Rainforest Diaries: An Immersive Amazon Experience
Chapter 1 - Manu Wildlife Centre, CREES
February 27, 2017
It is disorienting arriving to the Amazon at night. The thick dense air settles over you and it is hard to breathe momentarily as you adjust from the 9,000 feet difference in altitude. The humidity amplifies smells and sounds that are already more acute in this wet environment. The temperature seems to have risen suddenly and your senses are overwhelmed and oversaturated. All you can do is stare ahead as your vehicle speeds down a rough dirt road, playing reggaetone, disco, and salsa music over the stereo. Headlights illuminate the dense vegetation spilling onto the road.
The 8+ hour trip from Cusco to the rainforest is always interesting and usually eventful. Fortunately, this particular ride only consists of two small landslides (we’ve spent the night between two before) and no flat tires (we’ve had five in one trip). But overall, for a rainy season ride, it's tolerable. Several vehicles go over the edge every year during this time. In all our jungle (mis)adventures, this is when I feel the most vulnerable. It is only until the switchbacks straighten out to flat ground does the knot in my stomach finally begin to unwind.
Because of the landslide delays our driver blows past the turnoff for our stop. I attempt my most commanding Spanish (and Peruvian manner) to get him to turn around and drop us off so we don’t have to trek in the jungle at night with our bags to Atalaya.
When we finally arrive to our hostel we receive a warm greeting by the owner Cecilo and his family. They serve us up what I like to call a three starch meal of pasta with potatoes and fried plantains. We fall asleep quickly despite not having the protection of a mosquito net. But it is easy to drift asleep to the jungle’s familiar lullaby of cicadas, birds, and frogs after a stressful day of travel.
It is disorienting arriving to the Amazon at night. The thick dense air settles over you and it is hard to breathe momentarily as you adjust from the 9,000 feet difference in altitude. The humidity amplifies smells and sounds that are already more acute in this wet environment. The temperature seems to have risen suddenly and your senses are overwhelmed and oversaturated. All you can do is stare ahead as your vehicle speeds down a rough dirt road, playing reggaetone, disco, and salsa music over the stereo. Headlights illuminate the dense vegetation spilling onto the road.
The 8+ hour trip from Cusco to the rainforest is always interesting and usually eventful. Fortunately, this particular ride only consists of two small landslides (we’ve spent the night between two before) and no flat tires (we’ve had five in one trip). But overall, for a rainy season ride, it's tolerable. Several vehicles go over the edge every year during this time. In all our jungle (mis)adventures, this is when I feel the most vulnerable. It is only until the switchbacks straighten out to flat ground does the knot in my stomach finally begin to unwind.
Because of the landslide delays our driver blows past the turnoff for our stop. I attempt my most commanding Spanish (and Peruvian manner) to get him to turn around and drop us off so we don’t have to trek in the jungle at night with our bags to Atalaya.
When we finally arrive to our hostel we receive a warm greeting by the owner Cecilo and his family. They serve us up what I like to call a three starch meal of pasta with potatoes and fried plantains. We fall asleep quickly despite not having the protection of a mosquito net. But it is easy to drift asleep to the jungle’s familiar lullaby of cicadas, birds, and frogs after a stressful day of travel.
360 Video - Take a look around the wetlands at MLC.
February 28, 2017
We wake up to rain and quickly ready our bags when we realize our boat arrived early to meet us. Mist rises from the mountains and obscures the ridges. The Amazon seems its most magical during such mornings.
The boat ride to Manu Learning Centre, CREES (MLC) is quick and I feel the loss of not being able to ride the boat longer. We are given plates of scrambled eggs and sweet bread and spend the morning learning about the station and CREES' wide ranging projects.
At lunch we hear the cry of the resident three-toed sloth, Gavina, who is often seen swaying in the trees near the river. Despite our best efforts, we can't locate her. Hummingbirds dart territorially between purple flowered bushes. I am struck by how closely I could move towards them without them flushing. These jewel colored hummingbirds seemed threatened by no one except one another.
Ruth Pillco Huarcaya, the CREES coordinator, graciously offers to take us on a long hike in the afternoon. It rains partway through the walk and we have difficulty crossing one stream which swells in the rainy season. Water spills over the edges of our boots and we have to empty them several times throughout the hike. I had forgotten the smell of rich, decomposing earth when it rains.
