Day Two Canopy Walk and Gamatano Creek

If the nocturnal forest symphony was relaxing, the morning cacophony (starting at around 4:30 am) was deafening. We were abruptly awakened by what I would describe is a marimba that played 3 short consistent pitches followed by someone hitting a gong. This turned out to be a bird (whose name escapes me) that was perched right on top of our dwelling! Honestly, I thought it was some kind of organized wake up call until Roberto clued us in at breakfast.

First stop on the agenda today was a canopy tour of the forest. With vivid recollections of yesterday's talk of toxic flora and tarantulas lurking in tree bark, we were happy to oblige when Percy told us to scale the 40 ft. tower to take a walk on the wild side....a network of suspension bridges strung high above the forest floor.

We saw the "drum" tree, so named because the natives beat on the trunks to send resonant drum beats of coded messages throughout the forest. This was their mass communication system. The fig trees start as vines that wrap themselves around another specie of tree and strangle that tree allowing the fig tree to grow into a ficus. The ultimate parasite!
Just as in N. America, the birds are heard but rarely seen. This is a social fly catcher. Social in that he allows us to see his glorious yellow self. Walking across the swaying bridges was magical, 100 feet in the air, where we were able to see orchids and the palm fruits with the Macaws that feed on them. All in all, this lofty view afforded us a glimpse of a secret world in the Amazon tree tops.

After a 20 minute boat ride upstream on the Madre de Dios (Mother of God) River, we docked at the Gamatana Model Farm, a prototype to teach the indigenous farmers alternative methods of agriculture to encourage soil conservation and diversity. The farmers live on site while their families live an hour away in the city of Puerto Mondonara. As we trekked through what was arguably a very diverse "farm," we saw lemon trees, orange trees, banana trees, and avocado trees all growing in a harmonious orchard together.

Throughout the farm we saw acres of tropical plants (house plants to us North Americans) such as the spectacular Bird of Paradise Tree! Our hour and a half hike took us through a lush tropical rain forest with towering palms, ficus, kapock trees among many others. It was an "Alice in Wonderland" tangled jungle with sunlit doilies and shadows piercing the canopy. Again, many dangers as Percy pointed out some innocuous looking "deadly" caterpillars. We saw several ant colonies as Percy described the life inside these 30-70 year domiciles. Called Leaf cutter ants, they collect the leaves of a particular tree and hoard these inside their hives where the leaf rots in rainy seasons producing a mushroom that they use for food. We continue to be enthralled by the delicate balance of these plants and animals vying for the lack of nutrients.

The canoe trip down the Gamatano Creek was serene and intoxicating with only the distant cry of parrots and macaws; the gentle, rhythmic dipping of oars in the glassy water. We saw a sloth, monkey, and a red tailed squirrel.


We saw our first white kaymon (crocodile) peaking out of the river near the shore. Was he grinning at us? Hmmmmmm