Mammal day

Today we had amazing mammal viewing day. On a morning walk we saw two female 3-toed sloths (one with a small baby) and a 2-toed sloth, all three sleeping in trees (sloths  are nocturnal, though based on what we heard the snooze a fair bit at night as well). The mother-and-baby were a really treat because they were unusually easy to see, including both their faces! Even our guides were amazed by the clarity of that view.  The typical sloth view is a brown lump and you spend time trying to figure out which end of the lump is the head. We also enjoyed watching a troop of 15-20 white-faced capuchin monkeys; just as with humans, the adults thought a nap would be great but the children wanted to wrestle and snack. We also saw several new and unusual birds. 

Then after lunch our trip leader said “on our way back let’s just stop by a spot where sometimes we see howler monkeys”, and we were rewarded with a family of 7 ... again mostly tired adults and playing children. One of the howler babies was very tiny (our guide’s estimate was 2 months old) and it was clearly having a great time exploring while mama slept.

While some of our group headed to the beach to watch the sunset, we did some birding and had a sunset swim in the pool. On the way to dinner Katharine had a close encounter with a giant grasshopper — it was about 4” in length.  Speaking of dinner, the food has been quite good.  Costa Rican food is not spicy like Mexican.  It is simple seasoning, but quite flavorful, and the abundance of fresh fruit has been delightful.