Jaguar Rescue Center - Puerto Viejo

The Jaguar Rescue Center is near Playa Chiquita a short 15 to 20 minute cycle from Lazy Loft. You'll see a sign for it on your right. They do tours at 9.30am and 11.30am. It get's busy so perhaps getting up a little earlier for the 9.30am is worth it. The Rescue center has a huge amount of animals in it. It's both sad an awesome. Sad that so many animals have been bought into the center injured or unwanted. But also awesome that they are trying to get them back into nature and as a bonus you get to see all these amazing creatures up close.

We did the 11.30 tour and it was very cool. Learnt so much about all the animals and they are actually doing new science on the sloths so some of the info you are getting is cutting edge. We saw owls, baby sloths, monkeys, toucans, parrots, crocodiles, loads of snakes and quite a few other animals. The animals come right up to you very close but please try and keep 2 meters distance from them as getting closer can stress them out. Trust me sloths always look chill. You would never know if they were unhappy. You kinda get the feeling you are walking around in a kids cartoon where all the animals have personalities and all secretly hang out together when the center is closed. Overall I thought the center was really cool and they looked after the animals well. However I do struggle a little seeing the animals that cannot be released as they are too injured. Should they be kept alive artificially by humans potentially unhappy. I don't know the answer to this but the center trying it's best to get as mainly animals back into their natural habitat as possible. So go and check it out and support a good cause.

Toucan

Owls