Today we started our day with a delicious breakfast consisting of Gallo Pinto, plantains, eggs, mango and pineapple, coffee, and hot chocolate made with organic cacao. After that we jumped on a bus and headed about 45 minutes to our Sloth, or Perica, tour! We arrived at a beautiful garden, called Perica, and met the owners who told us a little bit about Perica’s history. Perica started with a piece of forest which was preserved by the owner of the foundation who owned farmland that surrounded the entirety of this forest. It was when they realized that the large-scale farming had pushed many sloth inhabitants into the small piece of remaining forest, that Perica was born. Our tour guides first directed our attention to some adorable baby bats in a nearby coconut tree, and we were able to take pictures through a telescope. We also spotted a unique white-bellied hummingbird who was protecting its nest. We were then led through a series of trails through the forest where we spotted a kinkajou, which is an arboreal mammal that is nocturnal, so to spot one sleeping during the day was very lucky! We then were able to see our first sloths! We saw many Brown Throated Sloths, which are a type of 3-toed sloth, and we saw one Hoffman’s 2-toed sloth. We even saw two Spectacled Caimans, an unexpected but exciting sight! In addition we saw a lizard which the locals refer to as the “Jesus Lizard”, because it is frequently seen running on the surface of the water! When we had finished our tour, we were given a delicious spread of fruit, cheese empanadas, lemonade, and sugarcane juice, and then it was time to head to Playa Blanca, a frequent destination for Humpback Whale watchers. We swam in the Gulf for about an hour, and then had lunch consisting of fish or avocado and rice, mashed potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and lemonade. After lunch we got back on the bus to head back to Rancho Quemado. We ended the day with another delicious dinner of pork or heart of palm and vegetables, Gallo Pinto, plantain chips, cucumber and tomato salad, before playing some Uno and Poker! This was probably one of my favorite days of our trip, and I can’t wait for tomorrow!
P.S. If the Griswolds are reading this, I miss you guys, I’m having an amazing time, and I miss my puppy so much!!!