Rainforest walks (night and day)
By Amanda Yant
One can imagine that Robert Frost was talking about the rainforest when he wrote about the road less traveled. We trekked over an hour by car from the main road, and later an hour and a half on foot to reach the home of Don Carlos and his family. The simple wooden house stood above a rushing river and was surrounded by the towering trees of the rainforest.
Our host, Don Carlos, proved to be a very valuable guide, and shared some secrets of the rainforest with us. On our night hike, we found colonies of social spiders and a line of leaf-cutter ants. In the middle of the hike, we stopped with our flashlights off and just listened to the sounds of the forest. Monkeys cooed somewhere in the distance above the cacophony of the insects. Don Carlos pointed out fluorescent fungi, and we all marveled at the complete darkness that enveloped us.
| Just after dawn, we hiked briskly to a high point overlooking the river to view parrots as they perched in the top of trees below. Hundreds of parrots (at least 4 different species) get minerals from exposed rocks in this place each morning to neutralize the acid in their stomachs. It felt like we were intruding on nature, and we couldn’t help but wonder how few people had ever witnessed that sight. In the afternoon, our last hike took us through a large portion of the surrounding forest and to a refreshing waterfall where we took a break. After a long day of hiking, we returned to Don Carlos’ for another fine meal on the covered porch. |
