BOATBUMMS LOG: MAGICAL WORLD OF THE SLOTH

A miniature Dooger just a few weeks old

If you ever think of driving your car from Panama for a two day stay in Costa Rica, think twice. It involves quite a bit and can’t be done in just one day. I don’t even want to think what people must go through when they have to drive to Costa Rica for a family! They’ll never make it to say goodbye to a loved one as this inconvenient ordeal took Binnie 10 days and 5 visits into town (the car each time had to be present). Each time she was under impression to get the paperwork then she was told to come back and come back. Then on a Tuesday being sure again to get the paperwork she once more was sent home without and was told she had an appointment the following day at 9 AM for a car inspection. It was a total of 7 visits into town, not to mention the 4 hour plus round trip each time.

Anyway, a while back Binnie told Teresa and me that she is going to take us to Aviarios which is a sloth rescue center her friends Judy and late husband Louise started some 20 years back. When we met Binnie she had three sloths Lightnin’, Thunder and Dooger. At that time Lightnin’ had an abscessed tooth and Binnie flew in a doctor from Aviarios twice. Poor Lightnin’ was not getting better so Binnie made the tough decision to send Lightnin’ and Thunder to Aviarios. If you ever meet Binnie ask her about the story Jack and Leo smuggling the two sloths to Costa Rica, it’s a good story. It was time to go and visit the two and we all were very excited.

At last we had a date for the inspection and instead of having Binnie and Jack drive there and back again, we decided the girls could do the inspection and leave from there. We left Summer Place at 6:30 AM and arrived at the inspection place at 9 sharp. By that time we all, especially I, had to use the bathroom badly. Going to a car inspection you don’t think about having to dress up, but my gosh, they would not let me into the building as it is an official government building (looked more like old derelict warehouse) and it’s against the law to enter with shorts on. I was sure I had to go tinkle behind a bush, but I guess they saw my eyes turning yellow and did allow me to use the bathroom for which I was very thankful. A bit after 10 AM the inspectors arrived looked the car over, checked the VIN number then told us to go to the Police Station across the street at 2:30. Our mouths dropped we were under the impression that this was it, now we had 4 precious hours to kill, yikes.

What now? Very disappointed driving away we were trying to figure out how we best could kill those 4 hours. When I saw Ancon Hill it hit me, I always wanted to drive up there because you have an almost 360 degree view over Panama City, the Panama Canal entrance to the Pedro Miguel Locks and especially the bridge of the Americas which connects the two continents. This bridge used to be the only connection between North and South America now there is also the Centennial Bridge just 2 miles north from this one just before the Gaillard Cut). For those having been in Panama City it’s the hill with the big Panama Flag and lots of communication antennas and radar, towering over the Canal’s Administration Building. The view from up there is magnificent, although it was a bit hazy. We took tons of pictures and when the warden watched me taking photos of the Panama Flag he came over and motioned to follow him to the gate. He opened the padlock to the gate that separated us from the giant flag pole. He then gave the key to Teresa and explained that we could take much better photos of the Flag in there and to take our time. The view from up here was even more breathtaking.

Down Town Panama City

Teresa and Binnie

The forbidden gate

Panamanian Ambulance (they always show up faster than the Ambulance)

Panama Canal

Container storage area

Albrook Airport

Pedro Miguel Lock and Centennial Bridge in background

Bridge of the Americas

But of course we did not want to kill the whole 4 hours up on Anchon and decided to enjoy a relaxed lunch in one of the many restaurants at the Amador Corredor with a magnificent view of the high rise buildings of Downtown Panama City. We also found a nice tourist shop with all the local arts and crafts and Binnie was able to find a present for Judy at Aviarios.

