Sloth News Day...

So it's worth commenting on our second home here in Santa Cruz. It's La Plaza 24 de Septiembre, the main square where everyone and a three-toed sloth seem to hang. The plaza is literally in the center of Santa Cruz and it's one of the few places I've seen the city's divided factions in one place. Spend a few minutes there in the evening and you'll see Japanese chess players, Moonies, Mennonites walking home from the market in overalls and straw hats, Cholitas in their bowlers and petticoats, kissing teenagers and convalescing seniors. There are guys in white dinner jackets selling coffee from carts and six-year-old kids selling newspapers. And a sloth. Guidebooks say he had been relocated to a zoo after falling ill. But yesterday I was sitting under a tree and saw a few leaves fall. Looking up, I saw the guy's beady eyes glaring right back at me. His mouth was full of leaves. I swung back to the same bench today with Sonya, hoping to snap a pic. But he had climbed high enough to look like nothing more than a furry piece of trunk.

We will be out of town until Sunday night. So check in again Monday for the latest post.