A child on a zip line in Costa Rica rode into an unlikely obstruction on the line: a sloth. Fortunately, neither child or sloth were injured in the encounter, which occurred March 13.
In a video filmed by a tour guide at Go Adventure Arenal Park, the child launches from the platform and approaches the middle portion of the line when he collides with the sloth and comes to a stop.
“I just clocked him straight in the face. What do I do about the sloth?” the boy asks in the video.
The tour guide answers, “We just wait.” The wait was about 15 minutes, as the sloth sloooowly inched down the zip line and returned to the forest canopy.
The incident illustrates the importance of carefully scanning the zip line before sending each individual rider; the child was the last of eight guests in the group to descend the line.
“So seven people went on that cable and there was no sloth on it, and within 30 seconds a sloth got on the cable,” owner Flavio Leiton Ramos told news agency Storyful. “The good thing was that the child was doing a great job by using the [hand]brake, and also since the tour guide was with him, was able to handle the situation. But really the child did a great job.”
The Go Adventure Arenal Park offers a lengthy tour, with 10 lines and 14 platforms. Its website touts the park as a fine way to explore the Arenal River canyon and the flora and fauna of the rain forest, including monkeys, toucans, and hummingbirds. It makes no mention of providing face-to-face meetings with sloths.
