Parque Nacional Madidi
Miercoles 28 de noviembre – sábado 1 de
diciembre.
S 14º 34.4’ W 67º 40.5’ Elev 283 m
At 9 am, after waiting for 40 minutes at the same Tour office, we headed
off to the Rio Beni, two blocks away, where we got into a boat and headed
upstream, and onto the Rio Tuichi, past Carmen Florida, and upstream into the
Parque. On board were four Aussies and one Basque sailor, all out for the day;
and three English people and me, out for 3 days in the Rain Forest. As well, besides the boat driver who would
not be staying, there was the guide, Eliberto, in his 40s, who had spend most
of his life in the rainforest and clearly loved it, and Rosa, our cook, also in
her 40s, from Santa Cruz (a city in the Bolivian Amazon).
After traveling 3 hours or so up river, through quite a few rapids, we
landed. After another half hour walk on a trail through the rain forest, we
arrived at our camp. The usual: very basic cabins, a cook house/dining room
with an outdoor firepit as well, and gravity-feed running water thanks to a
raised water tank that was filled from a nearby creek using a gas-powered water
pump. Our cabin was a large dormitory with about 30 beds, although there were
only the four of us.
Our Camp
After a few minutes, Eliberto
heads off with the one day group, while we are served lunch and then hang out.
Eliberto and the others arrive back about 2:30, eat lunch, and then head back
with the boat driver. At 3:30, we head off for a forest walk with Eliberto.
Right away it becomes clear that I am the
nearest thing to someone who speaks Spanish and English, so I become the translator for the three days. It works, although sometimes I have to
question Eliberto to make sure I understand what he is saying. At one point, I
ask him something about longitude and latitude, and he tells me that he knows nothing
of that, having only a 4th grade education. But he is the best
rainforest guide I have yet encountered. I tell him that he has a lot of
schooling: it is in the school of the rainforest.
I ask Eliberto for his thoughts about the high peccary numbers that Taz
had been so pessimistic about. According to Eliberto, illegal hunting is
keeping the numbers down. (Peccaries will eat almost anything and too high
numbers will decimate other wildlife.) He also says that there are about 80
wardens in the park but that this is not enough to prevent a fair bit of
illegal harvesting.
The group that is staying for the three days includes Craig, a very
nervous Englishman in his 30s who has a small business selling solar panels,
and an English couple in their early 30s: Chris, a cabinet maker, and his wife,
Nicola, a very talkative woman who works as a rehabilitation therapist.
Our afternoon hike is a harbinger of things to come: it is amazing!!
First we scare up a small deer. Then, due to the following fruit, we spot a
family of red howlers who are eating some kind of red fruit. The falling bits
and the red monkey poop are all over.
We spot lots of trees of cacao, camaruru, achacheru, and motacu. The
last, when it has fallen to the ground, is a favourite of peccaries. And we do
see lots of peccary trail hoof prints everywhere. Undoubtedly, peccaries,
unlike civilized humans, would not discard a motacu fruit because it contained
a grub but rather relish the additional protein and fat. This is the fruit
that, once fallen, frequently contains grubs, that local people use for small
fish bait.
Shortly after encountering the red howlers, we hear a noise in a tree
and see a coati (smaller, slenderer
relative of the raccoon) come scurrying down a tree and off. Then
another one comes scurrying down. Then, all of a sudden, six juveniles come
down, all together, sliding down the tree trunk like a fireman sliding down a
Fire Station pole. And they rapidly disappear into the forest.
We cross the small stream (same one that is near our camp) on a log.
Unfortunately, the log is covered with a thick column of ants of a kind that
Eliberto calls ‘hormigas locas’ or crazy ants. While walking across, all of us
inevitably squish a large number of them as they are all over the log. For the
next 10 minutes or so, we are all slapping at our legs as many of the ants have
crawled up our pant legs and are biting us. They are small but it hurts! The
leaf cutter ants are very active in many locations and we come across an
enormous leaf cutter nest, a sandy area about 5 m across. Within it are many
locations that have been dug up by, according to Eliberto, giant armadillos
(tatoos in Spanish). I notice too that in one area of the nest, the ants have
left a pile of cut leaves that normally would be taken down into the nest. When
I ask, Eliberto says that the ants will leave the leaves outside if they are
wet and we have had a lot of rain the day before.
Crazy ant nest
We also spot a crazy ant nest on a tree. It looks much like termite
nests, as it too is made of dark brown chewed wood. However, unlike any termite
nest, this nest is long vertically and narrow horizontally. We come across very
large ants (giant ants he calls them). They are apparently harmless, like
carpenter ants back home but much larger. We also find a fair number of fire
ant trees, a tree that has a mutualistic relationship with the ants. They take
up residence inside the tree, and they protect it from insects, animals, and
plants that attempt to grow too close. (This is the tree that Jose in Manu Park
called the ‘sacred tree’. The fire ants, have a very painful bite that hurts
for 24 hours. A lot of bites can kill a human. Eliberto tells us a local story
of a policeman who tied a criminal to a tree (not sure why) and when he came
back for him two hours later, the man was dead: it was a sacred tree). So
obviously we give the trees a wide berth when we see them or when our guide
points them out.
