Absolutely Teeming

Finally, at the start of July, my Costa Rica trip came to an end — the last stop being Manuel Antonio; The smallest national park in the country, yet one of the most densely packed in terms of flora and fauna.

To say it was a sticky day would be an understatement.
Between all of our phones, in my group, a conservative stab at the temperature was 92°F...with a 'feels like' temperature of 104°F when taking into account the humidity.

Even walking around stark bollock naked wouldn't have made a difference - it was that hot.

We had a guide - Walter - who was great, but even without him we would've spotted so many creatures, such was the abundance of wildlife.

Even at the entrance to the park, white-faced capuchins traversed power lines that ran above us - chirping and chattering.

We all knew that the one thing we definitely wanted to see, up close an personal, was a sloth.
Yes, we'd seen them at points during the trip - but only glimpses.
It's kind of what you come to Costa Rica for - sloths and the crazy colourful frogs.

But while that was the aim, there were so many other critters to see along the way.

A list includes;

- Hummingbirds
- Halloween crabs
- Spiny orb-weaver spiders
- Rainbow grasshoppers
- Black and yellow, poisonous grasshoppers (never found out the proper name)
- Howler monkeys
- Spider monkeys
- Giant iguanas
- Fruit bats
- Blue morpho butterflies
- Owl butterflies
- Giant stick insects

They were left, right, up, down - all over the place.
And Walter had a high-powered telescope through which to view anything high up in the trees, or anything nearby but obscured by leaves.
He even set up his phone camera on it, so we could see everything properly.
He recorded clips of the sloths and howler monkeys moving around and forwarded them to our group Whatsapp.

The halloween crabs were amazing, as they're orange and black, and look like they're wearing a little mask.

The spiny orb-weaver spiders were pretty cool too, as they've got spiky bums.

But the star of the show was always going to be the sloths.
They move at such a slow pace, as you'd expect - with every movement so deliberate.
And they have this strange, serene look on their faces...which could be partly because they eat leaves that act as a mild hallucinogen, so they're constanly tripping.

They stay in one tree for six days at a time, strolling down only to dig a hole and defecate into it.

Strangely, they're actually decent swimmers - moving four times more quickly in water than on land.

When we were all natured out - or rather, when Walter was done - we stopped at a cafe for smoothies and water.
The ice in the smoothies barely lasted five minutes - it was that hot.

After that, half the group went for a further walk (in that heat??), while the remainer - myself included - went to the beach, swimming in bath-temperature water.

It was sheer bliss, and a memory I keep in my head and go back to when times are tough.

Six days in a tree, napping...tripping the whole time...moving so slowly it's barely noticeable...crapping into a hole once a week.

Oh to be a sloth!