How to spot a sloth in Costa Rica

A sloth is the one animal people fly to Costa Rica hoping to see and then walk straight past. They barely move, they sit high in the canopy, and their fur grows algae that turns them the exact green-grey of the branch they are draped over. You can stand directly underneath one and see nothing but leaves. The first time I watched one move, a single slow reach across a gap in the canopy, it stopped the whole group.

I am not going to pretend I have surveyed the country and found the perfect sloth-spotting spot, because I have not. The places with the big reputation are the two coastal national parks, Manuel Antonio and Cahuita, and they have earned it; if you want to load the dice, start there. I happened to see mine elsewhere, on a small rainforest trail near La Fortuna and again on a boat trip over in Bocas del Toro, which only proves the wider point: sloths are not really about the location.

What actually matters is how you look. Stop scanning the ground and the views, and start reading the high forks of the trees for a lump that does not match the branch around it. Go in the morning, when they are easier to pick out. And take a guide if you can, because a trained eye finds in seconds what you will otherwise hunt for in vain.

See one properly, that slow, unbothered reach from branch to branch, and it rearranges how you think about the animal. Slow down, look up, and let the forest do the rest.