Weddingbee Blog

(Disclaimer—we do not have any kinky relationship with these Sloths. Continue reading to find out what I really mean.)

So we’d taken our two little summer trips to Portland and Seattle, and it was suddenly time to plan our “real” honeymoon in earnest. In this post, I mentioned that we were gunning for Costa Rica, Oxygen Jungle Villas (like two bees before me), and a trip to the Sloth Sanctuary. Our vision has changed a wee bit, making for the most awesome honeymoon plan ever, I think.

Awesome point #1: We’re going for three weeks! I work on a contract basis, and within my contracts there is NO leeway for time off, but I do have a couple two to three week gaps this year. Mr CB’s job is a little (but not much) easier to get time off from, and luckily a week that he had no work scheduled coincided with one of the weeks in my gaps, and he was able to get two more weeks off. But, three weeks is a long time to spend somewhere—wouldn’t hotel and food costs be crazy for that long a time away from home?

Awesome point #2: We’re going to be doing volunteer work for two of the weeks we are in Costa Rica. This means we are paying a dirt cheap “fee” per day that will cover accommodation, three meals a day, and our laundry being done for us. And most of the money (that that doesn’t pay for the cook/laundress) goes to the charity we are working for. Which leads me to…

Awesomest point #3: We’re volunteering at the Sloth Sanctuary. Yes. The place where this video was taken. (This was all I needed to see to be convinced that we had to do it.)

Video via YouTube

My favourite part is at 0:19. We both play this video for each other way too much!

Awesome point #4: We’ll have enough time for three days at Oxygen Jungle Villas, the place that attracted us to Costa Rica in the first place. If you want to hear more about OJV and things to do nearby, here is a post from Mrs. Brooch, and a two-parter from Mrs. Lox.

The work we’ll be doing means less cute outfits and more practical hot-weather work-wear, but I’m OK with that. It also helps that all the camping stores in town are having crazy end-of-summer sales on “technical” clothing with wicking properties, UV protection, and no-chafe seams.

I personally think it will be fascinating to stay in one place so long in a foreign country, and to be working with people who actually live there. I think we’ll get a real local’s-eye-view of the place. Cinnamum phoned the other day, concerned that in 20 years when someone asks us what we did for our honeymoon, all we’ll be able to say is “shoveled sloth shit,” but I am seriously so looking forward to this. It’s totally different from my original honeymoon goal of sitting around and being brought drinks with umbrellas in them (although we do have our three OJV days), but I am more excited about caring for the sloths than I ever was about tiny umbrellas. It’s a total life experience and a chance to do something we have never done before.

Next thing to do: learn some rudimentary Spanish.

Would you consider working on your honeymoon? For a good cause? How about a cute cause?