Sloth Sighting!

To my surprise, my first sloth sighting did not happen when a group of tourists, about a week ago, excitedly shouted, "There's a sloth!" Even in broad daylight, without binoculars or a spotting scope, this elusive creature was just too quick for my naked eye to see. But luckily, tonight, some colleagues and I saw an individual crossing the cable bridge that connects the two sides of the station.

This rather unfortunate sloth was in the arduous process of climbing towards our side of the river when we spotted it. However, upon being blinded by our headlamps (we stood at the end of the bridge, a few meters away to give it space), it hesitated and hung uncertainly on the cable by its claws, wondering what to do next. Then, it hurriedly - for a sloth - started going back the way it came, and with every two steps, would look over its shoulder at us to see if we were still there.

Yep.

And so, after a few minutes of waiting and watching the poor creature backtrack unnecessarily at undoubtedly a record pace, we decided to pass it on the bridge and allow it to cross over in peace. That said, I got to see my first sloth about a foot away, looking bewildered at me in the low light of my headlamp. I can only hope that it got to the other side of the bridge alright, at least until the noisy group of middle school American kids find it.