final days of costa rica

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The next day we didnt do much but eat, watch tv and catch up on all the documentation we needed for the insurance claim. We needed to get copies of everything done and printout some pieces so that took most of the afternoon as we were a little slow in getting around the place. We also had to change all our flight details so Dario called the airlines and arranged all of that as well as calling my doctor at the hospital to get a bit more info about what we should and shouldn’t do for the next little while. Thankfully she said it was ok for us to go to Cuba, and just don’t get bitten by mozzies. The hotel Miami was very helpful with directions to all the places we needed to go and it was just a nice place to chillout for a few days.
The next day was much the same, we didn’t go anywhere or do much except get our laundry done, watch tv and chat a lot with family over skype. We did however have the best pizza we´ve had for a while for dinner! Was really great! All our other meals were at the same buffet restaurant that Dario had found while I was in the hospital. Yummy!!
The 19th rolled around and we finally had the strength to go to Aviarios Sloth Sanctuary, about an hour south on the bus, 20 mins before you hit Cahuita! Ive been looking forward to it alllll trip!!! It was great! $25 per person, includes: a canoe tour of the wild sanctuary where they often release the animals, we saw monkeys, sloths, fish, lots of plants, a basilisk lizard and lots of amazing birds! Then after the tour we watch a 15 min video about how the place started, which is great, then a walking guided tour of the facility including meeting (but no touching, which I like as it is less stressful for the animals, but god they look so cute you just want to hug them!!!) the adult permanent residents who have big enclosures and chill out all day. Lots of them aren´t releasable as they have permanent injuries or issues, but no one gets turfed out here. And then you meet the baby orphans!! They are so amazing!! They have both 2 and 3 fingered sloths (the term has changed from ´toed´as sloths all have 3 toes but the difference is in the fingers). Lots of the babies are very young, some as young as 3 months, they´re tiny and so cute!! Welearnt a lot and our guide´s nickname was Boa as he is a reptile enthusiast and keeps Boas! So we exchanged emails and he may be coming to aus soon which would be great!
Aviarios runs an education program for local kids as well which is good. Apparently the children can be very cruel to the sloths if they find them close to the ground or on it as they all play with slingshots and often injured adults and babies come in to the sanctuary because of injuries from people. The education project is having an impact and lots of kids go away with a new respect for the slow moving animals. The sad thing is that often they are burnt from climbing electrical wires, hit by cars as they cross a road that is in the middle of their territory or get attacked by dogs or children when on the ground, but this place does an amazing job and they´re the only sloth research centre in the world! If you get a chance to go, its highly recommended!
We waited with another traveler at the side of the road for 45 mins talking to a tour bus driver who was waiting for his tourists (the bus was going to drop them back at their cruise ship in Puerto limon after the sanctuary), we asked for a lift but he wasn’t allowed to take us. So finally our public bus came and we arrived in Puerto limon at 2pm. We went back to the hotel and grabbed our bags that they had been holding for us, ordered a last best pizza and ate it at the bus terminal waiting for the 3pm bus to san jose. We thought we were in the right bus station but 15 mins before 3pm we had to race 2 blocks away to the correct bus station. We arrived in San Jose at around 7 and took a cab to Tranquilo backpackers hostel and stayed the night there. We walked around for dinner on avenida central in town and ended up having stupid almost pizza hut pizza…. Everywhere that was open was a fast food place! It was crazy!! We walked back to the hostel and collapsed into bed, exhausted after too much walking for our dengue fever recovering bodies.
Next morning we ate our free breakfast of pancakes and fruit at the hotel. We left our bags at the hostel after having booked a taxi to the airport for 2.30pm. We went to print some documents we needed and to send a fax which was surprisingly easy to do (I don’t know anyone at home who still uses faxes) and then went to a book shop to exchange our old books and buy some new ones. Lunch was nice and cheap, takeaway steak with salad and lots of rice etc. We ate it back at the hostel waiting for the taxi.
Finally it was 2.30pm and off we went to the airport. We arrived so early as we had forgotten it was Sunday and there was no traffic! The flight wasn’t until 6.50pm and we arrived at 3. We had to pay our $26 exit fee and then checked in, the line took a while. We bought our Cuban visas for $15 each at the checkin desk. We went through security and had 2.5hours to wait at the gate. Next blog we´ll be in cuba! yay! we´re very excited since we have done almost nothing for 2 weeks!

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Photos

drinking goats milk
apparently cows milk makes them sick

3 fingered sloth orphan
sadly it looks like he has neuro problems as he cant use most of his left side :(

some look pink
only because its a natural treatment they use made from seeds and cocnut oil to get rid of naturally occuring algae that isnt appropriate in the hospital