Sloths - BABY SLOTHS!

Day 9: somewhere off the coast of Guatemala

Day 7 was spent in Costa Rica – "Pura Vida" is their motto. They use it like Hawaiians use Aloha - as a greeting, a good bye, a blessing. Costa Rica is a beautiful tropical island that reminds me of places like Jamaica and Puerto Rico, where the homes are made of concrete or plaster, and bars on the windows keep out all types of animals, painted in beautiful colors. Their gardens are lush and vibrant and well cared for. Our tour took us inland about an hour and a half from the coast, past San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Our tour guide, Eddie (not Eduardo, but named after Eddie Munster), regaled us with information about the country. Costa Rica has a 97% literacy rate, and higher education is encouraged and funded. Their universities have degrees offered in tourism, which you must have to be a tour guide.

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Costa Rica’s official population is about 5.5 million, but they also have about 2 million Nicaraguan and Colombian refugees living there right now. The great migration north from the Central American countries caused Panama to close its borders, and so now Costa Rica is dealing with those migrants that have gotten stuck there. They are glad to have tourism back; their biggest biggest export was microchips until Intel moved out. They also make Rawlings baseballs but ship them to the U.S. before the Rawlings symbol is stamped on them, so they are too expensive to buy once they come back for sale, so football (soccer) is the most popular sport here.

Costa Rica exports most of the top-quality fruits and vegetables to the world. The process of growing bananas is very interesting and there is a lot of science behind it. The workers in the banana plantations walk around and once the bananas start to bud (or whatever they call it), they place blue plastic bags over the bunch so that it creates a perfect microclimate for the bananas to grow more quickly, and avoid the bugs and birds that may snack on them. They do leave a few bananas exposed for the birds and bugs to help pollinate. And the bananas stay green the whole time – even after they have been harvested and packed on a ship. They pump some sort of oxide into the container ship when they near the port to start the ripening process so they are beginning to yellow once they get to market.

Eddie is a bit of a coffee snob and gave us lots of advice on what type of coffee to buy, and where to get it. Of course, Costa Rican coffee is the best, and instant coffee is made from the worst beans and has an enormous amount of sugar added to make it palatable. Sorry, Sanka drinkers! I didn’t really listen to the rest since I am a die-hard tea drinker. Sorry, coffee aficionados.

First stop on the tour was the Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center, where they take in animals that need care with the hope to release them back to the wild, and care for those animals that cannot be released due to injury or being held as pets. Howler Monkeys, Spider Monkeys, and Capuchins all had their own big habitats to roam around in. There was even a wild capuchin who figured out the meal times and will come and hang out and steal food. Here he is:

Hey, where's my lunch?

After a while we started hearing banging on the tin roofs of the enclosures. Apparently, the monkeys were hungry and telling their handlers to hurry up with lunch.

There was a group of spider monkeys – six or seven – that looked so miserable I had to ask if they were okay. The reason he is so sad is that he and his companions were hooked on drugs and alcohol by their former owners, and they are detoxing. They don’t understand like humans can, so it’s just miserable for them. People suck.

                                                                    Yes, I pet the dog.

Sloths like to hang out in their food baskets. The guy on the right was hanging upside down into the food basket, too lazy to eat right side up.

This is Grumpy. He has a neurological disorder, so he gets rewarded with hibiscus leaves (his favorite) during his physical therapy.

And the big finale: BABY SLOTHS! These two cuties were found in the wild alone. They are not sure what happened to their mothers, but as our guide explained, “Costa Ricans will eat anything, so they may have killed the mothers and left the babies…” Ugh. Just Ugh.

After that stop, we went to the Botanical Orchid Garden, which featured hundreds of beautiful orchids and other tropical plants.

                No, I didn't pet the cat.

I’m sure you’re wondering about the oxcarts. Well, they were originally used to carry out the coffee beans up the valleys, through the mountains and to the port. They were painted bright orange to protect them from the sea air, which eventually led to the decorative painting style you see today.

Here is one of the artists at work:

Another fabulous sunset and we are off to the next stop! We were supposed to stop in Nicaragua tomorrow, but they cancelled the port given the political situation there. I’m glad to have another sea day to explore the ship.