Costa Rica - Puerto Viejo - 17th October 2010

OK we've posted a few photos of some sloth antics but lets look what the volunteers do besides taking photos of sloths.

The Sloth Sanctuary runs on offical Sloth Time and the start of the Sloth Day for volunteers begins at 0600hrs; in these tropical climes there is good day light from 0530hrs.

There 2 species of sloth, Choloepus (two fingered forelimbs) and Bradypus (or three fingered forelimbs). Both species have three fingered hind limbs.

The first task is to clean and tidy each cage. These are large enough to allow each sloth easy movement and exercise, with a platform to sleep on and poles to exercise and gain access to the floor to allow a sloth to do what a sloth needs to do (about once a week at least).

Janelle cleaning Nala's cage, and tidying her blanket...

 Once the cleaning and tidying is done, we start sorting out the first feed of the day, string beans and berros. Berros are a non native green crop introduced by chinese immigrants (it's watercress really) despite being non native Sloths love them. The berros however need to be checked for infestation by small snails, poisonous to the Sloths.

...Siobhan sorting berros, not even stopping to pose...

...Vivian and Janelle sorting berros...

Once the berros leaves have been sorted and washed a portion of beans and berros is laid out for each mature resident Choloepus sloth. The Bradypus Species are fed Cecropia leaves (this is native to CR) and these are again checked for foreign bodies and unwanted insects and washed.



Once each portion has been set out the volunteers distribute the food and encourage the sloths to eat, although some require a little encouragement...

...whilst others do not, Pip and Poppy after 10 minutes frantic bean and berros  consumption.

 After this morning feed the volunteers get a break for breakfast (usually around 0800hrs ish).

After breakfast we return to pick up the babies for a "sloth walk" through the woods. This is an enrichment exercise to stimulate the sloths and get them used to the leaved plants, smells and sounds of the forest.

...Siobhan with Poco in the woods ....with his favourite soft toy...

The walking takes around 40 minutes including a play on the Jungle Gym...

.Now what do you want me to do? ..Stephanie doing her best refusal to move

 After walking the sloths,  volunteers get a rest until 1100hrs and then its time to peel and chip carrots and camotes (camotes are a type of sweet potato)...

...Janelle,Paula, Siobhan and Vivian, not even stopping to pose whilst cutting potatotes....

...Darren the camote chipper...

 By the time all the peeling and chipping is done its midday and time for dinner....this is a long break until 1400hrs. This allows time for the carrots and camotes to be bolied and softened, and for volunteers to catch up on some shuteye.
Once this has been done we dish out the sloths food onto plates...

...the blond bombshells plan their moves to hijack some food without the volunteers noticing....

With the plates filled with carrots, camotes and a little dogfood (cereal based). the second feed of the day can begin...

...Oona showing us how dinner is best consumed sloth styleeee...

This final feed of the day finsihes around three and the sloths are left in peace to enjoy and sleep off their energy.

Sloth food has been lovingly prepared and served with good humour all round by the following humans...

...from left to right...Vivian, Eva, Janelle, Siobhan ( at the front), Jan (behind Sio), Darren, Paula, and old red knees himself - Paul.

Costa Rica - Puerto Viejo - 13th Oct

Hurray we have a day off from sloth duties, so no 0530 hrs alarm call, instead we have an 0600 hrs alarm call.
The reason for this small change is that we have to catch the bus into Cahuita to choose a tour or trip to occupy us for the day.

Cahuita international bus station

We went to "Willies Tours" (that's right get all the giggling over with now), and booked a few hours kayaking on the sea and in the rivers.
The Kayak guy (Rene) wasn't free 'til twelve so we had a look around downtown Cahuita

...Downtown Cahuita...

So when we'd done that after 5 minutes we decided that Paul needed a haircut...

...Nervous me, never...I've got nothing to lose...

Then when that had been done after 5 minutes we went to look at the beach which runs into Cauhita National Park...

...water temp about 25 C...

...One of the many local crabs fishing on the shore line; they are not fussy about whose home they move into...and they are
 very very quick runners.

