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One of the highlights of our last minute trip to Costa Rica was visiting the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica. This was something I’d read about before going and was actually part of why we wanted to head to the southeastern part of the country!
What’s the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica?
The Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica is the original rescue center for injured, orphaned, and abandoned (baby) sloths. Starting out in 1975 the property was designated as a biological reserve where the owners led birding tours. These birding tours ended after an earthquake in 1991 changed the course of the Estrella River, so the owners built a small hotel on the property instead. Shortly after this, a baby sloth whom they later named Buttercup, was brought to the owners by some neighboring children after its mother was hit by a car. They found it difficult to find resources on sloth care and keeping since many people saw them as vermin at the time. In 1997 the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica was authorized as a rescue center. Buttercup still lives there and has become the face of the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica.
Planning is Key
Open Days and Hours
Make sure to plan your visit appropriately as the hours and tours are somewhat limited. Note that they’re closed on Mondays, so plan your visit for Tuesday-Sunday. There are only two Insider’s Tours offered each day and seven Buttercup Tours that run each hour between 8:00am-2:00pm.
Transportation
You will need to have transportation to the sanctuary and also to where you’re headed afterwards. We failed a bit at planning since we were rushing to catch the 2:00pm tour after our bus from San José was delayed by construction. To save ourselves a little time and hassle we took a taxi out to the sanctuary from Cahuita instead of taking a bus. Our plan was to catch the bus back to town since we wouldn’t need to rush at that point. Buses do run from town to the sanctuary pretty frequently, but we struggled to catch one on the way back after our tour.
To be fair, our bus struggles are probably confined to us personally since we struggled in Ecuador too. If we are at a bus station, no problems. If we are just waiting to be picked up at a stop along the route? Well apparently you have run to catch the bus… and running has never been my strong suit.
Tour Options
As I mentioned above, there are two different tour options available: the Insider’s Tour and the Buttercup Tour. The Insider’s Tour is about three hours long as it includes the Buttercup Tour plus an extra ‘behind the scenes tour to the ‘Slothpital,’ nursery, and NICU. The Buttercup Tour runs about two hours with an informative guide and touring some of the facilities followed by a boat ride on the Estrella River. The cost difference is significant between the two with the Insider’s Tour being 5x the price of the Buttercup Tour. If you’re planning to take the Insider’s Tour, you also have the option of booking a room at the Buttercup Inn located on site.
What Do I Need?
There’s not too much you’ll need for visiting the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica. Obviously you’ll need money to pay for your tour (only groups of 20+ can book the Buttercup tour in advance), but don’t worry they accept cash or credit cards. Since even the shorter tour is two hours, bring yourself some bottled water to stay hydrated. Although if you forget, they do have some available for sale in the gift shop. Make sure to also bring sunscreen and bug spray for the boat tour on the river. Thick vegetation shades most of it, but why risk sunburn? Lastly be sure to bring your camera so you can capture those memories you’re making!
Buttercup Tour
We chose to take the Buttercup Tour which started out in the Learning Center with a guide giving us an introduction to sloths as a species as well as their history. Modern day sloths are actually descended from giant ground sloths, of which they have a statue outside the front of the sanctuary. The guide told us about how sloths live, what makes them unique, and how habitat loss due to human encroachment is affecting them.
I was rather astonished with everything I learned about sloths since I’d never given this species much thought other than they moved slowly. When I returned to the office after we got home, I shared some of my newfound knowledge with my coworkers who were similarly surprised. Shout out to the guy who was so blown away by the lifespan of sloths (they can live to about 40), that it became a running joke in our department.
After our introduction, we toured some of the facilities to see a few of the sloths in their custody and learn more about the cases they see. Many of the sloths in their care were injured crossing roads, by climbing onto power lines, altercations with domestic pets, etc. All of which made me rather sad, knowing our modern-day conveniences were hurting these animals. Watching the sloths move around their enclosures was mesmerizing. As someone who never quite managed to conquer the monkey bars on the playground, I was impressed by the strength in their limbs. Yes they move slowly, but their movements are so smooth and graceful.
River Ride
During the second part of our tour we went for a 45 minute boat ride on the Estrella River through the protected rainforest that is part of the sanctuary. There were five of us on the tour who climbed into a canoe along with the guide. While the sanctuary’s website says the canoes fit six guests comfortably, but it felt pretty full with just five. Within the first five minutes on the boat, we saw a small caiman floating in the shallow water and several species of Central American cichlids darting around which my husband excitedly pointed out to me.