We arrived at the other police station an hour early and thought what the heck let’s try to get the paperwork. Since I had shorts on Teresa was supposed to go in with her but had left her Passport in the car. I went back to the car, pulled my long pants out, oh well, and changed my pants right in front of the Police Station in the parking lot. I don’t think I have ever changed my pants this fast. Good thing I did because when I found Binnie in the office they needed all my info as well as I was the driver. They now needed photo copies of my driver license, but luckily outside the station was a van with copiers just for that. I was back in a jiffy and from there it took about 20 minutes and we had the clearance for Costa Rica. What an ordeal! (While waiting we met this nice fella that told us he could have done the 10 day ordeal for us in just 1 day for 300 bucks, I think that’s a pretty good deal). It was about 3PM when we had all the Panama City traffic behind us as we shed one mile after another on the Transcontinental HWY toward Santiago. In Capira, is a famous cheese place “Queso Chela”. You just cannot drive by it without the car automatically pulling into the parking lot. We loaded up on the wonderful and delicious fresh breads (imagine crunchy sourdough) and of course and make plans already to let the car pull in again on our way.

Exhausted, we arrive at the La Hacienda Hotel in Santiago at 8 PM, had a cocktail in the room and hit the sack. Bummer we were delayed as this is a very nice hotel with pool, wonderful restaurant (we over ate on the cheese and were not hungry anymore), a smoke free Casino and all decorated Mexican style.

We had an 8 AM start with a short shopping stop to unsuccessfully find a chargers for Binnie’s camera she had forgotten at home. It is about a 2 hours drive to Chiriqui where the turn off for Bocas del Torro is. As soon as we hit that road, the GPS got lost and did not know that there actually is a road to Bocas, so Binnie with the navigation map in hand was our GPS. Actually it’s straight forward. There is really no other roads in this area and if, it’s a dirt road. In a short distance we hit the steep roads up the mountain. I’m used to mountain roads as I’ve been driving them in Switzerland, but I have to say we may have the taller mountains in Switzerland but the roads are not built straight up the hill. The little Kia “Beaner” was huffing and puffing up the hill in second gear, now and then in first. I was worried it would not make it, but all went well, it never over heated. Towards the top there were some amazing land shifts so bad that it was like hitting a brick wall, the worst was that with all the tree shadows over the street you can’t see them until you hit. (On our way back we were prepared for them but funny thing they now were all tarred over and repaired).

It was incredible scenic route with not too many places to pull out and enjoy some lunch. We did find a waterfall and a pull out and munched on the wonderful cheese, bread and fresh fruit.

As I said I am pretty used to driving in mountains in Switzerland and I am used to sharp hairpin turns. The turns here are not quite as sharp as in Switzerland but OMG are they steep. Using the motor to break did so little that my foot was on the break peddle more than I wanted. I knew exactly what it was when the nasty brake odder hit my nostrils even though the girls said it could have been fromt he truck that just past us going uphill, hmmm. The odor did not go away so I pulled over and the breaks would not stop as quickly as they should. I knew then we had over heated breaks and would be stuck for a while until the brakes cooled. The funny thing was after the brakes had cooled and we continued our journey, the very next curve we drove around there was a restaurant with hammocks; we missed it by just about 100 feet. We got a good chuckle out of that.

Our destination was Changuinola the border town to Costa Rica. We arrived just on time for a well deserved 5 o’clock cocktail. We stayed at the Golden Sahara Dust Hotel and had a direct view of the runway of the local airport from the first and top floor. We saw a small plane parked by the airport building. A few minutes later I looked out and said: “oh I can’t see the plane he took ……” “Brwwwwwwuuuuuuuuuum” and I jumped about a foot into the air. Right next to the window an about 30 passenger plane’s left wing was about 50 feet away from the window as the plane was landing, scaring the living you know what out of me. I have never seen a plane this close and still in the air. The timing was really funny. Binnie and Teresa got a huge kick out of that.

We enjoyed a wonderful Chinese dinner next door and hit the pillows as we had an early start the following morning.

We drove out of town at 7am and followed the road to the border. Binnie mentioned something like we were heading in an easterly direction. She was right Costa Rica was due West just good we ran out of road and turned around. The kewl thing was when we turned around to head back there was a conveyor belt across the road transporting bundles of bananas across the street.

