Our first excursion was a guided tour to Sloth’s Territory. located just south of La Fortuna. There were a few options for wildlife expeditions that promised sloth watching, and we read good reviews of the location. Our guide for our 90-minute tour was incredibly knowledge about all of the wildlife on the private land where the tours took place. Each morning a member of the team explored the trail to mark the locations of sloths, and the guides had radios to update each other as they gave the tours.

We were incredibly lucky to see a juvenile two-toed sloth 1/3 of the way along the 1-mile trail. It was extremely active as it climbed along multiple trees to look for food. We were able to easily see it from the path, but for more detail we watched through our personal binoculars, or the telescope (also a great tool for recording videos) provided as part of the tour. We had just moved on to learning about a nearby colony of leaf-cutter ants (also surprisingly fascinating) when we noticed the sloth moving very quickly down the branches toward the river. As hypothesized by our guide, it was on its weekly trip to the forest floor to defecate (only done once a week to likely avoid predators). It was on the ground for just a few minutes before climbing quickly back to the treetops, and our guide noted that it was the first time he had seen the process take place.  Along the trail we saw two additional two-toed sloths and two three-toed sloths, but none were as close or active as the first. 

We finished the tour with freshly cut pineapple in a small dining area, and shared the sloth videos with our guide and the other couple that taken the tour. Additional amenities at Sloth Territory included a small gift shop, a coffee and snack stand, and indoor restrooms. We also enjoyed watching the horses and donkeys in the barns next to the visitor center.

The walk included two suspended bridges, and between those and the two on the property at our resort we didn’t feel like we needed to book anotherl excursion to one of the many locations that offered that experience. We saw and learned about more insects, animals and birds of the rainforest. A male frog was guarding the eggs that had been laid by a female frog, a common occurrence along the waterways where the tadpoles will later live after hatching. We were surprised by the number of poisonous strawberry dart frogs we saw, and thankful their bright blue and red coloring made them stand out.