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Published: February 7th 2010
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We headed to the Carribean coast from Turrialba in the morning and arrived at the Sanctuary around 11:00. We were excited when we saw our new friends from Denmark had also decided to volunteer, it was nice to see familiar faces. Right away we jumped on a tour so that we could begin to learn about the sanctuary and the sloths we would be taking care of. After a welcome BBQ, we helped with our first feeding and got settled in. When we arrived, there were 5 other volunteers. We are staying at the volunteer house, which is accross the street from the sanctuary. There are 4 rooms for volunteers at the house, and 2 bathrooms. There's a kitchen and eating area, and TV. We have a stocked fridge with basics, and we make our own breakfast and dinner. There are walking trails at the sanctuary, and a river with canoes that we are allowed to use. That afternoon, we took the bus to Puerto Viejo for an informal get together, and to pick up some supplies at the grocery store there.
In 1992, 3 neighboor girls brought an injured sloth to Judy and Luis (the owners) to care for.
They took in the sloth and named her Buttercup. She healed and more people began bringing sick and injured sloths. The sanctuary was officially started in 1997. Through the years, they have cared for over 275 sloths. They have been able to release about 55-60 sloths. All of the sloths except for 2 blind sloths, 2 amputees and 5 sloths hurt by powerlines have been raised from infancy. The baby sloths are orphaned for many reasons - deforestation, pet traders, illness, or from falling from their mothers(who then abandon them). There are 3 toed sloths(Bradypus variegatus) and 2 toed sloths(Choloepus hoffmanni) here at the sanctuary. There are about 15 3 toed sloths and over 100 2-toed sloths. Many of the sloths arrive at the sanctuary badly injured - hit by cars, burned by electrial wires or tortured by children. There is also a resident kinkajoo, and an agouti was recently brought in.
Each volunteer is assigned a group of sloths to take care of. Our day starts at 6:00am cleaning cages, recording eating and bathroom activity for each sloth. Each sloth has a towel - so we make sure the towel is clean and their eating area has been
Wall-E
You will not take my stuffed dog! wiped down. The sloths really enjoy wrapping themselves up in the towel. Next, we prepare the sloth breakfast - berros leaves and beans - which we sort through and clean. We make about 90 portions and feed breakfast to our areas. Generally, we are done around 8:00, and we have an hour for our own breakfast. After eating, we return to the sanctuary and help out with whatever chores or activities are needed. At 11:00, we start prepping food for the sloth's afternoon feeding - we peel carrots and camote (a purple potato), and make strips of the veggies using an old style press. After we've gotten everything prepared and the kitchen cleaned, we head back to the volunteer house for our lunch. Lunch is prepared by the staff for us, and is our biggest meal. Once we've eaten and had a short break - we return to the sanctuary to help out, or relax. The afternoon feeding begins at 2:15, when we make 90 plates of food for the sloths and feed our sloths. Feedings are definately the best time!
On Tuesday, we spent most of the day scrubbing out the cages. The air is so humid -
there is quite a bit of algae build up. It was very hot and we were all drenched-it was HARD work! We only made it through half the cages that day, and had to finish them up on Wednesday. Happily more volunteers arrived on Tuesday afternoon, so we had some additional help to finish the project. That night, we made a big pancake dinner for the whole group.
Thursday was a very big day for cruises and we had about 4 big tour buses come through. We all pitched in with a variety of tasks - selling cold drinks, baby guarding (making sure the sloth babies don't climb out of their pens), bussing tables, working in the gift shop. It was a very busy, and the day just flew by. It was fun to talk to the cruise passengers - we met tourists from all over. At the end of the day, as a treat, we were allowed to take the babies out for a walk!!! All of the babies were orphaned - in some cases the mothers abandoned the babies, or the mothers were killed. 8 of us walked around with smiles from ear to ear holding the
Maggie
One of Edward's sloths. little ones.
Friday morning, during cage cleaning time - one of the volunteers noticed something odd in one of the cages. Turns out one of the sloths had a baby during the night!!! so there is a new 3 toed sloth here now! The little one is cute beyone words, and is alert and clinging to his mother as he should! In the afternoon, we went to Cahuita to have some good-bye drinks and get some food for dinner, as 2 volunteers were leaving on Saturday.
Edwards Sloths: Pip & Poppy, Chewbacca, Coco, Benny, Zena, Oana, Leena, Opal & Pearl, Fibo, Grace, Janet, Maggie, Andy, Willow, and Bentley
Shara's Sloths: Topogiggio, Spencer & Miss Vicky, Harry, Hershey & Mocha, Luna, Pandora, Santie, Tony, Sheela, Billy, Casper, and Camila
If you would like to help the Sloth Sanctuary, I encourage you to go to slothrescue.org and adopt a sloth. This is a great place and it is really making a difference. We are here for another week - and we are sure to have tons more pictures...so until the next time. After we finish our week here, we are off to the beach to be bums for a
while.
Pura Vida!
Hasta Luego
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Elly
non-member comment
wow
Wonderful pictures. I can see why you wanted to volunteer with these cuties. They must get use to humans very quickly with all of the volunteers. Can't wait to see all of the pictures you have of them. thanks.