The watchful eyes of the Haunted Forest...

I cannot remember the specific fairy tale but I clearly recall reading about a haunted wood...a forest full of danger where you were certain to die if you entered.  And the trees all had scary eyes in the pictures.  I realize only now that the artist must have been referring to the Amazon Rain Forest.

 

Our lodge sat in a little clearing on the banks of an ox bow lake...surrounded by grass and the occasional flowering tree.  It was serene and stunning...that feeling disappeared as soon as you set off down and of the nearby trails.    After just wandering a few feet into the jungle you felt absolutely enveloped in foliage...the sun disappeared and the dark canopy of lush green hovered all around.  It feels very alone until you start to look closely...there are things everywhere – and most of them can kill you. 

A small flicker of movement above is the only initial indication of a large family of monkeys that have been curiously watching your progress.  Don’t attempt to hold onto a vine for support – if you’re lucky it will just be covered in prickles, unlucky and it will turn out to be a snake.  A dried twig that you reach for will actually be a huge stick bug.  The breeze starts to blow and all of a sudden what you thought was a dried leaf takes flight as a huge moth.  That pile of rotten leaves you almost stepped in is home to not one but two poisonous frogs.   Every large leaf seems to be providing shelter for some sort of creep crawly bug and not looking straight ahead is a guaranteed way to walk directly into the web of a devil spider.

But following initial terror, when you stopped to look around...it is amazing.  Huge trees, colours I have never seen before and a smell of absolute freshness.  The forest is a hum of noise from the monkeys and birds squawking different notes.   Even though we were sweltering in our long sleeves, pants, rubber boots and hats to minimize available flesh for malaria stricken mosquitoes to nibble on, I think we all would have wandered indefinitely. 

But Jose had other plans, specifically breakfast.  We had gotten up before the sun to start our trek and after reaching the end of the freshly cleared path (as you can imagine, they grow over fairly quickly) Jose decided that this was a good time to head back, our troupe of 10 traipsed back over our tracks down the muddy trail.  We were excited at the abundance of monkeys and birds that we did see but were all a bit sad that we missed out on the elusive Jaguar. 

A few minutes into our return trip and Jose stopped short.  Knowing his paralyzing fear of snakes, I immediately went into a bit of a panic mode.   Turns out it wasn’t the slithering reptile that had his attention...it was some fresh tracks in the mud...over our tracks.   While we had been searching in vain for the jaguar...turns out he had found us. 

It seems that we had been followed down the path for the last little while by the largest feline predator in these parts...and had absolutely no idea.  This is extremely worrisome for me...as the traditional slowest member of the group.  Well, it I don’t make it home...at least you’ll know why...