Oh Yeah... And We Freed A Sloth

So, on the second day of our visit with a veteran PC volunteer in Suriname, we were walking back from canoeing on the river when one of the women of the village called us over excitedly. We walk up to find her poking at the most depressed looking sloth I have ever seen (ok, you caught me, it's the first one I've seen up close), trying to drag itself to freedom in painful slow motion. They had found this unfortunate creature in the jungle and were minutes away from starting to prepare him for dinner. In my experience so far, it seems as if the Saramaacan people will eat any kind of animal they find in the jungle- iguana, alligator, tapir, sloth, monkey, wild boar, etc. This is not surprising considering the Maroon peoples were once living in the bush in hiding as escaped slaves from the Dutch plantation owners. They hunted to survive and ate whatever they could. The Peace Corps volunteer we were visiting asked the woman for what price she would be willing to sell the silo (“sloth” in Saramaacan). She asked if he knew how to cook it and he assured her that he did and that silo was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuti (“delicious”, commonly said in a sing-song voice). She stated $30 SRD and looked ready to defend that price but it was quickly agreed to. The PCV handed over the money and informed Ryan that he was responsible for carrying the sloth to freedom. The woman handed Ryan her 2x4 previously used for torture and, for $10 USD, Ryan carried the insanely lucky sloth on the edge of the wood back to the PC house. After taking some “I'm joining the Peace Corps and living in the jungle”-worthy pictures, we hiked into the Amazon jungle behind the village and set the sloth free. We did not hear of anyone else eating sloth and rice while we were there, so here is to hoping the little guy had sense enough not to wander back onto any hunting paths.

In case anyone is wondering, even though his fur looks super thick and scratchy, it is actually extremely soft. I was also surprised to discover how strong this little guy was. And yes, those claws are
not to be reckoned with. Hence the 2x4.