Day 2 - all about the sloths

We left San Jose today for a 3 hour, twisty bus ride through the volcanic mountains to the Caribbean side to brauillo national park where we went to the sloth sanctuary.  Protecting Costa Rican wildlife is important to the economy here mainly for tourism.  Tourism is responsible for 60% of Costa Rican GDP. 

Along the way to the Caribbean side, we stopped at a fruit stand and were able to try many different types of fruits. The only one I recognized was the pineapple and mango.  We tried 3 others, which were delicious but had interesting textures for fruit. One had s huge pit and you had to suck the fruit from it, another was salty and had a dry stringy texture, and the last was goofy with a bunch of little seeds (horrible looking but delicious). 

The sloth sanctuary relies heavily on donations and tours to continue their research and  preservation of the sloths.  Sloths that are orphaned are unable to be reintroduced into the wild due to lack of survival knowledge not obtained from their mothers. 

Sloth facts:

- they are 100% effective at procreating, it only takes 40 seconds and a pregnancy duration is 11 months and 2 weeks.

- there are2 types of sloths in Costa Rica, 2 fingered and 3 fingered which can be distinguished by their faces. 2 fingered have pig faces and 3 fingered have raccoon like faces.

- they move slow to preserve energy, but can move very quickly when they need to breed or escape danger. 

- sloths have 4 stomached, food spend a week in each stomach so they only use the bathroom once a month.  They climb from their tree, use the bathroom and bury it, which also marks that tree has "taken" to the other sloths.

-sloths are solitary animals, and only stay with their mother for a year to learn how to survive. However, if it is time to breed, a sloth will not breed with its mother, it will be able to recognize her for its lifetime, which is usually 25-40 years for a 2 finger sloth and unknown for a 3 finger sloth. 

 Sloth selfie with spirit.

 This is Millie.