He points out a rubber tree and we cut into the trunk to see the white
sticky sap flow out. Another tree he calls a healing tree for the healing
properties of its sap when applied to wounds. He also shows us a curare tree, a
tree whose sap contains curare, a compound that paralyses muscles. He says that
local natives dip their arrowheads in the sap. They will also make slashes in
the tree to collect large amounts to pour into small ponds to paralyse fish
making collection much easier. We see the scar of just such a cut on one of
these trees. The curare tree has round flattened fruit (like a sea urchin)
which parrots eat the seeds of. We see segments of this fruit frequently on the
ground indicating parrot activity. The fruit does not contain the curare, at
least not the ripe fruits.
Many kinds of trees have
large flanges to keep them upright as roots are very shallow. This one goes over board.
Back at camp we see a large column of ants that Eliberto calls hunter
ants (hormigas cazadoras). They raid
other ant nests to take eggs, larvae, and pupae. Sure enough we see them
entering and leaving a nest carrying just those items, and after a while they
stop, presumably because they have them all, or because it is too late in the
day.
That evening we go on a night walk. At least, Craig and I do; Chris is
too tired and Nicola does not want to go without him. We see huge crickets (4
inches long with saw toothed hind legs that Eliberto tells me can cause some
very nasty cuts). We see huge katydids of several kinds, all with forewings
that are perfect imitations of leaves. We also see a tree frog, and an
unmistakable ocelot print. A very large, bright green stink bug is flying
around sounding like an airplane and lands on me.
Huge Katydid
Rosa’s food is very good. Her work is not too hard because of the size
of the group but I know that the cooks really work crazy hard for little pay
when the group size is big as it often is. (The pay is around B100 per day
(around $13) with no benefits other than food and a bed. Our food consists of a
lot of fruit (bananas, papaya mostly), vegetables (carrots, cabbage, beets,
onions), potatoes, rice, chicken and red meat. To drink we have refrescas
(water which corn is boiled in and then sugar is added. It tastes like dilute
koolaid).
On day 2, at 5:30 AM, we are blessed with a red howler monkey groaning
his territorial groan (Darth Vader style). I get up at 5:30 because there is
too much to see and hear. Sure enough, about 6 we hear a loud hitting noise,
like someone cutting down a tree. Also,
grunts. It turns out to be a large herd of white-lipped peccaries near our camp
and several wander into the camp to feed on the fallen motacu fruit. The
hitting noise is actually the peccaries clicking their teeth together, which
they do when they are nervous, but it is actually surprisingly loud. Chris
sleeps right through this action. We also hear the gurgling of oropendulas,
common birds related to orioles.
One of a Group of White Lipped Peccaries near Camp
When we head out for a morning walk after breakfast, we spot a large
spider hawk wasp. Eliberto explains that these wasps attack snakes any chance
they get and this is why it is dangerous to wear a snakeskin belt in the
forest. He is not kidding but this is one of those stories that does not have
much chance of being true.
When we come to a large hollow tree, Eliberto taps it with a stick and
you can hear wings flapping inside. I run back to camp to get a flashlight so
we can see inside. Lying on my back on the ground with my head inside the tree
trunk, and looking up with the flashlight, I see first in the bottom 3-5 m are
some very large crickets (some 9-12 cm long). Beyond that are about 15 bats,
which Eliberto says are vampire bats. I can see them clearly but not clearly
enough to say that they are vampires. I have to take Eliberto’s word on that.
Looking up at Vampire Bats
At another large tree which, like most, have many roots crisscrossing
the ground, Eliberto stops and prods under the root with a stick until a
tarantula, a very large female, emerges. He has apparently seen this mama
before, as he had the vampires.
We walk into a large muddy area which is a peccary wallow and salt lick.
There are literally hundreds of them: 200 at a very rough guess. Lots of
wallowing, lots of nervous clicking, occasional runs as if some are about to
run off and then don’t. We try to stay quiet and not too close. But as I am
slowly sneaking up closer, Eliberto decides to send them off by walking in.
Hundreds take off in a big hurry. There are a few remaining and a few that have
not yet come into the wallow area (which is not all open: there are trees
within).
We look through the area, as a Morpho butterfly flits by. I have seen
Morphos everywhere I have been in the rain forest, but they rarely alight and
so I have never yet taken a photo of one. They are incredibly beautiful and
undoubtedly this one is also here for the salt lick.