With help of locals we did find the right road to the boarder, which was hidden behind the gas station we filled up. At the border a man pointed us into a parking lot where we then parked. Then he motioned us across the street and up some funky stairs to the boarder offices. There are three offices (shacks) one where a guy tells you where to go and when he sees gringos like Binnie and I he told us that it will cost 3 dollar each. Hmmm funny, so I showed him my residency card, the guy could not get out of his chair fast enough and escorted us to where we had to go next and being as sweet as possible, in other words kissing our behinds. I’m sure at this point he was shivering in his pants, because the window he brought us to had a big piece of paper on the wall stating that checking in or out of the country is free of charge and to report anybody that will try to charge a fee to Ph: 759 7940!

After our passports were stamped we were allowed to drive across the bridge and river to Costa Rica. There again we were pointed to park the car then we had to stand in line for the Costa Rica entry. Finally at the counter the guy hands us a piece of paper to fill out and after that we had to stand in the same line again. It never occurred to them to maybe have a holder on the wall with the paperwork ready so we can fill them out before standing in line. The traveling I have done told me that no matter what country you are going to, the immigration people just love to give you the runaround. Customs, Port Authorities are always nice, efficient and polite.

Second time around the officer stamped our paperwork. Now we had to go inside the office to a desk to show our car paperwork. Binnie laid everything on the table including car insurance the lady looked at that and said it’s not accepted here you have to go to the Pharmacia and buy car insurance which is required in Costa Rica and also two copies each of the paper work. So we all walked to the Pharmacia which luckily was not all too far away, got the copies, bought the insurance (35 dollars for (3 months) and many mosquito bites for Manuela (nobody else ever gets bit) headed back and then we had to wait for more paperwork. I think the whole thing took us close to two hours. At last we were free to enter Costa Rica.

From here it was 93 kilometers to Aviarios driving through Banana plantations and also a cocoa farm. We stopped to buy some chocolate which was outrageously expensive. Two tiny rum ball of 1 inch, a flat piece of 100% chocolate the size of a silver dollar, each 1 dollar and a bigger piece ½ the size and thinner than a regular chocolate bar 3 dollars. The rum balls were delicious but the pure piece was gritty and had a burned flavor. It wasn’t worth stopping for the chocolate but it was worth to see the palm roofed restaurant, lots of flowers, orchids, birds and even a swimming pool with giggling kids splashing in the water.

At last we drove through the gate of Aviarios and the anticipation to finally see Thunder and Lightni’n’ again was intense.

Judy welcomed us all with open arms and immediately after we had placed our belongings into our spacious and comfortable room she took us to the “for staff only” area of the Sloth sanctuary and straight to Lightni’n’s cage. Many tears were shed by both Binnie and Teresa and it was just too cute to see how Lightni’n remembered them.

After placing her back into her cage, Judy led us to Thunder through the medical’s office where the doctor and his assistant just finished up surgery with a still sleeping sloth laying on the operating table. It was a happy “nice to see you again” between the doctor, Binnie and Teresa.

I thought it was pretty emotional when Binnie and Teresa hugged Lingthni’n, but I tell you when Teresa took Thunder out of the cage every eye was leaking. Teresa was so happy, this is her baby. The reunion was just beautiful to watch.

Judy, Binnie and Teresa

Thunder

It was overwhelming to see so many sloths and how active they were when I approached the cages. What I expected to see slow moving sloth they moved rather fast across the cages to get to me, then licking my finger I extended to pet them. Amazing!!!

The whole experience was really overwhelming; I was in ah and, well, just speechless.

Aviarios lies along a river overgrown with Lillie pads and is surrounded by lush and very green vegetation.
Across the narrow river in the trees roamed a big family of howler monkeys, that hung around all day long. Comparing their howls to their size is pretty impressive. If you've never seen one but hear them you would think it’s a monkey the size of a gorilla.

No matter where I looked there were beautiful tropical flowers, including orchids of all kinds.

The bird life was amazing too, lots of birds with red bodies and black wings and all kind of other birds. I even found at least 6 Toucans in the tree all alternatively feeding babies in a hole in the tree.

