Alright so since I don't have wifi at the sanctuary (it's been broken for 4 days now) I'll jut keep writing these blogs and post them whenever I can find Internet. So far this is the second unposted blog, so make sure you read all the new ones! The big news for today is that we had an earthquake last night at about 3:45 am. Pretty scary! My first time experiencing an earthquake. It woke us all up and we just sat up in bed wondering what to do, as our beds and the house shook back and forth for about 30 seconds. We kinda laughed about it after but I was definitely in shock for awhile! I didn't expect an earthquake to occur while I was travelling, and if it was worse I really don't know what I would have done! I've never had earthquake safety training! We heard today it was a 5.7 earthquake and we were not far from the epicentre. But no damage was done here and no one was hurt. When we went to clean the cages we noticed that all the sloths had climbed to the very top. (Many usually sit or sleep on the floor or their platforms). We told Claire this and she said they've had an earthquake before and she happened to be with the sloths when it occurred, and she saw them all climb to the top. They are not sure why they do it but it must be instinct to escape danger.
Probably the worst part about this place is all the ants. There are tiny ants you can barely see that bite really hard, red ants that are a little bigger and also bite and are everywhere, and huge army ants that march by occasionally and are also bad biters. The army ants are terrible. When they go through, people leave their homes for a few days to let them pass. The only good thing about them is they eat all the bugs in their path, including spiders 50 times their size. Every so often along the marching line you see a huge clump of a couple hundred ants, and you know they are taking down something big! After they had gone through we saw one was a huge spider, dead now with its legs and everything torn off. So crazy. There are so many of these ants that if you stood in one place and watched them march by you could literally stand and watch all day. They were in the sanctuary for a couple days but thankfully they have gone now. There are some other gross bugs as well, and unfortunately everything can get in the house because there are lots of openings to outside. Julie found a huge cockroach in her bag (gross!!!) and Madi and I have found some gross bugs in our room as well, but I couldn't tell you what they are called. Also there was a gecko in my bed two nights ago. I'm definitely getting used to bugs down here.
When we were sitting on the dock yesterday we watched a baby bird learn to fly. It was very cool! It was perched at the very end of a branch fluttering its wings every so often trying to do it. It's parents kept flying back and forth to him and squawking at him trying to get him to go I think. At one point a huge blue bird landed on the same branch as the baby and the parents went berserk and sent the blue bird flying away. We watched the baby for about an hour and just as we were getting ready to leave he flew! It was pretty cool!
I can tell you about some of the people around here. Judy, founder of the sanctuary, is actually from Alaska! She met her late husband there. He was a traveler from costa rica and they ended up going to Costa Rica together. They bought the sanctuary property in 1971, over 40 years ago! From what I've heard he past away just a couple years ago. I hardly ever see Judy, but when I do she always has something interesting to say. One daughter lives here, Ursula, who is a very nice lady, unmarried but has two kids, Jeff who is a little older than me I think and Steven who is quite young, maybe 10. The daughter and her sons moved here 8 years ago. Selma is my favourite staff member, she cooks our meals and takes cares of the sloths. She speaks English as well as Spanish and is very friendly, smiles and laughs a lot. Another girl, I think her name is Paula, has almost the same job as Selma but instead of cooking she cleans the house. She always wears really vibrant purple or blue sparkly make up and is a grouch. Never smiles and laughs or talks, although I think all she speaks in Spanish. In Cahuita there is an awesome bartender, he's old and fat but hilarious, and makes delicious drinks! He made us a Guanabana smoothie to try the other day and it was delicious! Guanabana is apparently a spiky fruit, but I have not seen the real thing. I also tried fried plantains and guacamole on his suggestion, which was also so delicious! There is a woman always walking around town drunk or high we don't know, who has a huge pot belly. We thought she was pregnant at first but the bartender said she isn't! She's very talkative and likes to walk up and down the street yelling and talking to anyone who stops. There is a weird man always riding a horse around town, we don't like him because we can tell the horse clearly doesn't. He tries to buck him off every few feet! I've never seen a horse walk like this one does. It picks up its feet very high but doesn't hardly move, as if its almost marching in place. So they go down the street very very slowly. Julie said these horses have weights attached to their feet when they are young so they are trained to walk like that. It seems quite cruel to me. I was a little surprised that much of the population here is African. I just supposed it would be mostly Latinos but there are lots of Africans. A weird thing about this place is that there is a TON of Bob Marley merchandise. Every single souvenir shop has Bob Marley things to purchase, and many of the restaurants have Bob Marley banners or posters or whatever hanging up for decoration. It just seems weird because we are obviously not in Jamaica but I guess it's just the lifestyle! On the bus ride from here south to cahuita or puerto Viejo there is a police check point where we have to stop and show our passports. Mostly they are looking for the day you arrived in Costa Rica so they know you are not staying too long. One more interesting fact before I go: sloths can turn their necks 270 degrees!! Sometimes it's very freaky when you look at them and their head is facing completely backwards like the exorcist. Until next time!