Storms, Sloths, and Cloudy Water

Interesting day here at the Sanctuary…. We woke at the usual 5:30, and hit the sloth cages by 6am. In the midst of cage cleaning/food prep for breakfast, the skies opened up from a gentle drizzle to a take-no-prisoners downpour. I was cleaning leaves at the time, sitting over a trench near a spigot in an uncovered area, leading to my getting completely soaked in a matter of seconds. Well, once I grabbed my tub of leaves and rushed back into the cages, I saw the most chaotic, surreal scene yet…. Hundreds of sloths going NUTS. Crawling on ceilings, walls, each other, etc.; apparently storms and sloths don’t mix particularly well (who knew?), and some of the locals who worked here said this was the worst storm they’ve had in this part of Costa Rica this year.  Some of my assigned sloths are pretty sedentary folks (living up to the not always deserved reputation), but not this morning. “Lightning”, one of my ironically named females who NEVER emerges from a small “house” in her enclosure, was out and about, nervously climbing everywhere she could reach…. Imagine what the more ACTIVE sloths were doing, and you get the picture.

We finished the morning feeding, which quickly calmed many of the sloths (they appeared to be furiously stress eating), but did nothing to calm the storm. The rain continued, even harder now, and wouldn’t taper off for a good three hours. Our “baby time” was cancelled for the day, but there was also no use for heavy yard work in the storm, so we enjoyed the rest. We ended up sitting on this covered patio in the main section of the sanctuary overlooking the river, and it was actually fairly fantastic to watch the downpour and to savor the falling temps (Rachel actually broke out the hoodie while I looked on judgmentally).

At 11 we went back on food prep duty peeling veggies (sloths still gotta eat), and even this was truncated due to the fact our barros delivery had yet to arrive (tomorrow morning is gonna be a bear adding barros sorting to our usual duties).  By now, the school bus full of Tico schoolchildren had arrived, and the screaming and shrieking was not so subtle (en Espanol) in the background (I thought I didn’t have to hear this stuff til August?). We headed to lunch, which was some stomach turning concoction involving bone marrow of some kind… I had a bite, smiled politely, and had some rice & beans. The upside is that I discovered someone has been making a Kool-Aid/Tang tasting sugary punch and leaving it in the fridge, so I had a cold drink, which is a real game changer.

Before the afternoon feedings (which went smoothly), we discovered that ants (real bitey types, no less) have completely taken over Rachel’s backpack. Not just a few ants, mind you – we’re talking city bus in Mumbai at rush hour stuff here. There have been efforts in soaking, moving, shaking, etc, and no luck. I had a mild infestation in my bag, and a few sprays of Bactine did the trick, proving my mom’s belief that you can put Bactine on anything and get results holds some water. Rachel is trying to hold off on spraying up her bag, but after 6 years mine has been to hell and back, knows no pretense, and has no shame.

Dinner was burritos (massive improvement!), so I filled my belly on that and enjoyed the still unseasonably cool temps in the outdoor dining room. There are a few Aussies volunteering here that are a real hoot, and we’re really enjoying making Yahoo Serious jokes with them (also, I finally figured out why the Aussie Olympic uniforms are green!). There are teachers here from Australia and Minnesota, and it’s been fun learning about the differences and similarities in our jobs and schools. We did lose one of the other American volunteers today (she went home, she didn’t vanish in the jungle or anything…. Or DID she?), so my workload will be double tomorrow (she and I shared cages), so that could be a bit of an adventure.

After dinner, we briefly lost power around the sanctuary, which was a bit troubling. Thank goodness for super handy iPhone flashlight app, which kept our heads about us and made getting around manageable. We did quickly discover how dependent we are on our floor fan, though… enclosed spaces in the jungle (in July) get damp and mildew-y enough with no A/C, and this made it much, much worse. The power eventually kicked on after several minutes, and it was then we discovered the tap water suddenly came out completely cloudy… not like partly cloudy mostly clear, like impending downpour cloudy. Mmmmm. We managed to find bottled water & soda upstairs (worth the $2), and an hour or so later it seems the water has cleared up again. Go figure.

One more work day tomorrow and then we have our first day off. We’re considering catching the bus into Puerto Viejo, seeing the sights and getting a proper lunch. We shall see. I know that tomorrow will be the most anticlimactic Fourth of July ever without a doubt. I hope all of you in the States really live it up, I’ll envy you for sure!