Costa Rica: Fuzzy Love

Today was a day to fulfill my (Darcie’s) need for “Fuzzy Love.”  Actually Cahuita has a lot to offer in this area since there are at least 5 dogs available for petting on each block.  Nick and I have had many opportunities to “walk” dogs simply by patting one on the head as we pass it.  This usually results in having an escort for the next block or seven until the dog feels compelled to go home or sees something (usually a person with food) more interesting.  Even the place we’re staying at has a puppy and kitten who are quite happy to come up to our room and visit.  The kitten was pretty determined to find a nipple amidst Nick’s beard but was unsuccessful despite many searches.  Anyways, back to today.

We visited the Aviarios Sloth Sanctuary which is located about 10 km from Cahuita.  It’s quite the place for people looking for cute fuzzy creatures.  Nick and I took one of the local buses and climbed off at the sloth crossing sign.

We went into the gift shop to register and were immediately greeted by Claire, the tour coordinator.  She took us over to the learning center where we watched a 10 minute video about sloths - “The Sloth Ballet”, partially set to a Flanders and Swan silly-sloth song.  It was a bit Disneyland sing-songy but had good info about the animals. 

Following the film, Claire took us over to where they keep some of their rescued adult sloths.  She took care to greet each sloth when she entered it's home and put her finger up to its nose so it would be able to identify her.  She then told us about each sloth’s story (all sad since they’d needed rescuing) and each had its own personal character.  They had both 2-fingered and 3-fingered sloths at the the sanctuary.  The 3-fingered sloths are slightly smaller and have 2 extra vertebrae in their necks which allows them to turn their heads around about 270 degrees.  The 2-fingered sloths are larger, slightly more assertive when defending themselves, and love to play with the towels that are provided. Claire reported that she’s encountered many creative uses of the towel (towel-tent, mummy-towel wrapping, towel over the head to keep out the mosquitoes, etc.)   After “ooohing” and “ahhhing” over the adults, she finished off the effect by taking us over to see some of the orphaned babies.  All but one of the babies were 2 fingered sloths which seem more hardy.  The owner of the sanctuary has found that putting them in pairs when very young helps them to bond so all the 2-fingers were paired up.  There was one 3-fingered sloth who was in a box with a stuffed bear which he did not like being separated from.  They were awfully cute, quite curious about the visitors looking into their boxes, and overall quite, for sloths, active.  One in particular was known for climbing out of his box to visit all the other baby sloth boxes.  Two volunteers were there to help keep them from climbing out of the boxes and to answer questions.  Other volunteers were pulling babies out one at a time to feed them at a side table.  We were briefly tempted by the idea of staying at the sanctuary for a 2-week volunteer stint but decided that we would move on. 

Claire then took us out to the grounds where they provided a 1-hour canoe ride with a guide to see the wildlife.  It was a peaceful ride and we were able to see some herons, Jesus Christ lizards, and both kinds of sloths.  Nick has gotten quite good at spotting lizards and other wildlife while I still have difficulty seeing them even when pointed out to me.   

The final part of the visit involves meeting Buttercup, the first sloth that the sanctuary adopted.  The owners started out by building and running a B&B on their grounds.  At some point some girls in the neighborhood brought them an orphaned sloth that they’d found.  Over time they became the experts on caring for sloths and took in others.  Now they have over 120 sloths in their care.  They’ve been able to care for and return injured adults back into the wild but have been unsuccessful with the baby sloths turned in.  Without the care and teaching of a mother sloth, the babies go into the wild and eat everything (poisonous or not).  Evidently a group of scientists from England will be coming to the sanctuary to offer some new technology which will at least help them learn more about sloths and hopefully help them become more successful with the babies.  Until then, they keep the sloths and they appear quite happy.  Buttercup certainly was quite used to taking pictures with people.  All in all, it was a very good day.