The lodge has a tower which provides an aerial view of the cabins and the surrounding forest. If you’re into bird watching, the guide recommended getting there at dawn since it’s more likely that you’ll spot them. Binoculars and a long lens camera is essential for good pictures. Breakfast is served at 8 AM and the group is scheduled to leave in the canoes at 9.30 AM to go for a walk in the rainforest. The area for the 1-hour 30-minute walk is called Tierra Firme which translates to Firm Ground. The guide mentioned that it’s called this because it doesn’t flood during the wet season which we were currently in at the time. Wellingtons are provided in different sizes but do get there early, since your size may run out resulting in ending up with oversized wellies. The boat ride took about 1 hour after making stops to see dolphins before arriving at the starting point of our walk.
Upon arrival, the guide gives out health and safety instructions and then begins to explain the medicinal use of trees and plants. Here are some of the most interesting highlight.
The Quinina tree has medicinal features and its flower smell is similar to that of a jasmine flower. The indigenous people cut the bark with a machete and cook it for around 1-hour to 1-hour 30-minutes producing a brownish liquid. They drink it and it’s known to clean the bacteria in your body that causes malaria from mosquitos and also other diseases. The bark can also be chewed and you swallow the liquid to clean out your blood. It is sour and numbs your mouth and is also known to cure cavities. The tree is in danger of extinction because pharmaceuticals have started cutting it down for its medicinal features.
The Curare plant is a paralyzing nontoxic, non-poisonous plant used to coat hunting darts. The indigenous boil it in water for around 24 hours. The water evaporates leaving behind a jam-like solution which is used to coat the darts. When a dart hits a monkey, it takes about 2-4 minutes to paralyze their muscles after which it’ll fall off the tree. If the hunter doesn’t find the monkey, after a couple of hours the paralyzing effect will wear off and the monkey will be able to escape. The guide shaved some of the bark off and gave to us to put on the tip of our tongue. It is sour and numbs your tongue with an anesthesia-like effect. The indigenous also use it like anesthesia for numbing pain when healing cuts from machete/hunting accidents.
Termite nests are used in agriculture to feed fish and chickens. When burned, the smoke can have a fumigating effect to repel cockroaches and also serves as a natural mosquito repellent.
The Yoko tree bark oozes a white liquid when cut with a machete. It has a sweet nectar taste which can be used to treat ulcers, gastritis, or inflammation of the stomach.
By 12.10 PM, we were back at the canoe and the guide showed us how to attempt fishing using a hair and fly – we were not successful but it was fun. On the way back, we made a stop at Laguna Grande for a refreshing swim before heading back to the lodge for lunch and some free time to relax. At around 5 PM we headed back out to Laguna Grande to get there in time for the sunset followed by a night walk through the rainforest. After taking in the breathtaking colors we got to the jungle around 7 PM. Torches are not provided but we used our phones to light the way. We managed to see a leaf frog, grasshopper, tarantula, and many other insects. At one point, the guide made everyone turn off all the lights and stand in darkness for a couple of minutes so that the insects come out because they hide when they see light. We were back at the boat around 8 PM and at the lodge for dinner at around 8.30 PM.
