The Sloth Institute at the Tulemar Resort

Today is the day. We're packing our things and moving to the Pacific.

It's pouring rain, good time to break camp in La Fortuna. With a private driver, we embark on the 5-hour drive to Quepos on the Pacific. Our drive takes us over the mountain range, which is the dividing line between the Caribbean-influenced weather and the Pacific-influenced weather. Thank goodness we're heading to the Pacific side, which is much drier. Beautiful landscapes (cloud forests, lush green forests) pass by us. Then we arrive at our apartment at the Tulemar Resort. Radiant blue sky, a beautifully dreamy room, and incredibly friendly staff welcome us here.

The next day, we go on the Sloth Walk. The Tulemar Resort houses an animal rescue organization that specializes in raising and caring for sick or orphaned sloths. The goal is to release the sloths back into the wild and to study the behavior of the animals.

It all started when Englishwoman Sam Trull came to Costa Rica to study the behavior of monkeys. She found an orphaned baby sloth on the street, whose mother was hit by a car. She raised the sloth and decided to advocate for the protection of sloths in Costa Rica. She founded a non-profit organization with the goal of caring for, raising, and studying sloths funded by donations. The Tulemar Resort, located in a lush rainforest, offered the best conditions for this.

We start our tour of the beautiful Tulemar property and see incredibly well-maintained gardens and, of course, the sloths hanging in the trees and relaxing. A mother with her 5-week-old baby, a two-toed sloth that is not bothered by us at all. Each sloth brought here and cared for is given a name, so Beyonce, Cheer, Peter Pan, and Scarface hang in the trees and do what they love most, they chill.

The guide tells us that three-toed sloths are diurnal and two-toed sloths are more nocturnal.

Uh, nobody is really active here, I think. The employees of the Sloth Institute are incredibly dedicated and enthusiastic about their work, so we're happy that our tour fee can also support the work of the institute because 25% of the fee goes directly to the institute.

At the end of the tour, we even get to take a picture with a sloth on our arm. It's a cute plush toy.

A beautiful tour comes to an end. We've seen many sloths and learned a lot about the admirable workers of the Sloth Institute.