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

July 4th in the Jungle

Well, I thought it was about time for me to quit being lazy and make some sort of a contribution to our little blog—Rachel here! Checking in after a rainy, muggy 4^th of July spent here at the sanctuary. As it turns out, the sloths still want to be fed and cared for, even on rainy days, and EVEN on American holidays, so it was business as usual here in Limon.

It seems that no two days here are ever alike, and today was no exception. Our morning routine was thrown a bit off track due to the fact that our shipment of barro leaves (i.e. 2-toed sloth breakfast) did not arrive on Tuesday afternoon as scheduled. You see, sorting the barros is actually quite an undertaking; each and every stem must be carefully examined, buds and flowers must be removed, and every leaf must be checked for poisonous snails and slugs. It generally takes 8 of us about 45 minutes in total to go through all of the leaves. Since it’s such an undertaking, we generally do the sorting in the afternoon, so the sloths’ breakfast is ready to go in the morning. Since the shipment didn’t come in time on Tuesday, we had to sort the leaves Wednesday morning in addition to the rest of our morning routine. This probably threw everything off by about an hour, and in case you were wondering whether the sloths noticed that their breakfast was late…well, THEY NOTICED! By the time I made it over to my section to pass out breakfast, every single sloth was impatiently awaiting my arrival, clinging to the chain-link doors to their enclosures, staring at me, reaching/grabbing, and generally making it very difficult to actually enter the cages. Yes, believe it or not, we have to make sure that the sloths are backed away from the door before entering their enclosures. They actually CAN move fairly quickly if they really want to, and I have heard more than one story about escapees (although most all of these stories end with the missing sloth being recovered a few feet away from the building, but I digress…).

I suppose this would be a good time to share some information about “my” sloths, whom I am already growing completely and ridiculously attached to. I am currently caring for 15 sloths total, all adults of the 2-toed variety.    [Should I back up for a moment? There are two varieties of sloths living here at the sanctuary: 2-toed sloths (choloepus), and 3-toed sloths (bradypus). They actually look quite different from one another. The 2-toed variety have shiny, pink noses that protrude from the face, almost like a small snout. They have soft, shaggy fur, and tend to be blonde to light brown in color. The 3-toed variety have a raccoon-like mask on their faces, and a small black nose. They have a “smiley” appearance! They have coarse, wiry hair, and tend to be shades of grey, brown, and black.]      My brood, in no particular order, consists of: Franky, Priscilla, Joy, Miss Vicki, Spencer, Little Harry, Mocha, Luna, Pandora, Tory, Sheela, Santie, Bruno, Casper, and Camilla. 11 females and 4 males. I have been here for such a short time, and I have already picked up on how drastically different all of their little personalities are…it’s pretty amazing. Franky and Priscilla, for example, who live together, are mellow, sleepy girls who don’t move about their enclosure much. Joy, on the other hand, is a fire cracker, and a real trouble maker. She is constantly in motion, and she tries to reach through the chain link walls of the enclosure to grab passersby with her claw. Since I have been here, she has: shredded her daily care checklist (located on a clipboard hanging OUTSIDE her cage), knocked down one of the large wooden beams mounted in her cage for hanging, and managed to receive a nasty bite on her front paw by sticking it in a disapproving neighbor’s cage. She is also a bit “bitey”, as they affectionately refer to naughty sloths here at the sanctuary. Luna is a skinny little thing who might secretly be my favorite sloth in my section (don’t tell the others, please!). Whenever she sees me coming, she hangs from the door of her enclosure and reaches for me with her little sloth fingers. Her behavior is very puppy-like. Then there is Camilla, who gives the best little sloth kisses…yes, sloths give kisses; they lick your palm with their little tongues, and it’s actually quite sweet. I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. They are very much individuals, and I love every last one of ‘em. 

My little trouble maker, Joy, reaching for my hand. Don't be fooled, this isn't a sweet or loving gesture; she is trying to grab me so that she can bite me! Naughty!

My silly girl Luna, chewing on a water bottle.

