Change of plans

So at this moment I am back in a hostel in Alajuela, near San Jose, Costa Rica. For months I had planned on staying in CR for another six weeks at this point to work with a sea turtle conservation project. But those plans have changed.

From the moment I left Guatemala I felt saddened--to be quite honest--that I was leaving such a fantastic program like ARCAS. I never felt like I had contributed so strongly to a cause that I could really see the good work happening. I really didn't want to leave, but I had already made other plans. Well now I've spent time with the sloths and had a blast, but I'm heading back to Guatemala to work at ARCAS again. Sorry sea turtles.

There are plenty of turtles at ARCAS, so I know I'll be helping turtles in another part of the world. But the people there and the animals have been calling me back ever since I left. So I'm off to Guatemala again in the morning and will be back to helping los animales de ARCAS for another six weeks before my adventures end and I head back home. The first four weeks I spent there were four of the greatest weeks of my entire year, so I can't wait to spend another six (and final) weeks of my travels at ARCAS.

The time I named a sloth

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Cory. Cory came to the sloth sanctuary just a few weeks ago. Apparently Cory fell of it's mother and was found on the ground by a good samaritan and brought to the sanctuary.

I refer to Cory as it because we're still not sure what sex Cory is. Soon after Cory arrived we were told we had a new baby but that we didn't have a name. We needed one, but it needed to be gender neutral in case it turned out to be either a boy or a girl. Immediately Cory popped into my head and I suggested it. Everyone like it, and it stuck.

Cory is as adorable a sloth as you'll ever meet. Unfortunately Cory is a little on the slow side, and I mean mentally. We think he may have had some serious head trauma during his fall or was possibly born that way because man can that sloth cling. Cory has sharper claws that any other sloth I've held at Aviarios and knows how to hold on (see picture). But sometimes Cory only feels the need to use one or two limbs and is susceptible to falling off.

But we all love Cory and take turns making sure he/she receives the best of care. Tiny and adorable like all the rest, but knowing I named him/her will always be a lasting memory.

Sloth Fun Facts

The biggest problem with sloth stereotypes is both species of sloths are called by the same name; however, as I mentioned in my previous post, they are as closely related to each other as they are to ant eaters. Think of them as any other type of animal such as birds, dogs, or cats: they may look similar but they are actually different species.

The pictures of the gray sloth you see is Jojo. He is a three-toed sloth. They are the much slower of the two and do act very sloth-like. Their fur is much tougher and they develop a patch on their backs (why we don't know, but it's possibly there for identification or mating purposes). The three-toeds only each cecropia leaves here at the sanctuary, but can also eat certain flowers; they have a very basic diet.

Two-toeds, despite having the same common ancestor (which was twice as big as an elephant 80 million years ago), have a more varied diet in the wild but each mostly leaves and veggies here. Each day they receive carrots and potatoes, unripe mango (they hate when it's ripe), and water apple (imagine a red pear). And while these guys are called sloths, they can get from one side of their cages to another in just a couple of seconds. I'll go to place their food on their platforms and when I think they're still on the floor I'll turn around and a sloth will be right in my face.

Oddly enough they do not like each other at all. When we take out the babies to give them some space to roam around we are told to strictly keep them apart. Otherwise they fight and bite. They also have different facial structure. It's hard to describe, so just take a look for yourself. But three-toeds seem unreal almost, like they're mini robots trying to move around. I'll try and take some video for everyone to see.

So there you have it! And since there is very little research out there about these things, you can basically consider yourself an expert.

Aviarios del Caribe Sloth Sanctuary

So I have now settled in at the sloth sanctuary, and things have been fantastic. Much to tell, so here we go.

The sloth sanctuary has been around for a couple decades now. Louis and Judy moved down here in 1986 (he is Costa Rican and she is from Alaska)and one day some neighborhood girls brought an injured sloth to them. They took care of the sloth, naming her Buttercup. Soon they had several other sloths coming their way and they began a refuge sight for the animals. Today there are over 120 of them here, both two-toed and three-toed, adults and babies, big and small.