We bumped into Rene back at Willies downtown HQ and we went to pick up the kayaks at his neighbours. There was a slipway leading out to sea, but we had to negotiate a narrow rock sided channel just under the water. Rene said he would guide from shore, but he did not know his left from his right so we just clipped the rocks. The paddle across the bay, you saw above, took about 25 minutes or so and then we dragged the kayaks across the sand to a lagoon to do some wildlife watching and generally getting caught up in the undergrowth and sunburnt.

A local resident. Some kind of Heron, didn't stop to ask his name. ( Chris can you help out here??).

 Some experienced kayakers we bumped into....

No through creek? Not for these two intrepid fools.....got grounded on a log later....

Spot the Howler Monkey resting in the heat of the day on a liana...

OK this is the same Howler Monkey but can you spot the Ringed Kingfisher (about 16 inches long)....

OK same Howler Monkey different photo, but can you spot the small rarely seen feckawe centipede in this photo?...... only kidding

This is a juvenile Yellow Crowned Night Heron.....obviously and hopelessly misunderstood that Costa Rica does not use Daylight saving time so he is up during the day, crazy fool.....

 And this is a Hermit Crab scutlling for cover, he's counting the grains of sand on the beach

Anyway enough nonsense, as if we weren't tired or sunburn't enough, Rene our guide and his son Rene, persuaded us to kayak back across the bay full into the onshore breeze. Well 40 minutes later we crashed onto the slipway, v tired. The waves were approaching a 2-3  sea state which made life interesting and a little adventurous; however as you approach land these get a little more unruly and made our landing onto a convenient 45 degree slipway difficult to say the least. Nevertheless we made it.

 A great day out though and a bit different from sloth wrangling  - Cahuita, Pura Vida.


Will add some more sloth antics tomorrow, Keep watching if you like and comment if you don't.

Costa Rica - Puerto Viejo - 10th October 2010

OK here we are blogging from the Aviarios Del Caribe Sloth Sanctuary, and we are resting a lot as you might imagine.
But it's not all play and no work you know. We have to be up by 0600 to start the cleaning and room service duties that these injured and orphaned perezosos have grown accustomed to and need after the drama in their lives.

There are nearly 100 sloths that reside here at Aviarios and they all need feeding, twice a day.

...Do I have to get up now?...(Moweli having well earned rest post sloth feeding)

 ...Do I have to get up now... ( Paula having a well earned rest post sloth feeding)

 Laylo on the poo stick...

 Ahhh!!!

 ...Can some one stop this crazy scales for me please, I want to get off... (Cosmo we think)

And the winner for best sloth in the Bradypus category is........(Sunshine and Sammy with Janelle and Eva)

 ...Sloth wrangling, let go of me straps....  (Madison tighten her grip on Siobhan)

 Oi cheeky, does my bum look big on this?...

 ...the view from the 'dock' at Aviarios....

 This is 'Millie' and this is her chair..which she loves as much as food....in between mealtimes...

 ...Feeding time...beanitos y berros...

 ...who put that stick there....  (spiderman einstein checking out the new environments)

 Humans do  sword swallowing, sloths do bean swallowing... (pip just doing her sloth thing)

Keep watching if you want to see more sloth antics ;0)))))

Costa Rica - Puerto Viejo - 7th-8th Oct 2010

Apologies for the few days absence, can only blame the fact that we have been in transit.

Landed in Costa Rica, after a very long day on the 6th Oct - up at 0330hrs flew to Miami, and then back over the gulf to Costa Rica, with an overnight stop in San Jose and then another cross country bus (5 hours) to Puerto Viejo (San Jose is the middle of Costa Rica, and Puerto Viejo is on the Caribbean coast). The beach is a 5 minute walk from where we are staying (black volcanic sand) and atlantic waves; there is nothing between the beach and North Africa, well may be the Azores.

We are staying at the Sloth Sanctuary, the link was on the previous post, where rescued sloths are "rehabilitated" for release into the wild, or cared for if they are too badly injured to care for themselves.

