The Sloth Sanctuary

After a late breakfast this morning, we caught the bus north about 15 km to the Aviarios del Caribe. This is a sloth research and rescue centre we had seen on TV at home a few years ago. A couple had some land on a delta in the Rio Estrella, full of birds and other wildlife. One day they rescued a 5-week old sloth whose mother had been hit by a car. Buttercup, as she is named, began their passion for sloths. Now they rescue, rehabilitate and re-release capable sloths into the wild. They've got some residents who are unable to go into the wild, mostly due to injuries. Sloths fall from trees and break bones, get electrocuted from high tension wires, get hit by cars while trying to cross roads, and are abandoned by injured or dead mothers.

At the centre, we watched a short, really cheesy video then got to meet their sloths. They are incredibly cute in an ugly sort of way, and spend about 18-20 hours a day sleeping. We also got to see the babies. These guys really are cute and quite fuzzy. Some of them are as small as kittens, and the ones that share a box curl up and cuddle together, along with their stuffed teddy bears and stuffed sloths. And of course we got to meet Buttercup herself. She is quite a character, showing off and posing for our camera. She is currently looking for a mate. They may not let her have babies since she was reared by humans and will not be able to teach her babies anything about what to eat/not to eat etc. Slowly she would hold out one of her long, hairy arms, reaching her 3 toes out to us...she took a particular liking to Nigel.

After the sloths we were paddled around through some of their property in a small boat. We saw some lizards, including a few cool basilisks, looking very much like dinosaurs, and Jesus Christ lizards (they walk on water), a caiman, some howler monkeys and a bunch of other birds, including some boat-billed herons. Our tour over, we headed back out to the road and started walking towards Cauhita while waiting to flag down a bus. The surrounding land is mainly all banana plantations. We saw a man pulling along many bunches of bananas suspended from above on a track. It was a mini banana train. After failing to flag down any of the passing buses, a man whom we recognised from the sloth centre kindly stopped and gave us a ride back to town.

After a late casado lunch, went straight to the national park beach and spent the rest of the afternoon swimming. We played "wave golf," competing for the least amount of waves it took us to surf back into shore. When it was getting dark, we went back for a shower and spent some time just drinking beer while sitting on some benches on the road, watching people go by. Cahuita reminds us a bit of Vang Vieng, Laos, with its unpaved roads and traffic being about 90% on foot. We shared some great pasta for dinner before heading to bed.