A Special Sloth Story
How Isadora the Sloth Inspired One of My Ink Drawings
During this time of quarantine my mind has wandered on more than one occasion to a special sloth encounter my family experienced in Costa Rica. My daughter, Jenna, has a deep love of sloths. Her mission for the trip was to find her very own sloth in the wilderness; all by herself.
Costa Rica is incredible! If you haven't visited, when it’s safe to travel again, you must GO! The people are so friendly, the landscape is amazing, the rain forests are captivating, the wildlife is diverse and spectacular.
We spent the week going from the volcanic mountainous area of Arenal, to the cloud forest of Monteverde, to the coastal rainforest of Manual Antonio. Jenna's eyes were peeled for a sloth hanging in the tree tops. On the 2nd day of our trip she saw her first wild sloth slowly moving from one tree to another, but it was spotted by someone else riding in the van and to Jenna this didn't count. She was committed to her mission rules; she needed to find her own sloth.
Over the next few days we had 3 more sightings. Two sightings by our rain forest guide in the Monteverde Cloud Forest, and one by a coffee plantation worker while visiting Don Juan. Again, these didn't count for Jenna; she’s a stickler!
Jenna was getting discouraged and by our last day, her hopes for finding her sloth had pretty much faded. After a very long and beautiful walk in Manual Antonio National Park, we stopped on the beach for a picture in front of an iguana that was sunning. Just as I finished taking the picture Jenna screamed with pure joy. A sloth was climbing down the tree directly behind her and was already almost at her eye level. She was the first to see it, she claimed it as hers and named it on the spot..."Isadora."
Sloths are incredible creatures to watch in the wild if you are lucky enough to see them when they are on the move. Their movements are so slow and deliberate, unlike any other animal I’ve seen. You have to see it with your own eyes. We stopped and watched Isadora in amazement for almost an hour. It was truly a special moment.
When we returned from our trip I asked Jenna which animal I should draw, and she didn't hesitate for second -- she said, “a sloth!’ And not only did she say a sloth, she said "Isadora." Jenna’s sloth became the model for the ink drawing you see in this email.
I took artistic liberty and gave Isadora a baby. Jenna named him “Perry,” because the word for sloth is “perezoso” in Spanish.