Who Says Sloths Are Slow?
Sometimes, if the boat we are using is small enough and the water level sufficiently high, we like to wander upstream on tiny tributaries of the Amazon. There is something exhilarating about easing up a blackwater stream with treetops so close you are practically sitting among them. Riding a couple of days like this is a great way to see wildlife, and it can be done from the comfort of a rooftop chair, with bird book and binoculars in hand. It is an endless sea of green, punctuated by the bright colors of a flowering bromeliad or orchid. Sunrise is so exciting we often forget to go down to the dining room for breakfast. But it’s addictive and sometimes we find ourselves just wanting to see what’s around the next bend and this goes on until the boat is literally floating beneath overhanging branches. Recently, as we slowly negotiated a bend in the Tigrillo River, we paused for a few minutes and one of our young guide trainees spotted a large female sloth (properly called the Brown-chinn
