sloths: slowest.

i'm going to attempt to describe how slowly a sloth actually moves, although it's actually much slower than the following: if i were on a sloth hunt and made eye contact with a sloth high up in a tree, i would have time to fashion a ladder out of branches and vines, fall several times on this ladder since i'm not good at building things, fly my cousins ted and heidi in from upstate new york because they *are* good at building things, ask them to help me build me a ladder that works, climb this new ladder and nab my prey just as it managed to shift some weight to its feet in its mightiest effort to avoid capture.

apparently, sloths eat very little, and it's all leaves. as a result of consuming so few calories, their metabolisms are so slow that their pace is all they can handle. additionally, we've been told that the leaves that they do eat act in opiate-like ways, leading to a perpetual stoneyness on top of their baseline level of lazy. remarkable. the sloth was the first mammal we saw as we entered corcovado. as we watched, it appeared as though it was going to scratch itself. i wanted to catch a video of this event but unfortunately myself, ashley and our guide fell asleep 45 minutes later as we waited. also, despite having just been charged, the batteries on our camera ran dead before his hand reached his body. slowest.

as far as we're concerned, corcovado national park is costa rica's hidden treasure, located in the most remote part of the country. just to get there we had to take an 8-hour bus ride from san jose, then a 30 minute cab ride, then a 2-hour horseback ride over the river and through some woods (bumpier. tougher on the groins.), then hike on foot for over eight hours just to get to our station. well, well worth the effort. it's amazing how free we felt from humanity being so alone (with our guide, roger- pronounced royer -) in as jungley a jungle as exists anywhere in the world. it's unfortunate that words (and pictures, for that matter) do very little to accurately reflect what it's like there. during our stay, we hiked constantly, witnessing different forms of wildlife at every turn. with so little human interaction, we were able to focus our senses on all that was around us. i think we were most impressed with how the jungle's sounds change so predictably and dramatically throughout the day. the day begins at around 4:30am when the howler monkeys (and, therefore, anything within a 2Km radius) wake up and say hello to each other. this is followed at around 5:30am by the thousands of parrots gathering for their morning tea and crumpets. the daylight hours are a constant source of entertainment with thousands of bird chirps and monkey calls-- then as the sun sets, there is a rather dramatic shift as the nocturnals emerge and the jungle becomes a cacophony of insects and amphibians making love. apparently they're all screamers.

i have no idea how or where to start when describing this experience. i suppose i can start by saying that you hafta just go to really capture what it's like. if you're into nature and wildlife, you really hafta just go. that being said, there were a few highlights and lowlights: two hours from the end of the long hike as we entered on day 1, roger (our guide) turned his ankle pretty nastily. i thought it was gonna ruin the trip, but fortunately continual high-dose aspirin allowed for him to deal with it throughout. worse than the trauma was his 24-hr incapacitation with some virus that came very close to dramatically affecting everyone in the park. his condition was so bad (clammier. more pale.) that there were whispers by the park rangers that the government wanted him airlifted outta there with the rest of us quarantined until they could rule out swine flu. fortunately, he endured and was back to baseline the next day. thank god, cuz getting outta there just ash and me could've led to some fairly important problems- getting lost being right at the top of that list. on the day the three of us left the park, a branch poked roger solid in the eyeball (¨veo negro! veo negro!¨) and he re-injured the ankle. needless to say, he canceled his next several days of work, probably to assess why god is so pissed at him.

so, the animals. we are thrilled at the diversity we were able to witness with our own eyes. my favorite animals (next to wolves) are the big cats, so naturally they were at the top of my personal wish list. on our second night in the park, we took a hike armed with only a flashlight looking mostly for bats, insects, alligators and frogs. imagine the jolt when reflecting back at us, no more than 15 feet away behind some brush, was light bouncing directly off of a puma's retinas. the emotions felt upon seeing those eyes glowing from such a short distance in the dark wild is very difficult to put into words. it moved slightly, showing off the beautiful frame that was its head before sneaking off silently in another direction. breathtaking. while the jaguar proved once again to be too elusive, we did lay eyes on two other animals at the tops of their respective food chains: crocodiles and bull sharks. both were located at the mouth of the sirena river as it dumped into the pacific. less inviting waters for a swim, those.

by far the most frightened i personally got during the trek, however, was when we came face to face with a troop of white-lipped peccaries (similar to wild boar) as they crossed our trail just ahead of us. these are the more aggressive of the two species of peccary found in the park; some males of the gang will attack whatever they feel may be threatening rather than run from it. i got slightly too caught up in the photography for a moment as i realized that not only was one charging at me and grunting, but that my guide was 15 feet behind me with ashley and i was armed with only my camera. while i did manage to keep from urinating myself, i had a legitimate quarter second of terror before making my mad dash for safety. fortunately, this particular charge was only a bluff. apparently, one sorry dude last year didn't reckanize and kept filming; he left the park with one fewer patella than he had upon entering. nasty.

on our last day as we exited the park (a 20K hike along some incredibly pristine tropical black-sand beaches, completely uninhabited), we saw the only species of monkey in costa rica that we hadn't yet seen-- the white-faced cappucin. if you've seen the movie outbreak, it's that kinda monkey (which is actually impossible since outbreak took place in africa, but whatever). we sat and watched them interacting just like a very well-functioning family of humans: sharing fruit and caressing each other gingerly. i mentioned to my guide that i felt like of the four species, these were my favorite. he cringed and mentioned that while they appeared cute right then, they can be very mean-- they'll eat anything they can steal: eggs out of a nest, other types of animals, etc). i didn't like the sound of that and reviewed the other species in my head to find a new favorite, then i considered my own previous three meals and suddenly empathized more with my new friends. they're very cute.

it's obviously against the law for anyone to leave the park with any of the animals, so i'm glad i wasn't caught with a pet that i discovered i had kept for myself the next day. i felt a bump on my right calf that i hadn't noticed and saw that a tick had managed to hang on tightly enough as i walked by a day earlier. i named him grody. not very pleasant to look at, but with ashley's help he was out a minute later with (thus far) no ill effects. fortunately, aside from a few scattered mosquito bites, it was our only unfavorable insect encouter.

this post could truly go on and on with stories and sightings, but in the interest of time and sleepiness i'll stop for now. ash will post a slightly different take in a couple days. again, the moral of the story is that if you're into the outdoors, get a rush outta hiking around an area where you're by no means at the top of the food chain, and don't mind sweating a lot, you hafta get yourself to corcovado. you'll come out slightly different.

alright then,
pura vida.