One of the day trips started early, too early for a French family as it turned out, as they were having
problems with a recalcitrant teenager and turned up late.
We left Ceiba Tops around 6:30 in a launch to Indiana, where we took a mototaxi over to another
river. Followed by a 50 minute cruise downstream. Over the noise of the outboard, I had one of the
most tranquil moments of my life.
7am, wearing a short sleeved shirt. 30 mph wind of the purest air I’ll ever breathe in my face,
heading into the sun with godlights peeping from behind the clouds and the treelined banks of the
Amazon slipping by. My wife leaning against my back and the French family all asleep... bliss.
We arrived at ExplorNapo lodge and had some breakfast, (did I mention that Explorama are really
well organised) then got in a smaller boat to go down a smaller, more bendy and significantly
shallower river to the walkway. The small river had been previously cleared to make navigation
possible, but still caused a few problems, paddles were deployed. BIG spiders on a tree.
After getting precariously off the boat and being entertained by the recalcitrant teenager who nearly
fell into the river and got his clean white trainers muddy, we had a short walk to the canopy
walkway.
Before you go up to the first level the guides lay down a few ground rules. No shouting for
people in front to hurry up, keep voices low, max 3 people on a walkway at any time and max 4
people on any platform.
The walkway its self is well thought out and constructed. 2 steel cables run from tree to tree, the
trees being protected from chafing by wood and rubber. More cables go down to the jungle floor in
the opposite direction to make sure the trees aren’t pulled over by the weight. Hung from the steel
cables there are aluminium ladders, fastened to the cables by rope which passes through the rungs,
with a knot each side to control lateral movement. There is a rope every 3 rungs, so there ladder is
always well supported. On top of the ladder is a slim wooden plank that sits between the sides. This
gets wooden slats 6 inches apart where the walkway is steepest just before and after a platform. A
net is either side at about elbow height with another underneath the ladders, you would really have
to want to fall off to fall off.
The platforms themselves are like little tree houses without roofs. They are hung from higher
branches with steel cables and again the tree is protected by rubber and wood. No nails go into the
tree.
Being an engineer I can appreciate the work that went into building the walkway, but the forest is
the real star, that is what the walkway was made for after all. A sea of green stretches to a 360
degree horizon from the highest platform.
We saw a group of monkeys, the first to appear watching us for a while before giving the all clear to
the rest. They went up one tree, down another and jumped to the next, just like in a BBC
documentary, in my head the dulcet tones of David Attenborough calmly explaining what was
happening.
We spent 15 minutes watching a baby sloth being taught which leaves to eat by its mum in slow
motion.
A couple of parrots pulling berries off a tree, licking them for a while then spitting them out.
A small Capuchin monkey going out on a limb for a bit of fruit.
Small lizards right at the top, I never thought they would want to go so high, I have always seen
them on the floor or half way up a wall before now.
We were being quiet, so the jungle made some noise.
The French family returned to the lodge by boat after leaving the walkway and meeting up with the
recalcitrant teen, who , after being flown half way across the world to get there, didn’t go up to the
canopy. I think he was still fuming about the trainers.
Instead of returning by boat to the lodge, we (along with our guide, obvs) took a trail back through
the jungle arriving 40 minutes later at Renuperu, a botanical garden dedicated to growing and
studying medicinal plants. Two shamans explained different plants and their properties, tasting and
smelling some and just looking at others (with a snake in). This was followed by a ceremonial
cleansing of our spirits which left me feeling even calmer, and I was already pretty chilled to start
with.
Back at the lodge, dinner time, then the French went off to the shamans for some medicinal
education. About 45 minutes after they left it started thundering and lightning, accompanied by a
torrential downpour, just about the time the recalcitrant teen was getting his spirit cleansed we
reckon. When they came back, they were all smiling and laughing, despite being soaked through. So
maybe it worked.
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