bed until almost 9:00 AM. Having adjusted to a 5:30 AM alarm clock this week, I am surprised we were able to sleep in even that late. At the suggestion of the sanctuary staff, we decided to take a public bus into Puerto Viejo to have lunch and wander around for a bit for the day. Unfortunately, the public transit system was a bit more complicated than we had anticipated. The bus stops here are completely unmarked, and there are no posted schedules of any kind. We sat at the sanctuary bus stop for a long time, waiting to be picked up, where we watched several buses whiz by without stopping. Nearly 45 minutes later, we were close to giving up, when a local woman sat down at our bus stop. Within a minute of her arrival, a bus began to approach, and the woman stood up and flagged it down. Lo and behold, the bus pulled over and picked her up. Apparently, you have to hail a bus the same way you would hail a cab. Otherwise, the driver apparently assumes you are enjoying a leisurely rest on the bus stop bench and have no immediate interest in transportation. We were able to flag down the next bus like old pros, and we were on our way. 

The drive to Puerto Viejo was about 26 kilometers, but took almost an hour to complete due to the number of stops we made along the way. I spotted a wild sloth during our trip, which was of course exciting, even with 150 of them waiting for me back at “home”. After some confusion surrounding where we were supposed to get off, we ended up exiting the bus at a stop alongside the beach. Town was about a half a mile away- the bus has already made a loop through town, but we apparently missed our stop- so we decided to walk along the beach and backtrack to where we should have gotten off. The beach was mostly deserted, and surprisingly unappealing. I may be spoiled, having grown up in South Florida, but the sand was covered in a thick layer of something that almost resembled dirt, or mud. Our feet and legs were covered in dirty muck in no time at all. The waves crashing onto the shoreline were much bigger than the surf I have seen in other Caribbean destinations. I understood today why Costa Rica is a major surfing destination. We made our way into town, and quickly discovered that this “icky” beach gave way into a small but pristine stretch of white sand beach, which was swarming with Americans. A handful of small restaurants, bars, and scuba rental shops dotted the shore. It was immediately apparent that Puerto Viejo is a popular, if not large, tourist destination (at least compared to other towns in this part of Costa Rica). We wandered around for a bit, and quickly learned that Puerto Viejo is relatively tiny. It consists of almost exclusively open-air bars and restaurants, some small local markets, and vendor stalls lining the beachfront. Interestingly, we noticed that a huge number of businesses did not open until 3:00 PM; apparently, this tiny little beach town has a big nightlife scene, though we never would have guessed it. We exchanged some U.S. dollars for Costa Rican Colones, and set out in pursuit of lunch. We were able to track down a spot that was recommended to us by a full-time volunteer at the sanctuary, and we decided to give it a go. It was a cute little open-air cafe called “Bread and Chocolate”; interestingly, we were one of 6 tables of guests dining in the restaurant, ALL of whom were American. We had a nice, light lunch of sandwiches and potato salad, and everything was very fresh and very tasty. At the insistence of the lady who recommended this place to us, we split a piece of ridiculously decadent, dense chocolate cake. It was fairly amazing. We didn’t do much “wandering” around town after lunch, since so many of the businesses would not be opening for a few more hours. We are thinking that we will go a bit later in the day on our next visit, so that we can get a better feel for what it’s like when everything is in full swing. I should add that we have no pictures from our Puerto Viejo day due to the fact that everyone advised us against bring our camera into town…apparently they have a bit of a pick pocketing epidemic, and I suppose a giant camera on a camera strap might identify us as tourists…though I am thinking that two white people walking around with a map probably contributed to that idea a little bit, even without said camera. 

Now. The sloth “thing” I was going to tell you about. First, before I launch into my story, I need to back up for a moment and tell you about Buttercup. Buttercup is arguably the world’s most famous sloth, if there is such a title. I met her 10 years ago when I visited the sanctuary on a day trip, and she made a lasting impression on me. She is the reason this sanctuary exists. 21 years ago, three little Costa Rican girls found an orphaned baby sloth, and brought her to their neighbor, an American lady named Judy Arroyo. Judy had taken in other orphaned animals before, but did not know anything about sloths. She attempted to do some research, and quickly learned that NO ONE knows anything about sloths. She was determined not to let this little baby- whom she named Buttercup- die, and Judy tirelessly experimented with a variety of around the clock care methods to ensure that Buttercup continued to thrive. Buttercup DID thrive, and for that reason, somebody else brought Judy another sloth…and then another…and so on. The rest is history. Due to the fact that Buttercup was the first sloth Judy ever attempted to raise, the care she was given was quite a bit different compared to the way sloths are being cared for today. Judy reasoned that baby sloths cling to their mothers, so she ensured that Buttercup had a human to cling to most all of the time. Buttercup was even allowed to sleep in bed with Judy and her husband! Clearly, the sloths that live here today are treated a bit differently. The point I am leading up to is that Buttercup still lives here at the sanctuary today, and her standard of care continues to be a bit different. She is the oldest known 3-toed sloth in captivity, and she widely considered the “Grand Dame” of the sanctuary. Buttercup spends her days lounging in a wicker basket, nay throne, which is suspended from the ceiling of the beautiful verandah located on the second level of the sanctuary. She peers down at her subjects, with her smiley little sloth face, and you get the impression that she truly believes that the entire sanctuary exists for her alone. She is frequently treated with hibiscus flowers, which is not something the other adult sloths normally have access to. For all intents and purposes, Buttercup is a cherished pet. To that end, nobody really handles Buttercup other than Judy herself, and a trusted full-time volunteer of the sanctuary. In fact, Buttercup’s hanging chair is boxed off by a red rope that surrounds her area, preventing anyone from getting too close. 

Fast forward to my story. This afternoon, we had just returned from town, and we headed up onto the verandah to buy a cold drink from the gift shop. Buttercup peered down at me as I paused to say hello to her, and I decided to take the opportunity to snap a quick picture of Her Majesty using my iPhone. As I waited for the camera to focus, Buttercup reached an arm out toward me. I didn’t think anything of it- sloths will do that- and I decided it would make a cute picture, with her reaching for my camera. As I waited for the lens to focus, Buttercup grabbed one of my fingers. She wrapped her three little claws all the way around, and held on tight. I quickly looked around to see if anyone was watching, and nervously attempted to place Buttercup’s hand back onto the edge of her basket (“No, no! I can’t pick you up- I’m sorry!”). She took that opportunity to grab my finger with her OTHER hand (“Buttercup…I can’t!”).…and, then, still clutching my finger, she began to climb OUT OF HER BASKET (“BUTTERCUP!!!!”). Suddenly, I found myself in a flustered power struggle with this highly off-limits (yet very sweet) lady sloth, and the next thing I knew, she was in my arms. I held her for a few seconds that felt like an eternity (just long enough for Paul to snap an elicit picture!), and then I quickly solicited help and ushered her back into her basket. Apparently, from what I understand, this was a very rare occurrence, as Buttercup doesn’t normally ask to be held by people who are not on her “approved” list. I think I should count myself among the lucky and the chosen, but I will also probably be keeping a safe distance from her “grabbing zone” for the remainder of our stay…though from now on, I can exchange a knowing look with her when I pass by, since we now have our little secret. 

The elicit picture I am technically not supposed to have...Shhhhhhh!!!!!

-Rachel