(If you want to know more about this place, go ahead and visit www.slothrescue.org).

So I am one of the many volunteers that has come here over the years to help out with these guys. They're all adorable, especially the babies with their soft fur. I thought I knew a lot of them, but apparently I knew close to nothing. For example, two-toed and three-toed sloths are as closely related to each other as they are to ant eaters. They are entirely different species but fall victims to bad naming many years ago. Yes, they do look similar in many ways, but once you get to know them they're quite different.

We get to know these sloths pretty intimately here at Aviarios. We get up at 5:30 each morning to clean out their cages (pretty easy since they only go to the bathroom once a week) and feed them. We are constantly encouraged to talk to the sloths, but that usually happens during morning "baby time." Claire, the volunteer coordinator here, is in charge of the babies and has us volunteers take them out each day for some climbing and exercising. They are incredibly adorable. Cute and cuddly, sometimes a little too much so with the insanely sharp claws they have. The sometimes bite and sometimes cry but have incredible instinct once only a few weeks old and can hang and climb just about anything.

Later we prepare their food by chopping up a few pots of carrots and camote (local sweet potato) with a little mango thrown in as well. After a short lunch break we feed all the sloths and are done by 3 at the latest. The days go by quickly and the work is pretty straightforward, but spending extra time with the sloths always keeps us around the cages and nursery longer than you'd expect.

Judy and the others who are in charge always try and release a sloth if they can, but young babies and too badly injured sloths have no choice but to stay because they could never survive in the wild. But we provide them all with a great home here at Aviarios where they eat and sleep as much as they like. They sleep up to 18 hours a day, but are much quicker than you'd think. If you're not looking a two-toed will sprint across the cage and be right in your face as you turn around to exit their enclosures. It's happened more than once to me already and it'll give you quite a shock.

There's a lot of information I'd like to share so I'll add a few more fact posts in the next week or so. Enjoy the photos!

Tikal

For a quick break from all the animal action, I took an overnight trip with a few friends to see the ancient Mayan ruins at Tikal. The ruins are only about an hour drive away from ARCAS.

We got to the little hotel late in the morning and followed the advice of our friends and switched from the general all day tour and split it up to the sunset and sunrise tour. We had a couple hours to chill and relax and finally at 3:30 met our tour guide. That's when things went sour.

Our tour guide seemed shy and quiet, not the best sign for someone supposed to speak loudly to geeky tourists who want to learn about the historical site. Then we realized that he barely spoke english, which you can imagine put a bit of a damper on the learning process. Worse, in my mind, was that he didn't seem to even want to be there or want to try. Well, I guess the worst part would be that he mentioned about three facts the entire few hours. After I still didn't know why the Mayans came to this location, what their daily life was like, why the empire fell, or anything along those lines.

The "highlight" of the evening had to be when he told us we could climb on this one corner on top of a temple, after which he proceeded to run away as he saw the security guard yell at us and try to confiscate our tickets. I was not please.

A couple of other guests in our group complained when we got back and the residential manager, Roxy, came out to talk to us all. She apologized and said she would personally take out our tour in the morning. And Roxy was incredible; she is a local and an archeologist, so she knows her stuff. One of the best tours I have ever had. Overloads of information, she just knew everything. The only bad part about the tour was the cloudy weather so we really couldn't see a sunrise. But the two tours were like night and day (no pun intended). Thank you Roxy.

Opps, I probably shouldn´t have done that Part ???

So I have no idea what number this post is in terms of all the stupid things that I have done and I have had happen to me over the past several months. But what happened last week may qualify as the best one yet.

I was working back in the isolation area where we have several types of birds. One cage contained the dove we have. It is perfectly healthy but totally dependant upon humans for food now and cannot be released. It also likes to land on your head when feeding it. Because it likes to land on your head I´m usually pretty quick with this bird. So I opened the cage, grabbed the water bowl in one hand and the food in the other and just as I turned to walk in the door the bird flies right into my face. Flustered I shake my head and find the bird now sitting on the door to the enclosure but outside the cage. Now I´m slightly panicing but I try to usher the bird back into the cage with one hand and trying to show it that I had the food in the other. No dice.

