Brazilian Wildlife

Hey! Guess what? We saw a sloth today. It was pretty awesome. Harper was napping and Rivs and I were reading on the deck couch when Dave burst through the front door excitedly yelling something about a sloth in a wheelbarrow. Dead? Alive? Stuffed? I didn't know. But it was definitely too interesting a claim to dismiss, so I matched his enthusiasm and hurriedly told Rivs to follow me. I debated waking Harper from her slumber, but considering her possessed Emily Rose-like demeanor she adopts when woken from a nap, I decided against it (for the sloth's sake, of course). Rivs and I followed Dave up the dirt road not really knowing what to expect. What we found was a literal manifestation of Dave's earlier ecstatic proclamation: it was a sloth in a wheelbarrow. Apparently a couple of the local boys who work on the eco lodge grounds saw him slowly crossing the dirt path and coaxed him into the wheelbarrow with a big stick. When we approached him, he sat like Buddah, relaxed with his arms folded and legs outstretched, but attentively following our every movement with his head that could do a 360. Really. It was a pretty amazing experience to be so close to such a wild and endangered animal. I felt bad that Harper couldn't witness it, but I figured she would have been so upset to not be allowed to cuddle it that it was for everyone's own good. Then, as we were leaving, Naco (the old telepathic artist who was laughing hysterically at our fascination with the sloth) invited us to see his sculptures. In the 5 minutes we were in his home, he professed to be the pope, invoked the goddess of Kindness, and informed us that he doesn't sleep because he has transcended fatigue. Then he gave Rivs a hug, blew me kisses and sent us on our way. I love that guy. Oh- we also saw monkeys this morning. They hang out over at our neighbor Chris' house, who runs a save-the-rainforest NGO. They were tiny little monkeys with ringed tails and white around their faces. Harper loved watching them scurry up the trees.

This is a photo from the beach we went to yesterday. You have to cross an ocean-river intersection to get to the 20 miles of untouched beach, so Simone and Bailey kayaked across,Rivs paddle boarded and me and Harp paid a guy 3$ to row us in a tiny wooden "lancha", or canoe. It was awesome to be so secluded but to be able to look across the water to the town of Itacare.

Uncle Dave went fishing yesterday. He caught an 80lb tuna, but gave it to the boat captain. He saved a few smaller ones for us, and Harper had a hard time understanding why they weren't moving. Sorry Harp. They're dead and in our bellies.