Animal Sanctuary

Today we went to the Diamante Eco Park, mainly to see the animal sanctuary. They also have zip lines, a beach, ATV tours, and a cultural experience. It’s about 30 minutes from where we are staying. There was a route that was only 20 minutes, but we didn’t make it through the shortcut road.

It was another driving adventure–lots of fun until we hit the washouts. They started out fine, but the last one worried me. I didn’t get any photos unfortunately. It was a good 2-foot dip. But it was the hill of loose dirt that forced me to turn around. We got almost halfway before the tires started spinning. I tried once more then said, “Nope!” We turned around and used the paved roads.

Below is the view from the Diamante Welcome Center. There is a hotel resort near the beach. At Diamante, we did the cultural experience and the animal sanctuary. The cultural experience was about sugar, coffee and cocoa. The guide showed us how they press sugar cane and the process to make it into various sugar products. We got to sample some coffee made from beans grown there as well as make our own chocolate. He had cocoa powder, powdered milk, and raw sugar. We each mixed our own. It was tasty. I tried it his way–with only a little milk and the cocoa. The milk made it creamy that it wasn’t too bitter.

We spent most of our time at the animal sanctuary. They had animals native to Costa Rica, although they did have two Marmosets from Brazil that had been donated to them by the founder of another preservation foundation. Amy’s favorite were the sloths. They were entertaining to watch eat–I was impressed how well they ate upside down.

We saw parrots, frogs, monkeys, and toucans. Photos didn’t come out well for most of these animals since they were behind netting or inside glass. For the toucans, however, we were inside their enclosure with them. These birds are domesticated and were confiscated as it’s illegal to have them as pets. The sanctuary keeps them as they would not survive in the wild. As you can see, they aren’t concerned about the humans close to them.

The cats were my favorites to see, though I didn’t get to hear their backstory. I am hoping they were also rescued from other situations. It’s sad that they only get to live in these enclosures. They do not get out to any open spaces. One of the guides did tell us they breed the jaguars to help increase populations as they have Near Threatened status. They were sleeping our first time through the sanctuary–understandable at noon when it’s 90 degrees. They were a little more active the second time through, around 3:30 (and close to feeding time).

I was able to get some good photos through the glass. I did have to use my shadow in some cases.

This puma didn’t look too happy to be disturbed from its sleep. That, or he/she thought I was the guide bringing food.

Look at the size of this jaguar! I would not want to meet him in the wild.

For dinner, we chose our trusty local restaurant–Father Rooster’s. Can’t beat walking distance and next to the beach! Ben got the nachos–it was a huge plate! I have found the servings to be large and wonder if this is how they cater to American tourists.

Amy had a yummy gin drink that also had ginger ale and fruit juices. I’m not a fan of gin, but this drink was delicious!

We’d not yet sat inside the restaurant, choosing outside instead. However, it was pouring, so we sat on the porch. I noticed they had these signs with distances to various places. Low and behold, look what city made the list!