On our way back, Eliberto shows us an anesthetic tree. We each take
small piece of leaf and chew it and within 10 seconds the inside of my mouth
and tongue are completely numb. The effect wears off in 5-10 minutes but it is
truly amazing. We also come upon a forest tortoise, with a shell about 50 cm
long. It was just minding its own business until we came along. Before we get back
to camp, Eliberto finds some tracks that are unmistably tapir tracks: large,
deep tracks with three toes.
Forest Tortoise, Head End
Back at camp, after lunch it is very hot and we have some time to relax.
I sleep for 2 hours, which I find easy to do in the Amazon when it is hot.
Afterward, at my suggestion, we hike down to the river to fish. While I slept,
Eliberto has fished in the creek to catch small fish to use for bait. We use 20
lb line with a medium size hook and a slice of the small fish Eliberto caught.
We throw them out and leave on the bottom.
Eliberto has the quietest water and he is the only one who catches
although I do get a couple of nibbles. He catches a 40 cm catfish, a 35 cm
stingray and a small catfish, the latter two of which he throws back. To
release the stingray, he is about to cut off the tail (with the sting).
However, I stop him, grab a stick and hold down the tail so that he can unhook
him safely. He does so but in a very rough manner cutting the fish’s mouth, and
then releases him.
The others do not fish for long. Nicola hangs out, Chris goes for a
swim, and Craig heads back to camp to get his swim trunks. When we finally head
back, we encounter Chris, who has got himself repeatedly lost. I am not
surprised. Personally, I find that there is so much to see that I am often
completely disoriented. When the sun is out, it is very helpful but otherwise
orientation is very tricky. Eliberto says that he has worked with a guide who
always uses a GPS to orient himself. I have my GPS with me as I wanted to
practice and have entered the coordinates of the camp. As well as playing with
it, I now have another reason to carry it: to keep from getting lost. We are
using a maze of small indistinct trails and getting lost is a real possibility.
That night there is another night walk. Everyone passes on this except
me. I am starting to wonder why the others have come. Tonight we see more
crickets, spiders, katydids, cockroaches, 2 frogs, and a roosting duck we spot
because it has caused some leaves to fall.
Tree Frog
The last morning, the plan is for Eliberto and me to go for an early
morning walk at 5 AM as no one else seems eager. I do not sleep well as there
are mosquitoes in the cabin and a significant number of gotten through my
mosquito net: must be a hole. At 5 we hear a red howler but it also starts to
rain so we delay our hike. At 6 the rain has mostly stopped and we decide to
head out. On our way out, Eliberto informs me that a female giant anteater and
young walked past his cabin at about 4:30. He looked out and could see them. He
explained that the anteater walks on his front knuckles, not his toes with the
long claws. In self-defense, the anteater stands up on hind legs freeing its
front legs to slash with its formidable claws. We hear a red howler male again
and are able to spot it and the troupe of about 7 females and young that are
with him. We also come across an armadillo burrow.
After breakfast we go for one last walk. Eliberto shows us an animal
healing tree: a tree that injured animals will rub themselves against although
I am not at all clear what type of injury this works for but I do not doubt
that there is some truth to this. He also shows us plants that are used to
treat malaria, as well as rheumatism. A herb with a smell of cloves that is
used to treat toothache, and how to use the inner portion of a Bird-of-Paradise
stem to make a very effective bandage.
Inner portion of a
Bird-of-Paradise stem as Bandage
We look at a 500 year old mahogany that is huge and is probably worth
about $25 000 standing and $500 000 delivered to Europe. No wonder they are
scarce.
When we are getting ready to leave, Rosa wants to accompany me to Santa
Cruz (where I will head next) which is where she is from. Unfortunately she
cannot as another group arrives with the boat driver. We return to Rurrenabaque
in the rain. Even without the rain, my clothes were soaked with the humidity of
this trip. I am also really itchy all over from many mosquito bites that look
more like angry red welts, mostly on my thighs, abdomen and lower back. The
rainy season is here and reluctantly I decide it is time to leave the Amazon,
for now. So, I will not make a stop in the Beni Biosphere Reserve as I was
hoping to do. Instead, I will make my way to the city of Santa Cruz and then on
to the town of Samaipata where I can visit the Cloud Forest of Amboro National
Park.
Saturday, I get clothes washed, and relax for a day before moving on. I
finish a book I am reading about Jeanne Boylen, the American forensic artist
who has worked on the most notorious murder cases in the US. Hers is a
fascinating story. That evening, I try to stop a dog from chasing motorcycles
as someone is going to kill him if he does not smarten up. Dogs throughout
South America mostly run free and mostly behave respectfully and tend to be
very careful in traffic. The funny thing is that they are frequently tolerated
coming into and out of restaurants, where they will often beg for food.
My room at the Santa Anna is a strange one: there is only a screen on
the upper wall separating my room from the adjoining. Might as well be one
room. Again that evening it rains heavily.
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