We are travel about 1 hr upstream for a jungle excursion to learn more about the flora and fauna of the jungle. These are mostly plants (which are still amazing), but we also sneak in sightings on owls, woodpeckers, blue morpho butterfly, electric eel, piranahs etc. Here's just some of the amazing sights that we saw.
Near the start of the trail, Raphael stops us to show us a rubber tree which produces. He places his hand on the tree, quickly says a prayer or a chant, before taking his machete to the tree once. Almost immediately, the tree bleeds white (left). On first feel, the white liquid is creamy but light. Over a min, it begins to get tacky. Unsurprisingly, it's used by the locals as an adhesive (right). Growing to up to 40m tall, there are more than 1.9 billion Hevea brasiliens trees in the Amazon. It was central to the boom in Amazon rubber boom during the late 19th and early 20th century. While the rubber trade helped the Amazon achieve a world monopoly (until the seeds were grown in other countries and colonies such as Malaysia and Sri Lanka), it also brought unhappiness to indigenous people, who were forced to work by rubber barons.
Growing in in a rainforest can be challenging when sunlight rarely reaches the forest floor. So these strangler figs have adapted to grow from the top down instead. Their seeds are often dispersed by birds and when they are suitably dropped into the crevices of other trees, they begin to develop roots that grown down to the ground, while also growing up to reach the sun. The roots "strangle" the host plant as they grown down and the result is that the strangler fig looks like a tree with a hollowed out trunk. And they can get quite tall eventually. Keep reading as we come across another strangle fig later in the day.
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| Look ma, no rings! |
Because of the consistency of the weather in the rainforest, you can't tell the age of a tree by counting its rings because.... well, they don't have any.
These Walking Palms have several "stilts" (their roots) which support them. The reason they are called walking palms he because the roots of the tree grow in the direction of the sun, while the ones facing away from the sun will eventually die. As the older roots die and younger roots grow, it gives the impression (over a lot of time) that the palms are "walking" towards the light.
And here, we have Adam, who took a few goes throwing this against a tree to get it open. The fruit grows along the trunk of the tree and the indigenous people use different parrots of the tree to treat everything from hypertension, tumors, pain and inflammation.
The blue morpho butterfly is a beautiful electric blue and we were fortunate to come across one. The thing is, it's hard to capture the blue because butterflies rest with their wings closed and upright (vs moths which rest their wings open). So instead of trying to get a photo, here is a video of Raphael trying to catch the butterfly before it freaks out and flies off. But you'll see that flash of bright blue just when it does.
Our walking trail reaches a lake and here is where we pile into paddle boats and are handed some dry crackers. Apparently, piranahs like crackers. Raphael also tells us that piranahs do not attack unless there is the scent of blood. So it's completely safe to swim with them unless you have an open bleeding wound. None of us were game to stick our hand into the water.
Soon we came close to the end of our walk and we get to see the most incredible tree. A strangle fig (below) which had already killed off its host tree and was hollow on the inside. Let's just say it was another reminder that everything is bigger in the Amazon Jungle.
--- day 2 fin ---
The next morning was our last day in the Amazon Rainforest. I woke up early to the dim sunlight coming into the lodge and even though it was before 6am, I hopped out of bed to take one final walk around the lodge grounds. The air was cool and I took a stroll down to the lodge's swimming pool (read: watering hole).
Along the way I recorded the sounds of the Oropendola - These birds have an extremely unique calling sound and are known for their distinctive tear drop nests (as seen in the video), which is thought to provide protection from snakes.
After my stroll, it was time for breakfast and then it was yet another 1.5 hr canoe ride back to the port before jumping on a plane and heading back to Lima, a bit disappointed that we did not get to encounter a jaguar or an anaconda on our visit. Apparently the latter is even more elusive than the jaguar. On the whole, it was a nice relaxing few days in comparison to our Inca Hike. And remember, everything is larger in the amazon.
Saying goodbye to the Amazon Rainforest with a silly hat.
thanks for your blogs about the inca trail and amazon with gadventures, we leave next week, and it helps to understand what we are looking forward to.
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