Today, we visited an area where there are lots of sloths. It is a small, privately operated preserve with flat (thank you!) paths winding through the trees. It is all secondary growth that has sprung up where the old trees were cut down, probably for agriculture.

Our guide, David,explained the symbiotic relationship between the sloths and a particular species of tree. The sloths prefer the leaves of the tree because they are highly nutritious. Once a week, the sloths descend and defecate at the foot of the tree, thus returning some of the nutrition to its host.

We saw about six sloths, both two-and three-toed. They are amazingly well camouflaged and hard to spot, but Tom found one on his own.

There were some ponds there, and we saw a broad-billed heron and a great blue heron, fishing. Also a jacana, a bird with hugely extended toes that walks on the water, eating bugs as it goes. We saw several other birds, but not being a birder, I do not remember their names. We also saw a basilisk lizard (which is also called the Jesus lizard because it can also walk on water. Well, it doesn’t walk so much as run like hell). And lots of hummingbirds, all sizes, shapes and colors, busy pollinating all the gorgeous flowers. And a couple of poison arrow frogs, tiny as jewels.

We saw a large butterfly with owl eyes on its wings, and some others, unnamed but elegant and beautiful floating amid the trees.

I asked about bats, and David found a group of tiny brown bats sleeping under a banana leaf. There were perhaps a dozen of them, no bigger than mice.

We didn’t see any monkeys, but I think we did pretty well.