A blog by Jorge Garcia.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Costa Rican Wildlife Explorer


So as reported in previous posts you don't even have to leave your hotel in Costa Rica to see exotic wildlife. Well just taking a short drive around the vicinity you can come across any number of wild animal that you would only see in a zoo.

A good tip off is if you see people pulled over taking pictures of something, chances are they spotted something cool. Remember look both ways if you're crossing the street.

The first thing we saw on our drive was a three-toed sloth.

Can you see it? Probably not. But if you look in the middle of the picture. That blob where the branch meets the tree? Three toed sloth.

Here's a picture that I lightened up a bit on my computer.

Now I'm going to zoom and crop to get a close as I can.

Okay. I admit it's not much of a picture. My little point and shoot camera makes a better record that I was there than a picture of what I saw. But still it was a pretty cool thing to see.

Basically what you're looking at is this.
This picture comes from my fold out guide to costa rican wildlife I picked up at my hotel.
I'll be using this thing a lot because my pictures are all pretty much like this.

By the way here is the official pic of the coati.

17 comments:

Joan Crawford said...

Three Toed Sloths are vicious. Slowly, slowly, vicious. My friend's mom was bitten by one in Costa Rica. Apparently, someone had a pet one in a restaurant or something. I dunno, the details are hazy but the message is clear: Death At 1MPH.

yellowdoggranny said...

if your not busy this labor day weekend, you should come to west, texas population 3,000..czech town with a westfest evry labor day for over 35 years...you'll get to see the native wild life..drunk czech's, eat the cusine, kolaches, sausages, and skunk eggs...come on down...you can google westfest.com and czech us out..we'll even let you ride in the parade and attend the polka mass...chicken dance is optional..

Beena said...

You"re on a real life safari!

Malea said...

Sweet pics! I am easily amused by your easy amusement.

Dr Mum said...

I have enormous empathy with any sort of sloth.

Emily said...

I love that you have that field guide! That's exactly the kind of thing that I would have with me too. Thanks for letting us live vicariously through you. I really enjoy your blog. Looking forward to this season!

Jenn said...

Whoa a sloth! That's awesome!

If you get a chance (and are into sea turtles at all) you should check out Tortuguero. It's a HUGE Green Turtle Mecca. Although it might be a little late in nesting season, hmm. We're still getting Green's coming up to nest in Florida though.

Eugen Caitaz said...

Oau!
Did You see the bear from the Ice age!!! Awesome

grace said...

i've often referred to myself as a sloth. a ten-toed sloth, to be specific. how cool that you've seen one in person--thanks for sharing all these pictures.

James Hernandez said...

Jorge,

You have to admit that the three toed sloth gives you time to cross the road and take a picture. Hint: Any animal with the name sloth in it might be a candidate for extinction if given enough predators.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Hey Jorge, good luck with the start of filming tomorrow!

redelf said...

That is really cool.

Unknown said...

Did you name him Sid?

Moe a.k.a. @biggirlblue said...

Dude, I must be getting old. Can you make the print a bit bigger in the posts please? Thanks. (pretty please)

snuffly said...

sloths are cute. :) we have one in the zoo here (minnesota) that just hangs out in a tree in the atrium all day. here's a pic i took of him - http://in-dis-guise.deviantart.com/art/sloth-120954139

Paul Spooner said...

Your post is TOTALLY like an episode of 'Go Diego Go'

Oscar (my son) would LOVE Costa Rica!

I would go just for the coffee...