Sloths!!! and Other Stuff

Today we went to Caño Negro, a wildlife preserve on the Rio Frio. We were with a group of about 10 other people, and our guide, Walter, told us all about the crops, politics, and Costa Rica in general as we travelled. He was a wealth of information.

On the way we stopped at a restaurant where the owner had started feeding the iguanas years ago, and apparently they told all their friends because more iguanas came, they all had baby iguanas, and now there are zillions of iguanas. The trees were FULL of them.

We were on the boat for a couple of hours and even though the guides knew where a lot of the animals hung out so it seemed somewhat choreographed, it was still amazing. We saw caymans, iguanas, Jesus Christ lizards, howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, TONS of different birds, and my absolute favorite, sloths. When we saw the first sloth, the guide was talking about an albino monkey and I was taking pictures of what I thought he was referring to and it turned out to be a sloth. It moved around quite a bit while we watched, and we eventually saw 4 more (including a mother and baby) in other locations along the river. They are so amazing to see.

On the way back we stopped at a farm after having to change vans because of mechanical difficulties (seems to be a theme for this trip). It's a small farm but we got a sense of how Costa Rican farms are operated. There were 2 really cute puppies, cows and calves, extremely smelly pigs, horses, chickens, rabbits, quail, turkeys, guinea fowl, and a duck sitting on an egg.

After a nap we went to Tabacon, another hot springs resort. We saw Aliya and Adlani's old soccer coach and his wife, plus their friends from Sherborn. We knew they were going to be here but it was still kind of surreal to see someone we knew so far from home. Dinner was great and Sherry started feeling better after a couple of Imperials (local beer), so we were able to really enjoy the hot springs there. The pools at Tabacon are much more natural than the Springs. It was gorgeous! They had to kick us out at closing time.

Tomorrow we're headed to Monteverde, which we've heard is an even crazier drive than the one to La Fortuna. Tomorrow is the presidential election here so we're expecting the unexpected, just in case.
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