...and no, that isn´t referring to our rather laid-back chill out style of travel at the moment.
Our first post-parque stop was Trinidad (the Bolivian city, not the carribean Trinidad & Tobago) where we decided to make the most of a hot shower, electricity, STEAK!!!! and a matress that wasn´t straw stuffed.
With this busy agenda its impressive that we managed to find the time to take a stroll across the town plaza to the nearby icecream joint. On this stroll we spotted what I at first thought might be a hapless (dead) dog on the road. But no... on closer inspection it turned out to be nothing other than a sloth!!
When they walk (?!) on the ground they´re quite prostrate and very spooky. They do this kind of slow motion reaching forward with their long arms and 3 LONG claws (all clamped together so they look as though they have a hook)and kinda half walking half dragging themselves.
Of course since this is all at such a sedate pace the traffic - hundreds of motor bikes and scooters don´t have too much of a problem driving around them. Still - not exactly a good Sloth Insurance risk, so some good citizen decided to remove the suicidal sloth from the road. Grabbed what I can only describe as the scruff of the back and picked him up. Not unlike a kitten the sloth doesn´t resist this, but unlike a kitten, instead of going limp, he goes into sky-diver pose. Legs and arms all out-stretched and a placid look of "dude! do you know how LONG it took me to get that far?!" all over his wee face. A face that looks not too dissimilar to a tiny long-haired hippy.
Said sloth was reunited with his hippy buddies in the trees of the town plaza. Ben had the privlege of saving another (or the same) one from another ill fated road adventure later that day. We decided that given their pace (or lack thereof) and the size of the plaza, they were probably actually trying to hail a cab to get to the other side of the plaza! Something along the lines of "There´s one, no wait missed it. another,, no missed that too,, gotta get my hand up for this one,, no missed that too"
Anyhoo - a very VERY cool animal and a MOST unexpected sighting. Thank goodness for our own sloth-like pace which makes spotting such things so possible huh?