Now that I have rambled on, back to our day. After we were done disappointing our slothy crew with their tardy breakfast, it was on to…BABY TIME!!! This has certainly been one of the high points of our days. Paul took out Toby today, for the second day in the row. Toby is a 2-toed guy who is a bit resistant to climbing. He would prefer to cling to your shirt and go for a walk in the jungle, which he is allowed to do after he has put in some quality time on the jungle gym. Paul was able to “bribe” Toby to finish his jungle gym time today by luring him with hibiscus flowers, which are apparently the equivalent of sloth chocolate. I must say, poor Toby, it is a difficult task to maintain any sense of masculinity when you are chowing down on hot pink flowers. MY baby time was amazingly incredible on this day. I took out a baby I had not previously met:  baby Matty. In summary, I still can’t believe he is real. He is a 3-toed baby (around 1 year- babies cling to mom until around this time) , and he is the tiniest little sloth (save for the tiny newborns) in the entire sanctuary. I think Paul said it best when he described Matty as a “fuzzy starfish”. Matty has a tiny little face, positioned atop a giant Buddha belly, with little triangular arms and legs sticking out in every direction. You could literally hold him in the palm of one hand. I do not know how it would be possible to look at him without smiling. Matty was very tentative about climbing on the jungle gym, which is certainly understandable since his tiny claws are barely large enough to grip its branches. All I can say about Matty is that I am still trying to decide whether I can convince customs that he is a small kitten so that I can smuggle him back home with us…I kid, I kid! 

Paul with Toby

Toby, looking masculine beneath his blanket of hibiscus petals

Little Matty and I

Wee baby Matty

At the conclusion of baby time, the sanctuary staff invited us to follow a group of tourists on one of the regularly scheduled sanctuary tours, so that we could hear the information typically presented to visitors. The tour started out with a short video projected on a large screen in the open-air education building; unfortunately, about ten minutes into the video, the skies opened up and it began POURING. The education building happens to have a tin roof, and as you might imagine, the rain was deafening. The tour guide turned the volume all the way up on the video, but it was still impossible to hear. The rain just kept coming, with no signs of letting up. The tour guide did her best to share some information with the tourists, SCREAMING to be heard above the rain, but it was still a major challenge. We followed the tour across the hall to see the adult sloths “on exhibition”, and then, once the rain let up, the tour marched on to the nursery. About that time, we had to cut our tour short to go prep sloth lunches. Such is life at the sanctuary!

As luck would have it, the rain had moved out by mid-afternoon, so the sanctuary staff announced that we would be having a cookout for the 4^th of July! The owner of the sanctuary is American, and she actually has several family members here visiting at the moment. The sanctuary staff prepared us a very nice spread…hotdogs, potato salad, pasta salad, brownies, etc. Very American and a very appreciated touch after days of rice and beans! We sat on the dock by the water, watching a troop of monkeys swing wildly from tree to tree across the river as we stuffed our faces. After dinner, the staff put out supplies to make s’mores…a fun and tasty treat, except for the fact that the only readily available marshmallows in the area turned out to be pastel colored and fruit flavored, which was interesting, both visually and flavor-wise. We were especially entertained by how excited one of our new Aussie friends was to try a real American “schmore”,  as she called it. 

Costa Rican s'mores...innntterrresssttingggg.

Tomorrow we have our first day off from work here at the sanctuary, and we plan on attempting to take the bus into the town of Puerto Viejo. It should be an interesting experience, and we will report back once it’s said and done. Happy 4^th of July, America!

-Rachel

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!

SLOTHS: First Impressions

Quick update from here around the Equator (BREAKING NEWS: it’s covered in sloths):

We’re not dead or otherwise in peril…. The WiFi situation is just far spottier than I’d expected. The signal doesn’t quite reach our room, and by the time we’re done working for the day the places it DOES reach are swarming in possibly man-eating bugs (my legs look like a connect-the-dots map of Costa Rica, but that’s neither here nor there). Therefore, I’m writing this from the (relative) comfort of our room, and will brave the bloodthirsty beasts to post it later (our room only features a crab, roaches, ants, spiders, and screaming lizards, so it’s a veritable Ritz-Carlton in here).

So, our days so far... We arrived to the Sloth Sanctuary on Saturday afternoon after about 5 hours in a bus across the better part of Costa Rica. The drive was long, windy, and in questionable weather, but it did allow us the chance to see a good part of the countryside, which is completely postcard gorgeous. Our driver Felix spoke no English, but we were able to communicate well enough, and he was a friendly dude with a nice van, so everything worked out just fine.

The Sanctuary is located near the SE corner of Costa Rica, close to the towns of Cahuita and Puerto Viejo and not far from the Panamanian border. We’re out here, and it really feels like we’re isolated in the jungle…. That said, there’s one main road in this part of the country, and the sanctuary is right on it. We have our share of traffic, and there’s a bus stop and a little roadside lean-to market across the street. The grounds here are stunningly gorgeous… flowers of every color, so vivid they appear artificial. Trees seem to grow ten stories tall, and even the birds look like they came out of a box of crayons. A river snakes through the property, and it’s still, covered in moss, and teeming with life. At night, there’s an odd reminder of where we are when occasionally half the compound is woken up by howler monkeys shrieking as if their simian lives depended on being heard.

