SloTh HuntiNg

(these sloths are from the sanctuary)

by far red´s favorite thing to do in the world is sloth hunting and dang! he is so good at it!

currently we are in panama in the mountains and i realize that i have a lot to catch up on, but mostly since i last wrote we have been chillin chillin on idyllic costa rican and panamenian beaches. so picture white sand, and crystal clear sea water crashing against beautiful rocks with jungly forests to hike in just off shore and that will fill in a lot of the blank spaces of the last few weeks!

Cahuita, on the southern caribbean side of costa rica is where we met up with some cool kids that we had met in February in Guatemala! it is also the place where we all got neck aches sloth searching!

first of all some facts on sloths--- you will really not believe how little you knew about these fantastic zen monklike creatures!

1. they sleep for up to 18 hrs a day hanging upside down!!! even when they are awake they are often just gazing out into the sea (thats what we saw anyhow!)

2. they survived the ICE AGE!!!

3. the way they survived the ice age is because they can alter their body temperatures 10 degrees warmer or cooler!

4.they only come out of the tree once a week to go to the bathroom (they have four stomachs and dont drink any water)

5. they switch trees every 2.2 days because they eat leaves which are toxic and so they need to change

6. they give birth HANGING from the trees and the mama catches the newborn with her feet!!!

7. they are only found at 17 degrees latitude above and below the equator

8. they are covered in algae for camoflage and have moths that live in their fur because they are so slow!

8 they wear a permanent smile!

we saw 15 WILD sloths in the national park which holds magnificent beaches and trails. its so hard to spot them. so often its just a ball of fur way up in the branches! we also saw some super cute little armadillos in that park, it was awesome.

on our last day we went to the only sloth reserve in the world where we were able to pet 5 adult sloths who had been injured and unable to return to the wild and we watched the baby sloths get fed. we couldnt touch those because they can catch human colds real easily! i cant even describe how cute these things were, really amazing!

soon i will get the photos up to prove it!