You'll have to find your own sloth

Costa Rica made a good first impression.  Puerto Viejo was really only on our list to visit the Jaguar Rescue Centre.  It was well worth a visit, but we were surprised by how much we liked the town.  There were easy walks through jungle, that cascaded onto the beach.  It seemed such a small stretch of rainforest between the road and the beach that we were surprised to find howler monkeys foraging high up in the canopy as we walked beneath them on our way to dinner, watching the sun set over the ocean streaming red and orange across the sky.  Not all the wildlife was quite so friendly, although it sounds somehow melodramatic when I say that an ant tried to amputate my toe.  It’s also a slight exaggeration, but it certainly drew serious blood, not pinprick blood more been stabbed and need something to slow the flow of blood, blood.  I naturally freaked and threw my shoe which was housing said ant into the undergrowth.   Jason then spent a good 10 minutes searching for my shoe whilst I tried to stem the flow of blood.

As for the Jaguar Rescue Centre, it was well worth the trip.  It is most definitely a rescue centre, and although it runs tours it is not trying to be a quazi zoo, and the entrance fees are used directly to pay for running the centre.  The enclosures aren’t massive, but as the animals are restored to health they spend time in the actual forest.  The volunteers who work there have varied jobs such as taking the adult monkeys into the forest in the morning, and collecting them in the afternoon if they choose to come back, or following the anteater around to make sure it doesn’t get into trouble.  During our visit it was asleep in a tree, with a volunteer sitting nearby just in case it woke up.  As the animals improve in health the enclosures are removed, and the animals decide when to move on.   During our visit we saw a toucan that had been released come visit for a bath, and an owl that was born in the sanctuary stared down at us with unblinking eyes.  We also saw a wild sloth with it’s baby in the forest that encroaches into the sanctuary, even though it had never called the rescue centre home.  

We choose to extend our stay a couple of days, but had to move on as our hotel was full. Refusing to pay the $40 per night that seemed standard we ended up agreeing to the cheapest place we could find, without reading the small print.  This included a thin foam mattress, cold showers and an absence of curtains and privacy.  We grumbled slightly, then we found the silks.  We played until our arms were shaky and our bodies dripping with sweat - all of a sudden this seemed like the perfect choice of hostel.

Our final day we visited Cahuita National Park, and were amazed at the amount of wildlife we saw.  I was beginning to feel quite proud of my wildlife spotting abilities after spotting sloth, numerous troupes of howler monkeys, and even stopping Jason just before an agouti ran across the path in front of us.  That is until we were stopped at a picnic table and a man started gesturing wildly at us, I looked behind me and saw nothing.  He continued his frantic pointing and I looked down to see a crab-eating raccoon less than 20cm from my feet!  

Most of the time it felt like we had the park to ourselves, however just after entering the park there were a lot more people and it was not long before we saw the first sloth high up in the trees.  As I tried to take a photo a tour guide approached me “I’m sorry, this is a private tour, you’ll have to find your own sloth.”  Incredulous I took a photo and we moved on, later finding another sloth much closer to the ground.  If only she had been there so we could have asked her and her group to move along, as this sloth was only for those not on tour!