Then the really bad moment happened and the bird just took off. Freaking out and in horror, I saw the bird fly on top of its own cage, where there is a roof. Whew, it´s only a few feet away. Another volunteer near me tries to grab it but it flies away again! This time it has landed on top of other bird cages about 30 yeards away and about 25 feet up. Yet another volunteer has now gone and fetched a net and tries to sneak up on the bird from behind. You can imagine what happens. He throws the net out and just misses as the bird flies away into the forest.

I am now in an all out panic. Yes, this is a little dove that could never be released and isn´t some major bird that is normally trafficked for thousands of dollars. But still, a bird just got out on my watch. I run into the woods with a fellow volunteer and one of the men who works at ARCAS. We listen for the dove for a few minutes, and then finally spot it. I get excited, and suddenly it´s flying right at me! I throw up the net but I just barely miss it and it flies right into another tree. That´s now three times we were so close. The man who works here finds the bird and now tries to climb the tree it´s in. Slowly but surely he makes the way up the trunk about 20 feet while cooing and trying to lure the dove down. He´s inching closer to the bird and I´m about to freak out but ready to run in any direction the bird might flee. He gets to within range of grabbing the bird and goes for it. He gets it! Whew, ok, I´m safe. I look down to take a step to hand him the net and when I look up it´s flying away. It flapped it´s way out of his hands. You´ve got to be kidding me, right?

We follow the bird again for a few minutes but it is now so high in the branches there is nothing we can do. The day is over and we´re told to just wait and hope that it comes back tomorrow. I didn´t sleep well at all that night as you can imagine. I´m just praying in my head all night that it will want some food in the morning and appear suddenly. Breakfast comes, no bird. Lunch comes, no bird again. Last shift, and after five minutes the helpful volunteer goes Alexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx!!! The bird is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I have life again. The bird is in range of being captured and I see a friend walking by about 100 feet away. The bird takes off and I just know it´s going to land on her head. It does, and she freezes. I yell not to move and that we are on the way. My other friend goes over, sneaks up, and nets the bird. I make sure to give him a towel to hold the bird in his hand, and we put the dove back in its cage.

So I´m safe, we got the bird back, and I don´t have to worry about knowing that I let one of the animals go. That would have been terrible to say the least. But now whenever I have to feed this bird I make sure to have another person with me of I poke the broom through the fence to make sure it is on the other side of the cage before I go in. Crazy thing.

Tortillas and beans

So everyone said to me before I left that I better get ready to eat a lot of beans. All they have is rice and beans, beans and rice, and leftovers. I heard it left and right. For the most part my friends were correct, but they definitely forgot about the tortillas.

We do have beans at about every meal. Black beans. Gross. Most of the volunteers said when I arrived that I´ll have to eat them eventually or I will starve. Well I´ve managed to not eat them so far and I´m definitely doing fine. In fact I´m doing more than fine, I might have even put on a pound or two. The reason is that I love eating tortillas. We had pasta one of the first meals after I arrived and one of the volunteers was eating tortillas filled with pasta. Seemed obsurd, but now I do it all the time. Eating is just more fun with tortillas. And the hot sauce they sell here and it´s awesome. I eat about 10 tortillas a day, it´s bad. But pasta with tortillas is not only tasty but fun.

The food in general is pretty good. Fresh fruit most days, pasta, lots of rice and chicken, and we even get pancakes sometimes. Banana pancakes. So tasty. And we have honey instead of syrup. I suggest everyone tries that idea.

But besides the food things are alright here in Guatemala. We´ve unfortunately had a couple of birds die this week due to various reasons, and I´ve been peed and crapped on by the baby monkey Milo. Oh well.

Oh, and this weekend I am heading to the ruins at Tekal. Should be a fun journey and I will definitely update everyone on the trip next Monday after I return.