It’s been three months since we were in Panamà, and astonishingly enough, I had not yet seen a sloth. We’d done the hike up Metropolitan Park (we’ll have to go again so I can write about it) which is the only national park in a major city, where we’ve heard sloths could be found. We drove around Soberania National Park, again where sloths are found, and nothing. Even our recent visit to Punta Culebra, where some of the reviews say that the staff can help point them out, yielded no sloths. I was very sad that I was sloth-less.

So we decided to rig the game and go somewhere where seeing sloths was a given: The Panamà Nature Center.

The Panamà Nature Center is very close to the MIraflores locks, but in an area surrounded by an ecological reserve. They’re a non-profit that is dedicated to rehabilitating orphaned wildlife with an eye to releasing them back, but providing a permanent home to those that can’t.

Hours are limited (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, and two 3 hour time windows on weekends). Tours are scheduled roughly every hour. This isn’t someplace where you just wander around, you are escorted around the center.

After paying for our tickets ($7.50 each with our pensionado discount), we were ushered to a shaded area where one of the naturalists explained the history of the center and some of the animals in their care. A backdrop behind the speaker showed that the Center is supported by a number of organizations in the U.S. and elsewhere dedicated to wildlife rehabilitation.

Once getting the briefing, we were then allowed to go into the sloth enclosure, which is rather large and filled with natural vegetation. Then finally, I saw my first sloths!

They were just in the middle of having lunch, and didn’t seem to mind at all the 20 or so people who were there staring at them. We learned more about their histories (this particular one had been abandoned shortly after birth). While we could get good pictures, we were not allowed to touch the animals, which is the responsible thing to do. The staff said that is the number one request, to pet the sloths. Those nails are long, I certainly don’t think I’d risk it.

We also met one of the other ambassadors for the Center, a native Panamanian hedgehog. So adorable!

We also met a box turtle which was roaming around freely, and several anteaters that were in different stages of rehabilitation. The anteaters in particular they were keeping away from most humans as they were hoping to release them in the near future.

The final part of the tour was meeting a couple of snakes – a boa constrictor and python. While they encouraged the visitors to touch the snakes, I stayed away. I love looking at snakes, but I didn’t want to touch them!

There are exciting times ahead for the Center. A formal visitor center is under construction, including a nursery for orphaned sloths. They’re also going to start a membership program, which I expect we will join. After all, who doesn’t want to see more sloths?

At last, I was sloth-less no more!