Watching six baby sloth eat their breakfast, hanging out with toucans, owls, and even a rare Oncilla–there’s nothing like saving the best for last, and that’s what we unknowingly did. Our last night in Costa Rica was spent in a guesthouse on the Toucan Rescue Ranch. It was a last minute find online when we were looking for a hotel close to the airport. For the same price of a nice hotel, we stayed in a little house on the grounds of a rescue, rehab and release sanctuary. The cozy house was outfitted with a small kitchen, complimentary drinks, enough comfy beds for a family of five, and beautiful pictures of the animals surrounding us. Just outside the kitchen window were two sloths and an oncilla. A few steps further were toucans, macaws, a river otter, two Greater Grisons, a Tamandua, porcupines, and spider monkeys to name a few.
Earlier that morning we took the 7 am coach bus from Jaco to the capital, San Jose. Then we shuttled to the Ranch. Since we were early for check-in we happily killed some time at the Sibu Organic Chocolate Factory. It was only five minutes away from the ranch, also in San Isidro. Since the chocolatiers were away perfecting their artisan chocolate-making skills in Belgium (of course they were), we settled for a sampling of their famous hot chocolate and lunch in their garden cafe.
We were back at the ranch by two for our tour, when we also got to meet the owners of this unique animal haven. One of my favorite aspects of travel is how often you meet extraordinary people who are made remarkable by their dedication and care for a particular corner of our world. Leslie the owner of the ranch, is one of these people. She and her husband live on the ranch, and she does the round the clock feedings of the baby sloths, every four hours, for over a year. Their story was fascinating and their continued dedication, inspiring.
We had a spectacular tour in which we got to see the rare Oncilla enjoy a snack, and poke our heads inside the cages of a couple of sloths, and watch a baby anteater climb a tree.
The magic however, came when the formal tour was over, and we had moved our things into the guest house. Throughout the evening and into the night we were allowed to walk around the grounds, as long as we gave a wide berth to the cages of the toucan breeding area, which held the baby toucans and their parents.
At dusk the large hawk watched over the neighboring pond of red-eyed tree frogs, where we saw newly deposited eggs under large low-hanging leaves.
After supper we got to see the nocturnal Tamandua named Elsa. The sloths curl up in their buckets and tuck themselves in with blankets. It’s something they’ve learned to do to stay cozy at night, and you’d have to see it to believe it. The large collection of owls (including a particularly Hedwig-looking snowy owl), housed behind the guest house, would delight any Harry Potter fan.
Falling asleep and waking up to the sounds of the birds was all part of the emersive experience. Even though the ranch provides earplugs on the nightstand, I can’t imagine why anyone would use them. When can you lie in bed and hear an orchestra of owls, toucans, Mealy Amazon Parrots, Scarlet and Great Green Macaws outside your windows? And still, the best part was yet to come, breakfast with the baby sloths.
The breakfast buffet was delicious; you can never get enough mango that is ripened by the sun instead of time on a truck. Breakfast was quickly overshadowed by the buckets of baby sloths who were brought out to be fed. Yep, you read that right, there were buckets of them.
After Leslie fed them goat’s milk with eyedroppers (sloths cannot digest cow’s milk), a few practiced their climbing on rocking chairs which mimicked the gentle swaying of tree branches.
Some got treats of hibiscus flowers, which apparently are like crack to sloths. They prefer the pink ones in particular.
My plate of eggs and gallo pinto grew cold since I couldn’t tear myself away from this adorable scene, but it was well worth it. I’m not a gusher, but these baby sloths made me, a grown woman, want to squeal with delight at the overwhelming cuteness.
The Toucan Rescue Ranch was a highlight of our trip. We will absolutely return, to volunteer or simply visit. Until then, we will definitely check out how the sloth are growing on the website’s live sloth cam.