It has been a few days since my last post but the days are pretty much the same. Wake up at 6, start cleaning by 6 30, then hand out breakfast (carrots, sweet potatoes, mushy dog food, and some weird pear/apple thing, and sometimes mango but most sloths don't like the mango). The two toed sloths eat the veggies and the three toed sloths eat only leaves for all their meals. Done that by 8 so go have our own breakfast. They don't have much for breakfast here but we bought our own fruit and yogurt so we have that with cereal or toast. Then we hang out until 10 on the dock where we can catch a breeze, reading or napping in the hammocks. Sometimes I work out at this time back at the house. Then we wash and cut vegetables for the next days meal which only takes about 15 mins. They have a machine that cuts the veggies into slices, we only have to cut them in half so they can fit in the machine. Then we go back to the dock until 12 when we have lunch which is our main meal of the day. There is always a salad, rice and beans, and beef or chicken. Then we do another clean of the cages and give the sloths their leaves and beans and then we are done for the day and catch the bus into town! Go to the beach, the shops, and the bar and then head home around 6 pm, bed by 8 at the latest! (It's a long hot day we are always exhausted by the end). And it is true that you don't want to be out after dark here, which is early at around 6 or 6 30. It gets a little sketchy. Madi has been here 3 times before and 2 out of those 3 she has gotten robbed. I'm not sure why she likes Costa Rica so much after all that! My favourite part of the day is feeding the sloths their beans. In the morning when we feed them they are still very sleepy but by their afternoon meal they are all up and moving around and when they see food coming some of them get very excited! Sometimes it's hard to feed them because they hang on the inside of the chain door so you can't open it, and they don't move because they want the food! Usually you feed them a bean through the door and they'll become occupied with that so you can get in. It's always a race to try to unlock the door before they get a hand on it! They are pretty fast when they wanna be! During the afternoon clean it can be pretty hard because they are like hanging on top of you and even though you try to duck away they follow you where you go and grab you with their hand which you DON'T want them to do because you cannot make them let go. I've given my fingers to some and sometimes they clamp on so hard it hurts and you can't pry them off of you, you just have to wait for them to be done! So it is a little scary sometimes when they are very active in the cage trying to grab you, because if they are angry they can get a hold of you and give you a bite which would not be pleasant! Most are very friendly and just want to be held but I don't like taking chances! I heard a story from Jeff, one of the staff here, that they released a sloth one time and they saw it later on hugging a tree but there was a poisoness snake beneath it. They went to move the sloth from danger but they couldn't pry him off the tree! They had 4 big men each pulling one arm or leg and they couldn't get him off. Finally they had to sedate him and wait for his muscles to relax before they could move him. That just goes to show how strong they are! My favourite two sloths are Yodo and Sherlock! They are two toed sloths who share an enclosure and they are so cute! They are young adults and they still make "meep" sounds like the babies, and smack their lips when they see food coming! They are very active and always reach out for me or try to steal my dust pan away! They are very sweet and funny. I also like one named Harpo, mostly just for his name! They thought he was a girl when he was first brought in so they named him Oprah, but soon discovered he was a boy so they switched his name around! (Harpo is Oprah backwards). There are about 110 sloths at the sanctuary right now. Only about 20 of them are three toed. When I asked why they said because the three toed ones don't cry out when they fall from a tree or are injured so its more unlikely for people to come across them and bring them in. The two toed sloths make more sounds. The girls scream when they are in heat. It sounds just like a woman screaming. And they also hiss if they are angry at you. Also many of the sloths eat hanging upside down from their legs, using their hands to shovel food in! I thought that was curious but I guess sloths cannot puke! So it's not hard for them to eat that way. Today when I was in cleaning a cage, the sloth in there fell from his branch he was sleeping on to the platform below! He was just sitting on it not hanging on and must have fallen asleep and fallen over! It was a little startling but he was fine he just got right back up! In the afternoon it gets very hot cleaning and feeding because there is no breeze in the sloth area. We are always sweating hard by the end of it. Sloths seem fine though. The only place they sweat is on their noses! There are only three of us temporary volunteers left from our group. Paul and Kennedi left a few days ago along with Lydia. Kennedi was only here 2 days before her mom, who was staying in a town close by, got sick and wanted to go home! So that was too bad. She was 18 and was here for a high school project. Paul was not supposed to leave until Wednesday but he left on Friday. Apparently lots of people leave early, which I can understand if you don't really love sloths. Because the days are pretty repetitive and the interaction is rather minimal. But I still love it! So it's just me, Madi, and Julie left. We are hoping to take our 2 days off together on Tuesday and Wednesday and go for a beach day in Puerto Viejo.