There is also a path that leads through the jungle and Binnie and I were just amazed what we all saw, even a lonely howler monkey above us in a tree. At dusk’s arrival the land across the river started to sparkle with lightning bugs. I have never seen many in one place. Some even made it across to us, it was just magical.

Golden Orb Spiders the little one is the male

There were a few cages with baby Doogers; one in particular sucked me in, Laylo. There were 4 small little three toed sloth and they were just dying for attention. One stuck his head and little arms through the cage and hugged me, and then a second one and third one joined him.

Look at Laylo's smile

All this affection was just too much for me. I did notice that the first one had a paralyzed foot and it seemed to me that the nail was growing into the flesh. I brought this to the attention of one of the care takers. She said that he was fine. Later on when everybody was gone, Binnie, Teresa and I walked through the cage area and I looked at it again and was not satisfied with the caretakers answer. The next morning I brought it to the attention of Judy’s daughter, right away she took me to Laylo’s, that was his name, cage and sure enough it was growing into his flesh. She thanked me and immediately cut his nails and put some antibiotics on the wound.

Three bus loads of cruise ship people were unloaded and we were able to get a tour of Aviarios with them. It was a very interesting tour and as much as we knew already about sloths, we learned many new things.

Costa Rica in my mind has the best coffee there is and since I can’t find decaf coffee in Panama I planned to buy some. Teresa and I took off after the tour to buy decaf coffee. We drove 10 km to Cahuito, wow what a cute little tourist town, little stores, restaurants but NO caffeine free coffee. Oh well, but we did get to see the beautiful beach and town.

When we got back to Aviarios, Binnie had arranged a river trip for us, she even invited a couple to come along with us, but something funny happened and they picked that couple up and missed taking us along. We were a bit puzzled but you know what, it turned out to be just perfect then as we left at 5 PM it was just time for the howlers to go home to their night time lair. We were barley around the first bend of the river when the monkeys were swinging from tree to tree and across, the river about 50 feet from us. The parade went on and on with the males giving us, now and then, a stern look and mothers with babies either wrapped around the belly or back, or the little ones just in front of their moms. I guess there were about 100 or so monkey’s and what can I say after some 30/40 minutes after they had all passed across the river, there was really nothing much else we needed to see and turned back to Aviarios where we all showered and got ready for dinner.

The Discovery Channel was at Aviarios and just rapping up with all their filming. They were leaving the following day like we were. So we had a fun dinner at a newly opened restaurant in Cuahito. The Discovery crew brought the cameras with them because there is a two-toed sloth that daily runs along the telephone wire across the whole town and they wanted to see it and film it. Sure enough just before our dinner was served this beautiful two-toed sloth was trucking along the wire. I did not know that sloths can move that fast. Some of us jumped out of our seats and followed the sloth. This was a perfect ending for the Discovery Crew and us, it was just amazing.

The following morning after having said goodbye to Lightni’n and Thunder Judy lured us upstairs into her quarters where in the backroom is the sloth nursery. OMG this just topped the whole visit, we were speechless to see the miniature sloths but one in particular just did us in, a miniature Dooger. He was the cutest thing Binnie and I kept looking for that wind up key, but we could not find one, this was a real little cutesy sloth. This was the highlight of the whole visit, well for me anyway.

Mini Dooger

The closer we drove towards the border our anxiety grew. How would it go getting the car back into Panama? We had mixed feelings but luckily all went well. We had to stop at the Costa Rica boarder again. Just good I had asked before entered Costa Rica if we could already have the paperwork to enter, so that eliminated the twice standing in line. One poor lady was turned back, she was told that she had to leave Costa Rica from where she had entered and that was not here, wow. We felt pretty lucky we had no problems getting back although it involved standing in line for ever. Before we left we hit the duty free shop and got some deals on liquors then it was off towards Santiago to the La Hacienda. We had no problem or huffing and puffing nor overheating breaks across the mountain. This way seem easier on the car and we arrived on time at the Hacienda. We could have used the pool. But by then we were too hungry and headed straight to the restaurant for dinner. Teresa had a hard time staying awake so she went to bed and Binnie and I hit the Casino.