Ruth shows us the wetlands, the three different forest types on the reserve and lastly the clay lick, where herbivores get important nutrients like salt from the soil. The muddy little cove smells of sulfur as I set up one of my camera traps to capture any animal visitors over the next several days.
We wake up to rain and quickly ready our bags when we realize our boat arrived early to meet us. Mist rises from the mountains and obscures the ridges. The Amazon seems its most magical during such mornings.
The boat ride to Manu Learning Centre, CREES (MLC) is quick and I feel the loss of not being able to ride the boat longer. We are given plates of scrambled eggs and sweet bread and spend the morning learning about the station and CREES' wide ranging projects.
At lunch we hear the cry of the resident three-toed sloth, Gavina, who is often seen swaying in the trees near the river. Despite our best efforts, we can't locate her. Hummingbirds dart territorially between purple flowered bushes. I am struck by how closely I could move towards them without them flushing. These jewel colored hummingbirds seemed threatened by no one except one another.
Ruth Pillco Huarcaya, the CREES coordinator, graciously offers to take us on a long hike in the afternoon. It rains partway through the walk and we have difficulty crossing one stream which swells in the rainy season. Water spills over the edges of our boots and we have to empty them several times throughout the hike. I had forgotten the smell of rich, decomposing earth when it rains.
Ruth shows us the wetlands, the three different forest types on the reserve and lastly the clay lick, where herbivores get important nutrients like salt from the soil. The muddy little cove smells of sulfur as I set up one of my camera traps to capture any animal visitors over the next several days.
March 1, 2017
The rainy season makes quick work of the trails, transforming them into alternating stretches of mud and muddy puddles. T-2, perhaps the most widely used trail, may be me and my cameras' downfall.
I get up before sunrise and hike to the mirador (overlook) that is just a few minutes from campus. Bethany, an intern, and her mom Jackie, a volunteer are already there monitoring macaws that are visiting the enormous clay lick wall just to the right of us out of sight.
Later in the morning Will and I spy tiny feisty saddle-back tamarins, bouncing back and forth between trees on one stretch of trail. We are searching for black-headed night monkeys (Aotus nigriceps) though, the species that we've been researching and filming for the past year and a half. We're hoping to find new groups at MLC to include in our study.
We pass some researchers on the trail who have just spotted a known night monkey family in their nesting tree. When we go back, however, they have already disappeared into the jungle. We cannot find them later when we check back at dusk either. Such is luck with wildlife in the jungle.
The rainy season makes quick work of the trails, transforming them into alternating stretches of mud and muddy puddles. T-2, perhaps the most widely used trail, may be me and my cameras' downfall.
I get up before sunrise and hike to the mirador (overlook) that is just a few minutes from campus. Bethany, an intern, and her mom Jackie, a volunteer are already there monitoring macaws that are visiting the enormous clay lick wall just to the right of us out of sight.
Later in the morning Will and I spy tiny feisty saddle-back tamarins, bouncing back and forth between trees on one stretch of trail. We are searching for black-headed night monkeys (Aotus nigriceps) though, the species that we've been researching and filming for the past year and a half. We're hoping to find new groups at MLC to include in our study.
We pass some researchers on the trail who have just spotted a known night monkey family in their nesting tree. When we go back, however, they have already disappeared into the jungle. We cannot find them later when we check back at dusk either. Such is luck with wildlife in the jungle.
360 Video - Explore a river channel.
March 2, 2017
Yesterday was a long day and when I first wake up my whole body mildly aches. Like many mornings, my feet particularly hurt when I first step out of bed. The required footwear of the Amazon, thin rubber work boots, protect against mud, thorns, stream crossings and most importantly snakes.
Will and I set out on a new trail and manage to reach a glorious swimming hole. The water is a clear aquamarine and today the sun is out and it is finally hot after days of rain. I float on my back in the deep pool and stare up at the sun filtering through the canopy of leaves.
It's our last night in MLC and we finally locate night monkeys. It is the same group that eluded us before, a family of four including a fuzzy baby. They are curious, tilting their heads as they stare at us below. We follow them as they begin their nightly outing through the forest, eating fruits, seeds and insects as they move. Will records their vocalizations as they call out to each other. Their strange otherworldly calls fill the humid night air.
