THE TRIP

hile in Cuzco, The Dragon joined a 9 day camping excursion into the Amazonian Rain Forest. Their destination: the Manu Biosphere Preserve.

Manu is a 1.8 million hectare rainforest park, the largest one in Peru and the best place in South America to see a variety of wildlife. Since the park begins in the eastern slopes of the Andes and drops down into the lowland jungles the diversity of wildlife is immense. Anyone visiting Peru with an interest in wildlife should definitely consider adding Manu to their itineraries.

To get to the park, The Dragon loaded into a small van at daybreak one Sunday for a 15 hour road trip from Cuzco (3326 meters) to the lowland jungles. The trip took him on a high mountainous roadway, running through passes with drops of over a thousand feet off the side of a one lane road. Passing huge trucks coming the other direction on the road was quite a thrill. Luckily (?) the dirt road threw up a cloud of dust to cover the van inside and out, distracting the passengers from the perils outside.

As the van descended into the jungle the greenery crept in and the dirt road turned to mud. Several times during the descent both passengers and crew had to lift and push the van out of mud bogs, swaying back and forth to the tunes of hovering parrots. When the van finally reached the riverside village of Atalaya that evening camp was pitched and dinner was served. In the morning the sun rose over the river as the group loaded into boats. It was river transit from that point onward as the group headed deeper into the jungles.

he jungle hike had been uneventful so far, despite The Dragon's efforts to see a giant tarantula or bushmaster by inspecting every fallen tree or hidden niche he passed. He had already been lucky enough to see an abundance of wildlife in and around the jungle. Why just yesterday they saw a troupe of squirrel monkeys, red howlers, and spider monkeys (including his new friend Galen). Then there were the capybara along the shoreline on the trip down river and the tapir that wandered into camp his first day in the rain forest. Even more impressive was the swarm of parrots and macaws swooping out of the sky to chew on the mineral enriched soil of a river bank salt lick. But while each encounter was exciting and interesting, none captured his thoughts and brought back fond memories of Saturday afternoons when as a young boy he sat and watched Johnny Weismuller yodel and swing through the trees. But the day was not yet over...

As the group continues along the path, their vacant guide Dante stops abruptly and motions the group to be still. Just ahead of them there is movement in the trees. The greenery shifts and crackles as something pushes through it and away from the group. The Dragon follows the movement with his eyes while his ears begin to pick up a strange noise. It sounds like the clucking noise of a tongue bouncing from roof to floor of the mouth, except it definitely isn't a human noise. The clicking-clacking continues, growing louder even though the movement in the brush continues to move away from the group. Then The Dragon spots them, several large boar-like creatures moving off into the jungle. "They are called Picary," Dante whispers, "they make that strange noise with their tusks. They usually travel in large groups, sometimes as large as 50 or more...

The Dragon then notices the clacking noise has grown in volume, both audibly and numerically, and now seems to be coming from behind them. Then the noise is all around them: trees and brush being pushed aside; the shuffle of hooves in the underbrush; the demonic click-clack of tusks on teeth. The group stands still, their eyes racing in all directions. From the green behind them a field of black shoots forth as a dozen picary rushed out to join the rest of their group that had passed before them. Behind The Dragon a few formidable boars pass a couple of meters down the path and he manages to catch glimpse of their large tusks bouncing in the morning sun. As the sound of their stampede dies away into the far recesses of the jungle, Dante moves on. Apparently such a spectacle of nature is of too common occurrence to him. They rest of the group, however, walk on with shaking knees.

The Dragon is still in awe of the pack of picary, when further down the trail his guide stops again and points ahead in the distance. There crouched low on the trail is an ocelot (a smaller cousin on the jaguar) picking up a scent from the ground. It looks up from its work and looks at its admirers for a moment before leaping off into the jungle. The Dragon watches as it rushes off in the general direction of his picary friends: lunch is served.

arkness falls on the jungle and the mosquito descend into camp. As the group sit around the dinner table awaiting another masterpiece from expedition chef Albierto they themselves are dinner to the thousands of hungry insects that swarm around them. Definitely the drawback of jungle adventures, the mosquitoes are relentless in their attacks and it is impossible to keep them away. The Dragon spreads on the insect repellent he brought with him. He reads on the back, "tested in the jungles of Asia and South America." Unfortunately, he thinks, it doesn't say "tested successfully". He spreads it on anyway, it gives him some hope to hold on to. Across the table Anna swats them away, her arms already a poster ad for malaria . The Dragon counts 43 bites on his left hand alone.

Dinner is still a while away so The Dragon picks up his flashlight and decides to inspect the beach. His hike around the camp earlier in the day had turned up the tracks of many animals, including a jaguar, around the watering hole just behind their tents. He flashes on his light and walks to the shore, shining it out onto the water on both sides. To his right he catches glimpse of a shining orange disk, iridescent in the mist of black night. His curiosity peaked, The Dragon holds the light on the glow and slowly walks toward it.

As he draws closer he can see that the disk hovers in the water just a foot off shore. He walks closer and there in the water at his feet floats a huge black caiman, its angular head and boney spine spread out before him. The Dragon nervously looks over his left shoulder at the light of camp down the beach. He can hear the others talking. He then looks down again. The creature stares up at him immobile.

If I stuck out my foot this bugger could easily snap it off. Hell, he could probably lunge at me from there! What's a half meter distance to a creature that's obviously over 3 meters long ?! The Dragon thinks to himself as he absently takes a step backward.

The creature stares at him, its cold unnerving eyes boring into him. The Dragon remembers the velociraptors from Jurassic Park and looks around him expecting another caiman to leap out of the darkness at him. There is nothing but blackness.

Below him the creature watches, calculates. Its black-gray skin glistens in the light of the flashlight. The flashlight! That's it , The Dragon thinks, the light has blinded it of my presence. It sees nothing but light, no me, just light . Across the river frogs sing to the moon, but the creature does not hear them. It stares at the light before him, mesmerized.

The Dragon's imagination throws stones into the darkness and he hears something over his shoulder. The velociraptors? He looks into the darkness and without thinking throws the light in the direction of the sound. There is nothing but sand and jungle. He knows he imagined that sound but was he also imagining the splash he hears behind him now? He spins around and shines the light back toward the creature just in time to see it submerge beneath the murky water. His light inspects the river in all directions but finds nothing. It has returned to its world of darkness, perhaps waiting for unsuspecting bathers.

The Dragon turns and walks back to feed the mosquitoes.