Wow. What a day. One of the best days of my life! It started out at 6:45 am with a pick up from a shuttle bus which my hostel in San Jose helped me book. They took me directly to the sanctuary in about 2 hours and 45 mins. It cost about quadruple what you pay for a public bus but the public bus can take up to 9 hours to get there! On the drive I got to see more of the beauty of Costa Rica. Many mountains and valleys absolutely covered in trees and foliage. There were countless narrow waterfalls running down the mountains right beside the road which was also very cool. The ride was very bumpy which was not so good on my back but I made it. The shuttle driver said San Jose is the ugliest city in Latin America, and I didn't think it was too bad, so I look forward to seeing the others!! Also on the way to the sanctuary I saw a few cattle ranches but I don't know how they get any meat from them because I could see the cows ribs from 50 feet away! Well when I finally arrived at the sanctuary I met Claire right away. She is a long time permanent volunteer at the sanctuary and is in many of the YouTube videos about the sanctuary, so when I met her I was a bit "star struck". The entrance porch area is where many of the volunteers hang out because its one of the only areas where there is wifi (unfortunately I can't get it to work well for me!! It worked for about 5 mins today and I haven't been able to connect since). Anyway while Claire got my keys and badge I met some of the volunteers here. Madi is about my age, from Colorado, and she is my roommate for the next 2 weeks. Julie is a 42 year old single mom of two, Lydia seems a bit older than me and is from Manchester, England, and Paul is a 44 year old man from Australia. They are all here for the next week or two. There are a few other semi-permanent volunteers around but I haven't really connected with them as they stay in a different complex and have different chores to do. When Claire came back she drove me to our volunteer house, which is literally a one minute drive across the road but I had my big backpack so she didn't want me to walk! She is very friendly and personable but also kind of "rough" if that makes sense. She showed me the house which is quite big. It has a kitchen and dining room as well as 4 bedrooms with 2 twin beds in each and 2 bathrooms. After the house tour I walked back over to the sanctuary and couldn't find anyone so I talked to a guy name Matt (I think), also from England who is staying "until the money runs out". He's been a few times before as well. He gave me a brief tour and run down of our daily chores. At this point I had still not seen a real live sloth so I was getting anxious!! Our first stop was the baby sloths who were exercising outside on a jungle gym made of tree branches. They were absolutely adorable! The baby sloths at the sanctuary are usually brought in by locals who notice the baby on the ground because it has been abandoned by its mother. A mother abandons her baby if it falls out of the tree and she deems the situation too dangerous to go to the ground to retrieve it. In a few cases the abandoned baby may have been a twin. A mother sloth can only look after one baby, so when another is born she pushes it out of the tree. (So sad!) The sad thing about caring for a sloth basically from birth is that they can not learn how to survive in the wild by themselves, so they are never released from the sanctuary. They have tried before but all the ones they have released have not survived. Their new research program will be looking into this problem. Another thing I was sad to learn was that volunteers are no longer allowed to hold the baby sloths. They have recently discovered that when someone the baby sloth does not recognize holds it, it's heart rate increases and it becomes stressed out, although you cannot physically see it. So only permanent workers can handle the babies :( . After watching the babies Matt took me to see the older sloths who have graduated from the nursery. Sloths are solitary animals so when adult sloths have to share a cage they get aggressive and bite each other. So all the adults who come in to the sanctuary have to have their own enclosure. However, if the sloths grow up together from birth they form a special bond and they like to share space, and often cuddle or lick each other. A few cages are larger with up to 4 sloths in them, but most hold only one sloth. There are two toed and three toed sloths at the sanctuary. Three toed sloths are very social and love climbing and hugging you! Two toed sloths are much less social and mostly ignore you if you enter their enclosure. The two toed sloth is the one with the more pig-like nose. Most of the adult sloths are here because of some accident out in the wild. Many have been electrocuted from power lines around costa rica and have been burned, lost a limb, or are quadriplegic or paraplegic. Some are blind in one or both eyes. Some look completely normal and those are usually the ones who have grown up at the sanctuary. As we were walking around we found a wild sloth hanging around on the side of one of the cages, just visiting his buds! Apparently that happens quite often. You can tell the sloth is wild because he was covered in moss and his fur was home to lots of bugs! The sloths in the sanctuary are very clean. After my mini tour I went on one of the real tours, for tourists who visit the sanctuary. This was quite interesting and I learned a lot I didn't know about a sloth! For example, they live to be between 30-40 years, and they are able to heal much faster than other animals. I also learned they are not always slow! They can nip and swipe at you if they feel threatened, and they can do it relatively quickly. Quick enough that you don't see it coming! I saw a sloth ear, which looks a lot like a human ear only much smaller, and is hidden under their fur which is why you don't normally see them. I learned much much more but I won't go on about it here! After this tour we had lunch. There is a cook here who makes meals for us everyday. I got to know a bit more about the other volunteers and they filled me in a bit on what goes on day-to-day. After lunch they had more chores to do. At this point no one had told me what I would be doing so I just tagged along. I met Claire again along the way and she let me just watch and learn from the volunteers, and then she took me for a walk and gave me my orientation. Basically the day is pretty relaxed! It starts at 6 30 am with wiping down the cages and washing them (sloths deficate about once a week so there's rarely poop or pee to clean up, just dirt and crumbs from food). Then you feed them a plate of veggies prepared by the staff. That takes until about 8 and then you are done until 10. At 10 you help wash veggies for the next day, which only takes about 30 mins and then you are done until after lunch! After lunch you do the same cleaning routine, but feed them leaves and green beans instead of veggies. And that's it! Usually you are all done by 2. So there's lots of downtime throughout the day. I forgot to mention Judy, the founder of the sloth sanctuary, took us up to the nursery which is behind her bedroom. Her whole family works at the sanctuary including her grandsons who give tours. We got to see tiny tiny sloths and a few larger sloths. They have beautiful soft fur and are so adorable. They love their stuffy toys and just cling to them for dear life! The youngest sloth was only 3 weeks old. Anyway after my orientation with Claire the volunteers and I took the public bus to Cahuita, which was about 15 mins away. We went to the beach/national park. It was an absolutely gorgeous day! We swam in the ocean which was as warm as bath water and went for a long walk in the park! We lucked out and saw another wild sloth in the tree tops along with about 15 monkeys and a poisoness viper! Then we went to the local bar for a drink and then headed back to the sanctuary for supper and bed! Now I am totally wiped. Sorry for the looooong blog, it was just such a good day! Good night!