Yesterday was a long day and when I first wake up my whole body mildly aches. Like many mornings, my feet particularly hurt when I first step out of bed. The required footwear of the Amazon, thin rubber work boots, protect against mud, thorns, stream crossings and most importantly snakes.
Will and I set out on a new trail and manage to reach a glorious swimming hole. The water is a clear aquamarine and today the sun is out and it is finally hot after days of rain. I float on my back in the deep pool and stare up at the sun filtering through the canopy of leaves.
It's our last night in MLC and we finally locate night monkeys. It is the same group that eluded us before, a family of four including a fuzzy baby. They are curious, tilting their heads as they stare at us below. We follow them as they begin their nightly outing through the forest, eating fruits, seeds and insects as they move. Will records their vocalizations as they call out to each other. Their strange otherworldly calls fill the humid night air.
March 3, 2017
We are on the trails at 5:30 in the morning retrieving camera traps in the lightly falling rain. I am delighted to discover images of a two-toed sloth as well as tapirs, pacas, and birds at the clay lick (amongst the three thousand camera trap photos of bats).
On our hike back we spot a large group of capuchin and squirrel monkeys traveling together. We then eat a MLC special, homemade granola, out of tupperware at the mirador as macaws and other birds squawked by. It was lovely last morning at an extraordinary new place.
We are on the trails at 5:30 in the morning retrieving camera traps in the lightly falling rain. I am delighted to discover images of a two-toed sloth as well as tapirs, pacas, and birds at the clay lick (amongst the three thousand camera trap photos of bats).
On our hike back we spot a large group of capuchin and squirrel monkeys traveling together. We then eat a MLC special, homemade granola, out of tupperware at the mirador as macaws and other birds squawked by. It was lovely last morning at an extraordinary new place.
360 Video- Navigate a stream one of MLC's jungle trails.
We miraculously make it to Pilcopata despite the concern that we would have to wait all day for a ride out of Atalaya. But moments after we get off the boat the hostel owners from the other night asked if we’d like a ride to town with them. The flammable gas truck is already running as we toss our bags in the back and climb up to stand behind the cab in a pile of sand, amid empty water containers and what we hope was empty gas canisters.
Tiny saddle-back tamarins monkeys squeak from a large tree as we fly past them. The views of the river and expanse of rainforest are incredible as we stand in the open truck. We feel like we were on a parade float as we rolled into Pilcopata, the town we’ve been based in the past two years. We even wave to señora Julia who we buy our chiflas (homemade plantain chips) from and signaled we’d be come back to visit. We then check in to Gallito de las Rocas, the hostel we have had enjoyed many a cold beer and coke from their outdoor patios.
It’s easy to become almost addicted to the spontaneity of this life, of the last minute rides, of the welcomed starchy meals when you are so hungry and tired, and unexpected extraordinary moments such as tiny tamarins in the trees. Tomorrow we make the long journey back to the Sacred Valley, however, I’m already looking forward to our return to the jungle.
Tiny saddle-back tamarins monkeys squeak from a large tree as we fly past them. The views of the river and expanse of rainforest are incredible as we stand in the open truck. We feel like we were on a parade float as we rolled into Pilcopata, the town we’ve been based in the past two years. We even wave to señora Julia who we buy our chiflas (homemade plantain chips) from and signaled we’d be come back to visit. We then check in to Gallito de las Rocas, the hostel we have had enjoyed many a cold beer and coke from their outdoor patios.
It’s easy to become almost addicted to the spontaneity of this life, of the last minute rides, of the welcomed starchy meals when you are so hungry and tired, and unexpected extraordinary moments such as tiny tamarins in the trees. Tomorrow we make the long journey back to the Sacred Valley, however, I’m already looking forward to our return to the jungle.
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Camera trap images from the clay lick at MLC reveal a sloth, bats, a tapir and a paca.
Special thanks to Manu Learning Centre and Nikon! Nikon Key Mission camera provided by Nikon Inc., Melville, New York.
© 2018 Jessica Suarez, All Rights Reserved
© 2018 Jessica Suarez, All Rights Reserved