We spent our first day having a casual orientation, meeting our fellow volunteers and the employees here, and, the highlight, meeting some of the sloths we’ll be working with. They’re amazing little creatures, and just being around them for three days it’s become bizarre how used to them I’ve become. The Dallas World Aquarium, where we are members, has one three-toed sloth (the only three-toed in captivity in America, in a partnership with the Sanctuary here at Aviarios!), and every time we’re near it we get excited and can’t wait to get a close look from fifteen feet away. Now, they’re everywhere and all over us, and it feels oddly comfortable and familiar.

So, what is our day like? It’s a pretty set schedule, actually…. Kind of feels like an actual job or day at school, just with more sloth.

6am: Report to the main cages, where 150+ sloths must have their cages clean, be fed (barros leaf bundles), and we have to wash and bundle the leaves for future feedings.  All the dishes from the night before have to be hand washed, and we have to log on a chart (for each sloth) what they ate, if they peed or pooped  (the common sanctuary terminology), and make any special notes if the sloth’s behavior is at all “off”. Poop is actually an important part of the process, because there’s just not a lot known about sloths, and the poop is usually one of the first places we can tell if something is amiss. Each of us has about 15-20 sloths to clean, feed, etc., and with that and general clean up/food prep, this process takes about an hour and a half.

 

Barros for breakfast

7:30am: HUMAN Breakfast. There is a volunteer kitchen and dining table in an open air covered space across the parking lot from our room and the main exhibition hall. The kitchen is “stocked” (no ice, few electronics, limited choices) and we help ourselves.

9am: “Baby Time”.. We head to the Nursery, which has a large wooden “jungle gym” made of logs next to it. We each get a baby sloth for the day, exercise it on the jungle gym (this involves sloth traffic jams as we try to keep the three or four sloths on at a time from bumping into each other and having a slap fight), and walk it around the jungle path nearby while it clings to us. It’s kind of an awesome part of the day.

Quality time with "Toby"

Watching out for sloth traffic jams on the jungle gym

Taking "Velcro" for  walk

"Velcro"

"Toby"

9:45am: Chore of the Day… there’s usually some project that needs doing, and here’s the magic gap where it gets done. The past three days it’s been yard work of different kind… general raking & maintenance, harvesting almond leaves for the babies, and finally cleaning up after the considerable storm that swept through last night. Tomorrow, we have 43 kids from area schools coming on a field trip, so that should be interesting. (I just spent an hour making 43 sandwiches… apparently, in CR, the go to sandwich is butter, cream cheese, and guava jam. That’s what the school coordinator said, anyway… it’s actually really good!)

 11am: Food prep… probably the “hardest” part of the day. We spend a good hour and a half chopping , prepping, and peeling carrots, mango, camote (a purple thing that looks a lot like a potato), string beans and some other Spanish vegetable that I can’t spell yet. This is the sloths’ dinner, and it takes a LOT of this stuff to feed 150+. It’s a smallish but well equipped restaurant style kitchen, and I like to pretend I’m on some Food Network show with 4 of my closest friends. When we’re done, we have to sort massive piles of barrow leaves for “good ones” and prep the food for the following morning.

12:30pm: Lunch… back to the volunteer kitchen. This time, Selma, our “house mother” has prepared a hot meal for us (always rice/beans, and a rotation of pasta/chicken/beef of some sort) and we serve ourselves from the pots on the stove. Oh, and we have to do our dishes right after, which is only interesting because they have this fascinating block of hard soap in a tub that you dip your sponge into, and it works wonders. I want this. Food has been pretty decent, by the way… my only complaint is that there are no cold drinks to be had (I finally broke down and hit the gift shop for a delicious glass-bottled Coke this afternoon… it reminded me of trips to Mexico as a kid).

2pm: Usually we have a light rest after lunch, and then at 2 it’s dinner time (for sloths)!  Now, we remove any food they didn’t finish from the morning, chart any poop, pee, and uneaten food, and make combo platters from all the food we prepped at 11 (which has since been boiled by the staff – except the mangoes). We serve the sloths, which I like to begin by climbing into the cages and hand feeding the first carrot, which is kind of awesome. They’re REALLY excited to eat, and watching them take the food from my hand (and sometimes grab it with their hand too) is pretty awesome. When that’s done, our day is over! Sometimes we help with little extra activities after that (whatever needs doing – today we helped prep for tomorrow’s big field trip), but mostly it’s rest…. Rest that usually involves sitting in front of the big floor fan in our room (did I mention there’s no A/C?).

Eating and lounging frequently occur simultaneously around here

Dinner is around 6 (when it starts to get dark here), and the rest of the night is spent in our room reading and playing mindless games on our cellphones. I’ve done more reading for pleasure than I have in a long time, which is nice.

I’ll try to post pics on FB and maybe even attach some to this post, but until then, enjoy Independence Day and all that that implies….  We’ll be here slothin’ around for America!

Signing off,

Paul