On a side note, one of his hobbies used to be keeping freshwater tropical fish tanks, and he even had a ‘fish room’ full of aquariums in our basement when we lived in Buffalo. He tried to catch some of the cichlids on film with the GoPro using our GoPole, but the tannins in the water from all the leaves made visibility too low for a good shot.
Throughout the remainder of the boat ride, we saw a wide variety of other flora and fauna including turtles, birds, monkeys, and even a wild sloth. The rainforest was beautiful and I definitely had a few Pocahontas moments where “Just Around the River Bend” ran through my head. It was really peaceful with only the occasional calls of birds and monkeys breaking the quiet as we glided atop the water.
Go!
If you ever find yourself in the southeastern part of Costa Rica, I highly recommend you make a stop at the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica. The guides seemed very knowledgeable, the lowland rainforest was lush and gorgeous, and the sloths were utterly adorable. Again, I cannot recommend this experience enough, it was one of the highlights of our trip.
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What a really amazing educational experience! Are the sloths there rescued or are they bred? Also, just wanna say that Just Around The Riverbend is my favorite Pocahontas song!
Our guide told us that the sloths are all rescues, but there are births there sometimes if pregnant females are rescued. I don’t believe this is intended as a breeding facility. Yesss!!! It was literally running through my head the whole boat ride, I just couldn’t help myself 😂
I would love to visit the sloth sanctuary it looks awesome. Thankyou for sharing, will definitely bare this in mind for when we head to Costa Rica! x
It’s a beautiful (and less touristy) part of Costa Rica, and the sloths were so cute! Definitely check it out if you get the chance.
This sounds like such an awesome experience Kelly! I never knew about sloth sanctuaries but now I 100% want to visit one! That’s really interesting that they can live up to 40 years old, and the river tour looks like paradise! I imagine it was so peaceful and amazing to see the wildlife around you. Love the photos too, sloths really know how to chill, ha ha! Thank you for sharing your experience and your helpful advice, fab post! <3 xx
Bexa
Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to read it! We loved our visit and would recommend the experience for anyone traveling to Costa Rica!
I had no idea sloth sanctuaries were even a thing? So nice that it started to help injured sloths. They look so cute! This seems like an absolute must! x
Sophie
I didn’t either until I was looking for things to do in Costa Rica! I’m so glad we went, the sloths were adorable & it’s great to have organizations like this to help them.
Too good 💙
Thank you for taking the time to stop by!
This looks amazing! Definitely would be one for the bucket list, sloths are so adorable! Great post – If I’m ever there on a holiday I will definitely look to book this!
Lovely blog.
Chloe x
Aw that’s awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed, it’s definitely worth a visit!
This looks amazing! I hope you’re having an amazing time x
Thank you so much, we absolutely loved our visit to the Sloth Sanctuary and Costa Rica!
Such a great spot to visit! We’ve been there sometime ago and did the same tour you did. Amazing sceneries and on the boat ride we also got a chance to see 5 wild sloths!!! Beautiful place!!
Marta & Max
I agree, it was beautiful & we loved our visit! Thanks for stopping by to reminisce!
I loved the history on this sanctuary! And I’m definitely going to have to put this on my list if I visit Costa Rica! I love visiting zoos and sanctuaries in other countries!
We loved our visit! They do a great job presenting all the information about the sanctuary and about sloths throughout the tour.
Well, this is now a MUST. I love a good sanctuary! And how can you not love their cute faces?! Also, slothpital is probably the cutest portmanteau I’ve ever heard!
I laughed pretty hard when they called it a Slothpital… just say it out loud, you can’t resist a giggle.
This looks amazing!!! Were the bugs bad??
It absolutely was amazing! Not at all, but we did use bug spray. I think I only got a couple bites during our whole trip so they definitely weren’t bad.
I like the story about how the Sloth Sanctuary started.
Agreed! It’s pretty great that they were able to start the Sanctuary and help injured sloths!
Such a cute post!! I love sloths!!! Loved the pics and stories!! Thanks for sharing!! xoxo
Thank you for reading, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I was looking forward to this post since you last posted about Costa Rica. Great pics, the sloths are so adorable. Did they really call it a ‘slothpial’ though? 😂
Thanks I’m glad you enjoyed it! Yes, they really do refer to it as the ‘Slothpital,’ it’s even on their website that way! hehe