Relax

Today, Liliana and I tagged along with Guido and Pilar to three schools to see if we would be able to work with their students in our environmental education efforts.  We visited Puerto Escondido [which means Hidden Port, but we found it since we arrived by road], El Rincon [The Corner], and La Palma [Palm].  These schools are strategic since one of the educational programs deals with teaching about the importance of the mangroves surrounding the Golfo Dulce.   Another separate but related part of the program will be working with the students to teach them about biological indicators of water quality.  

We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of this three-toed sloth at one of our stops.  Normally when you leave your camera in the back seat and somebody spots an amazing creature, you're left feeling remiss that you didn't follow the rules of always having your camera at hand.  So when Guido pointed into the tree to indicate that there was a sloth, my first reaction was, "Crap, I don't have my camera with me."

It's something about our culture, the way we're brought up to always have to be doing something, planning for the next step, achieving.  I'm not saying that these are bad qualities to have, but I look around and often think we could take a lesson from the sloth.  Did you know that sloths descend to the ground only about once a week, and then only to defecate and slowly claw their way back up?  

Quoting the parrot in Tom Robbins' Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, "People of zee whurl, RELAX!"  I ambled over to the car, got a drink of water, reapplied my sunscreen per the manufacturer's instructions [ensuring that I'll need to buy more soon], tied my shoes, removed the camera from its case and sauntered back to where I had seen this lethargic beast.  He hadn't moved a toe.

If you ever have the chance to look a sloth in the face you'll notice that they are always smiling :)