Amazonia, part 2: In the Heat of the Night

Our awesome guide, Paul

One of the nice things about our stay in Tambopata was having a local guide who stayed with us from airport pickup to dropoff. Paul was from the local indigenous Yine community, and his grandfather (who raised him) is the tribe's healer. He grew up in the jungle, and had so much knowledge of the rainforest and everything that lives here. 

Jungle fashionista

We were eager to get down and dirty into nature, so Paul said he'd take us out straight away. After settling into our rooms and enjoying a hearty and delicious dinner, we geared up for our first night walk into the forest. Despite the steamy weather (often 90°+ temps and 90%+ humidity), we tried to cover as much exposed skin as possible, with long-sleeved shirts and - as we learned - pants tucked into our socks. It was so hot and sweaty that I didn't bother to change out of my airplane shirt - who cares about matching in the jungle? 

Flashlights were an absolute necessity - but as I quickly discovered, headlamps are AWFUL - they attract so many bugs to your head that, unless you're wearing a mosquito head net, it's impossible to breathe without inhaling a new friend or two. And yes, I did have a head net that I pulled out on occasion, but it was usually too sweaty to keep it on. Oh, such problems! 

Nighttime brings out a whole different world in the rainforest. Not only are there a slew of nocturnal species that suddenly and mysteriously appear from nowhere, but there is something otherworldly about hiking through a dark and eerie forest that you know is teeming with unseen creatures (half of whom are probably stalking you 👀). 

There is a constant, intense symphony of noises - clicks and buzzes and growls and cracks. It's not just the thrum of thousands of insects, but the chirping of frogs and the rustle of... snakes? lizards?? rats??? 

Larger creatures snap twigs, night monkeys break branches overhead, and that flap and swoosh in the air could be from a bat, a bird, or a very very very large moth. And the most unsettling thing is... you can barely see any of them.

Fairly early into our walk, a yelp (ok, maybe a scream or two) came from the front of our little expedition. Our party had wandered over a swarm of army ants, who proceeded to crawl up onto the legs of those unfortunate ones up front. I was near the back of the party, and ran like Usain Bolt across the ant field, avoiding getting bitten. Lucky me! I knew being a slow and lazy straggler had its benefits! From this experience, we learned 1) tuck in your pants into your socks, to avoid things crawling up your leg!! 2) be hyper-vigilant where you're standing, or you're sure to pick up a hitchhiker, and 3) it helps to jiggle or hop around when you stop, like a bunch of toddlers desperate for the bathroom.

Up high? Down low? GAAAH! So much to see!

Sometimes it was hard to know where to shine our flashlights. In the trees overhead we were looking for sloths, porcupine, kinkajou, monkeys, and snakes; down below we tried to spot big cats (ocelot, puma, jaguar, margay, jaguarundi), peccaries, tapir, armadillos, and anteaters. 

We were looking for the flash of light reflecting in eyeballs - and it was fascinating (horrifying??) how many spiders (and cockroaches!) are around (did you know spider eyes shine in the light? Go out in your backyard at night - you'll see!). It was a lot. Like, a LOT a lot. And we're talking H-U-G-E ones, the size of my open hand... (more on spiders and insects in a separate post!) 

Just look at the size of those eyeballs!

Perhaps one of the more exciting sightings of the night was this family of night monkeys, the only nocturnal monkey and one of seven monkey species found in the area (the others being the spider monkey, squirrel monkey, dusky titi monkey, red howler monkey, capuchin, and saddleback tamarin - and during the course of our stay, we saw them all!).  Did you know? Night monkeys pair bond, and the father is the primary caregiver of the single baby that's born each year!

As the science nerds that we are, Jillian and I also brought along blacklights so that we could check for glow-in-the-dark treasures. (Did you know? Some organisms fluoresce, which means they absorb light from one wavelength and emit it at another. It is unclear why they do it - maybe to attract mates or prey, or to warn away predators.) 

Cool eggs! What will they hatch into???

On several occasions, we turned off our flashlights and only used the blacklight to see what we could discover. Occasional flashes turned up some really interesting finds, most of which were fungi and molds that fluoresced yellow and green. 

But we also found some glorious spiders and scorpions!  It was fun turning on and off the flashlights vs the blacklight, especially since some creatures only had patches of fluorescent areas - like this crazy spider: 

Also, did you know that almost all scorpions glow in the dark? As if they weren't oogie enough!

We really wanted to see one, and it is amazing how much easier they'd be to spot if you had UV vision... dang my limited eyesight!


((On a side note, I now realize my night-vision totally sucks, and my day-vision isn't so hot either. But wearing glasses is horrid in the steamy jungle - they kept getting fogged up and sweaty so I stopped wearing them. Amazingly, as the week progressed, my vision grew accustomed to hunting through the trees, and I found I could see much better. I also noticed that almost no local wore glasses - I asked Paul and he confirmed it. I tell ya - looking at trees is way better for your eyesight than staring at a screen! See? I'm testing your eyesight right now...))

That's a porcupine behind those twigs!

One of my favorite experiences of the trip was the night walk that I did with just myself and Paul. It was later in the week, and after so many hot and exhausting days, everyone else opted out. But it meant for a much quieter hike than with our usual chatterbox group, and we ended up encountering so many elusive species! I didn't get photos of the olingo (a small monkey/cat type mammal that resembles the kinkajou) since we only could catch glimpses as it foraged in thick branches, but we did spot a porcupine high in the trees (Paul found it because he could smell porcupine pee and knew when to start looking!!!) 

I was also quite proud of myself when I spotted this barred forest falcon: 

Little tinamou sittin' in a tree,
s-n-o-r-i-n-g 🎶

We also saw a tinamou (who is usually shy, secretive, and ground dwelling), and tons of spiders, beetles, and animal tracks. 

More interesting was when we heard the raspy, guttural growl of an ocelot, very close to us and moving through the brush. We turned off all our lights and waited in total darkness for about 30 seconds (which, lemme tell you, is a LONG time in pitch blackness!!) in the hopes that it would come closer (longest 30 seconds of my life!!!), but sadly it didn't show itself. 

It was obviously much harder to get photos of everything we saw in the darkness, but during our week of night hikes, we were lucky enough to catch glimpses of a caiman and a bamboo rat. And on another evening walk, Anil spotted this beauty - an Amazon tree boa. Glad it didn't drop down onto our heads!!

Nighttime is also when so many more frogs appear - we can constantly hear them all day, but a lot more can be found at night - perhaps because their big eyes easily reflect our lights. 

Rough-skinned Green Treefrog says hello! 

This bad boy is called a Gladiator Treefrog because he'll
fight any other frog who dares hop on his tree...
Go on! I dare ya!

The rainforest really is an extraordinary place to explore at night. Forget New York City... for somewhere that truly never sleeps (and has a LOT more cockroaches), you can't beat Amazonia!!