July 15-18
Unfortunately we had to go back via San Jose to get to from the Pacific to the Caribbean coast. Luckily, Seth was also there for the night so we got to hang out with him and say goodbye again! But otherwise it was the same old boring San Jose.
We managed to book a white water rafting tour from San Jose that would drop us off in Puerto Viejo at the end - essentially organising our travel day for us! Very convenient.
White water rafting was AMAZING. Rio Pacure is meant to be one of the best places in the world to do rafting (top 5 we were told!) and it's not hard to tell why.
As well as amazing rapids there were dozens of waterfalls and picturesque views.
Every now and then, between rapids, we were able to jump out of the boat and just float down the river.
The rapids were a little scary at times! A few times I was pretty convinced we were gonna flip...but we didn't. Sometimes when it's a dangerous bit, they tell you to 'get down' inside the boat. One time, towards the end, when we were 'getting down' Aaron and I bumped heads. Except it was his helmet and my face! Ow! Lucky I don't bruise...
Late in the afternoon we were dropped off in Puerto Veijo, a funky little beach town down near the Panama border. Lots of interesting shops, bars, restaurants and market stalls. Also a nice beach which was quite pretty at sunset. Cool place!
We ran into a couple of English girls that I'd met earlier in the trip. The hostel we stayed at had a 'ladies drink free' special...so naturally we all had a few bevvies!
When we woke up the next morning it was pouring with rain and we were hesitant to even leave the hostel. But as per usual, our amazing weather luck kicked in and it was blue skies and sunny before midday. We headed off to the sloth sanctuary, which was probably the number #1 thing both Aaron and I wanted to do in Costa Rica.
One sloth, Buttercup, chills out near the reception in a little swing. Super cute, excellent photo op, great for killing time before our tour started.
Buttercup was by far the most lively sloth we saw! She just kept moving.
It was a two hour tour, which we assumed would be all focused on the sloths... However it began with one hour boat ride down a stream that ran through the property. It was very tranquil, but much like other parts of the country that we have already seen, searching for animals we had already seen. So a bit of a waste of our time...we wanted sloths!! That said... It was pretty.
Eventually it was time to hang out with sloths! Hurrah! We got to see 5 adult sloths, living in little open enclosures. We asked why they couldn't live outdoors on the grounds, but the guide informed us that they aren't able to survive in the 'wild' and that's why they're at the sanctuary. They do need to be kept separate to prevent breeding- any baby sloths born at the sanctuary or brought there within their first year aren't ever able to be released because they don't learn the necessary survival skills.
We also saw baby sloths which we kept in cages. Again, not 100% sure why this is necessary. They were cuuuute.
Some interesting sloth facts:
- Sloths are neither warm blooded or cold blooded...somewhere in between apparently
- Sloths only come down to the ground once a week to poop
- Sloth sex only lasts 40 seconds and it is 100% certain that if they have sex the female WILL fall pregnant
- Sloths do not show any signs on pregnancy (no big belly!)
In the end we didn't see much of Puerto Veijo. It's a nice beach town, with some funky shops and restaurants, but otherwise pretty standard.
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