Hi All,

This is my first entry after getting to the Sanctuary. Sorry for the gap. It is pouring here stopping us from going on a late night canoe ride this evening. While I was walking back to my room, barefoot so as to not slip in my flip flops, I accidently and unknowingly played kickball with a frog that ran across my path. Oops.

Anyway, I am at the Sloth Sanctuary and have settled into the swing of things. I have been here since Tuesday late morning. The Sloths are so adorable. We clean the cages and feed the sloths twice daily and also take the baby sloths out for exercise time (or nursery care as the owners call it) for 30 minutes in the morning. During the rest of the day I either work on helping them figure out how to better promote themselves or work on cutting a path through the jungle around the property. I am in the process of posting pictures to the blog under the pictures tap but it is taking a while since the internet is unreliable.

On my first day, when I arrived, I was shown around and introduced to other volunteers and staff as I ran into them. After dropping my stuff of in my room I was asked to clean the volunteer kitchen until it was time to cut the vegetables for the sloths. When we were done with the veggies and preparing the food we headed over to the dock for lunch. I met the rest of the volunteers at that point. At the start there were about ten of us but volunteers come and go constantly. In the afternoon I got a brief orientation before catching up with the rest of the volunteers for afternoon feed. As soon as we were done feeding the sloths we headed back to our rooms so that we could shower and meet up for the 4:30 bus to Cahuita, the closest town, which is about a 15 minute bus ride away. We separated and went to shop around in some of the local stores before heading over to one of the restaurants for dinner. It took about 30 minutes for us to get drinks and about 15 more minutes for them to inform us that they had no chicken left (which at least half the volunteers had ordered), and so we left before getting food so that we could catch the bus back in time. Instead we headed to a local " Meat Stick lady" where we got delicious and spicy kabobs and the bought dessert at the local market.

Every Tuesday we will head into Cahuita for dinner and to do some shopping. We also get one day off for every 6 days we work. My day off is on Wednesdays, but I did not get this past Wednesday off because they needed more help around the Sanctuary. During our day off we can either head to Cahuita (about 15 minutes away) or Puerto Viejo (about 45 minutes away).

Every day we have to start work at 6. We head to the Adult Sloth area and clean the cages. We record how much they have eaten of their previous meal as well as if they have gone to the bathroom. We then wipe down the cages and clean out any food scraps. I take care of about 10-15 adult sloths each morning and afternoon. While we put their Berros leaves into piles the cleaning staff comes behind us to wash out the cages. We then go through and give each Sloth their breakfast. I like feeding them in the morning because they are the most active and you get to really interact with them. I feed each sloth one of the leaves so that they know the food is there and then head over to the next cage. After the Sloths are all fed we can go feed ourselves. The volunteers alternate who cooks breakfast, typically consisting of eggs and toast, but the cook and house mom prepare our other two meals. As 8:45 rolls around we head over to the nursery to exercise and carry around the babies. So far I have worked with Toby and Velcro. We carry them over to the jungle gym so that they can climb around and then walk them around the area so that they can see the world. At 9:30 I either head into the jungle to help cut a path around the property or I try to come up with ideas to help them better utilize social media to promote the sanctuary. If I am in the jungle I miss vegetable cutting time otherwise at 11 we head over to peel and cut carrots and camote ( a potato like vegetable) for the next hour and a half. We then head to the dock, after picking up our food in the volunteer kitchen, for lunch. We are free until 2 to work on our work for them or to hang out and walk around the property, but at 2 we have to meet back at the adult sloth area for afternoon feeding and meal preparation. We divide up the Camote, Carrots, green beans and dog food equally between 101 plates. We then record how much breakfast they ate and then bring in their dinner. We feed the sloths one green bean before leaving so that they know the food is there but many times they will fall asleep in the middle of eating with a piece of the food sticking straight out of their mouths. By this point we are finished with any required work for the day and are free until 6 when we meet for dinner and a presentation of some sort. We have gone on a tour as well as seen presentations from our resident artist and the staff.

There are two types of sloths. We call them by shortened versions of their Scientific names, Bradys and something else I cannot remember. One person takes care of the 19 Brady's because they eat different things and are cared for differently. Bradys (the three fingered sloths)are Diurnal animals unlike the sloths that are not Bradys (two figured sloths) which are nocturnal. All Sloths have 3 figers on their back feet but the number of fingers on their front feet vary. We have occasionally found wild sloths hanging around the property as well as of the cages after a female in heat screams (their signal). Wild sloths live in a symbiotic relationship with an algae and a type of moth that eats that algae. Sloths are very strong but also tend to be very sweet at least once a day I get sloth kisses from a couple of the sloths. One as to be careful because they have a very strong grip and they sometimes try to grab your finger and try to bit it.

During my first two full days here I headed into the jungle to help cut a path around the property. We have to do that because in Costa Rica if someone squats on your land for 10 years or if you don't maintain it properly, your land can be taken away from you and you have to buy it back. We hiked along the river cutting down Wild Banana trees that re-grow from the center after they are cut and clearing leaves and sticks from the path. I almost got bitten by a poisonous snake after racking it up and pointing it out the leader of the path clearing.

The rest of the mornings I have spent trying to help them come up with ways to get more followers on facebook so that more people will hear of them. I have come up with a lot of questions to ask that will help direct the path we should be taking with social media. I will hopefully be able to catch up with the lady heading this up and see what she has to say so that I can move forward the assignment. I am also going to try and create a volunteer manual so that all volunteers now and in the future are feeding and handling the sloths in the same way.

So that's what I've been up to during my first few days at the Sanctuary. Hopefully I will be able to load the pictures up as soon as possible.