Day 71: Taking it slow in Cahuita

Baby sloths eating their lunch.

I’m often surprised that when Mike bleeds, yellow and green don't flow as well and I'm sure that most of the time his heart beats to the melody of Natural Mystic so Cahuita was a destination that wasn’t picked by accident. We didn’t stumble upon the place adorned with Bob Marley flags, stickers, tapestries, and t-shirts that plays Legend on repeat for 20 out of 24 hours a day. From the Natty Dread coffee shop to the Reggae Bar to the houses painted Rasta colors, you couldn't escape Bob's presence. 

I felt like we weren’t in Costa Rica anymore. While the suffocating heat and blazing sun were the same, the Afro-Caribbean’s look and language are much different than the Ticos we’ve come to know. Rather than translating Spanish, we were deciphering broken English with a Jamaican accent – something Matt and I admittedly suck at. Speak Spanish with a Jamaican accent? Fuggetaboutit.

There’s something else this town had that Mike adores, that I’m sure is news to all of you – sloths. He has a affinity for the goofy wide-eyed, perpetually smiling hairballs. When we drove by the Sloth Sanctuary on the way to Cahuita, we knew it wouldn’t be long before we made a U-turn and pulled in their driveway. Of course, that was if we could get out of the hotel parking lot. Yet again, the Jimny thought it was too hot to go anywhere and refused to start. Fortunately, we had a mechanic piled under all the cargo in the back so we dug him out and put him to work. He could only think of one solution - something to do with resetting the battery - and when the fob instantly worked we gave him all the credit.

The sanctuary was founded by an American woman who rescued Buttercup, a now 19 year old sloth. It's a well known and well reputed haven for sloths that have experienced any kind of trauma at any age. So if you ever travel to Costa Rica and stumble across a hurt or orphaned sloth, this is the place to bring it. I'd recommend not trying to care it yourself after it appears to be as complicated as having a mogwai.

After a canoe ride and informative video, we got to see them close-up. Since sloths normally lounge high in the trees, they just look like blobs of shadows whenever they're pointed out by guides so this was cool. We got to come as close as three feet of these very, very slow moving creatures and even closer to the babies where we were just in time for feeding. Tiny sloths laid flat on their bellies with their heads in their plates of veggies and dog food chopping away. They were super cute. The only disappointment was that we couldn’t hold them. Something about germs and biting…whatever. What about our needs, huh?  We paid good money for this.

From there we decided to check out towns further south along the coast. Puerto Viejo is expected to be even more Jamaican-ized than Cahuita and also has a hotel with all-you-can-eat sushi. So Matt’s already decided where we’ll be staying.