The sloth that took 45 minutes to move.
La Fortuna waterfall was cold, clear, and absolutely worth the forty-five minute downhill hike through cloud forest. We dried off in about four minutes — the humidity takes care of that. Bought cold Imperial beers from a man with a cool box at the bottom of the path, sat on a rock, and said very little.
On the way back to the truck we found the sloth. Three-toed, hanging from a cecropia tree about two metres off the path, doing what sloths do: absolutely nothing, very slowly, with an expression of total contentment. We watched it for forty-five minutes. It moved approximately eight centimetres. We counted.
"The sloth moved eight centimetres in forty-five minutes and somehow it was the best wildlife experience any of us had ever had. Costa Rica does that — it makes you slow down to its pace and be grateful for it."
Manuel Antonio the next day: white sand, howler monkeys in the trees, a Pacific sunset that lasted twenty minutes and turned everything amber and gold. We took the overnight bus to San José and flew home from there. Tom had sand in his bag until March. Worth it.