They are such passive animals and contrary to popular belief they do pee and poo more than once a week. There will be more sloth pictures over the coming weeks. Here are a few of the local beach and some locals fishing, as well as some sloths.

here is a local stuck in quick sand............No he is actually fishing....

This guy is just after biscuits, Chris this is one for you, its a Willet and is a rare visitor to the Caribbean coast

This isn't a local, this is Eva one of the volunteers...taking a photo of us other volunteers......

 Vivian with one of the baby two toed sloths from the nursery...

Some lost volunteer with Laylo, he is two years old (the one on the left), and is a three toed sloth, technically his proper name (genus) is Bradypus, put that bit of info in for bradders...:0))

and this is Siobhan with Wall - E, he is also a three toed, Bradypus, just one year old ish

These are just a few piccies to whet your appetite. We will post more info about the sanctuary and our routine soon.

Post Snorkel - 5th Oct 2010

Sorry no snorkel pictures yet as we need to get the film developed. Siobhan took picturess with one of those disposable jobbies from Kodak. Paul has managed to extend his T-shirt tan to his shoulders to clearly define the buoyancy aid he was wearing (I'll try and get a piccie when he isn't looking). We do have some piccies of Cozumel though.

Saw some wildlife in the hotel room.....

Sat in the pretty plaza.

And watched the ferry arrive.

The crossing back from Cozumel was right choppy and some people were green - not us though we just snoozed.

We have now finished this leg of our journey - Costa Rica here we come. From 7th Oct 2010 we will be working as volunteers at the Sloth Sanctuary check out the cute sloths on their website http://www.slothrescue.org/Gallery/

La Isla de Cozumel - Quintana Roo, Mexico

Caught the 1000hr ferry from Playa del Carmen and 50 minutes later we were on the island of Cozumel, diving mecca.


The ferry stops at the terminal in the main town of San Miguel, and much like Playa del Carmen this too has its tat sellers, although not so forceful as in Playa they will accept the first no gracias. The big thing here is car or scooter hire and scuba or snorkeling on the fantastic reefs.

Hired a scooter for a few hours to tour round and to visit....some ancient Mayan ruinas.

Our little scooterlito... despite the serene look on the drivers face, this was shortly after twisting the accelerator in the wrong direction - followed by a swift application of the brake, he really is sweating!!!! The trouble with shorts is you can't tuck them in:0)))

We did get to the ruins and these date from around 600AD to 1650 AD and are enclosed by vegetation....

...and sometimes encroached by vegetation, tree roots struggle to hang onto the limestone and very thin topsoil....

 ...there are signs of human activity, note the 'little hands' on the right hand sideback wall, and the blue green colour of the stucco....

...each of the groups of buildings is linked by a sacred roadway or sacbe...now lined with trees...

Off snorkelling tomorrow hopefully, but no digital pictures sadly :0((

Playa Del Carmen - Party Capital of the Mayan Rivieira

After the quiet tranquil calm of Tulum we have headed up the coast to Playa, A bit like Blackpool but with out the pies or the Tower. There is a main Street, Avenida 5 down which tourists run the gauntlet of unrelenting tat sellers who try to drag you into their shops to "see their wares". If you don't mind the banter every step you take its fine; but when you are loaded down with all your worldly goods the last thing you feel the need to buy is a mexican hat or a mayan spinning top.

After the sixth or seventh of these sellers I thought seriously about asking if any of them required double glazing or understood the heat reflecting benefits of Argon over Nitrogen for interglazed spacing; but before I could work out my spiel we reached the turning for our Hostel.

There is no escaping the liveliness of Playa, there are Bars and restaurants to cater for every appetite and pocket. This is mexico catering for a market. The only salvation is that as you move West to some of the other parallel Avenidas peace and mexican normality return.

This is a very different and fun, party place to be, because of the prevalence of Cruise ships and nearby Cozumel a Scuba/Snorkelling centre.

We are catching the Ferry tomorrow for a visit.

There was a mini Friday fiesta when we arrived.... so take a look at this for a fin de semana start, taken from our first floor balconette. Looks from the angle that there is an element of cervesa distortion to the framing of the pictures, or perhaps the building wasn't straight.