Day 7: Crossing the Continent ! Pacific to the Amazon Cloud Forest
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Day 7 was Darby Davenport's special day to Co-Lead with Liz. Darby was a very successful pharmaceutical executive who tragically just lost her Husband, Liz thoughtfully gave her a wonderful poem.
Darby's Strength: Strength
Love Love After Love ~ Derek Walcott The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.
Today, the Team was going to cross continents and geo-zones!!! Mike and Bone packed their gear and head out to a glorious day with Mountains in the front, and Pacchu Mama in the back, truly an iconic scene.
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The Path Forward
Final Farewell to Pacchu Mama!!!
Mike and Kat, in the return of the Green!
Mike and Bone were able to hang on the trail for the first time in the past few days with Boney's intestinal tumult starting to settle down. As they bantered down the trail they began to lose their new found friend Mt. Salkantay or Pacchu Mama slowly faded from site, but remained a literal and figurative fond memory for the rest of the trip. An in a couple hours of the Inkan Trail, the Boys begqan to notice the return of the green! Soon Liz led the Team below the tree line and scrub brush and grasslands emerged from the Artic rocklands.
Quechanland!
As the whole Team tramped down the Trail, Liz shared that these highlands (around 12,000 to 13,00 ft) was where Victor and Dante's people lived. The rarified air is the reason most Quechan are shorter and stouter in stature with amazing lung capacity. Despite the challenging conditions year round, everyone they met had the most amazing cheery disposition and sunny smile. Right around noon the Team went through an amazing change!
From one world to another! From the Andean Alpines to the Cloud Forest!
Portal: A doorway from one place to another. Since the Team left Camp in the morning there were the growing signs of warmer weather and green but once Team walked through this natural "portal" shown above, everything was different!!! The temperature, the humidity, the air pressure, the smells, the breeze. The change from Alpine to Cloud Forest wasn't subtle, it was sudden, like walking through the walking glass, or so said Alice as she passed Mike and Bone heading uphill with a weird rabbit. Once the Boys shook their delusion of Alice they were presented the amazing gift of the beginnings of the Amazonian Cloud Forest, where everything now drained to the Atlantic, rather than the big ole' Pacific Ocean!
A Walk in the Clouds,,, er,,,Forest!
A cloud forest is a subtropical, evergreen, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and vegetation, in which case they are also referred to as mossy forests. Mossy forests usually develop on the saddles of mountains, where moisture introduced by settling clouds is more effectively retained. A great example is the forest of the Pacific Northwest.
In comparison with lower tropical moist forests, cloud forests show a reduced tree stature combined with increased stem density and generally the lower diversity of woody plants. Trees in these regions are generally shorter and more heavily stemmed than in lower-altitude forests in the same regions, often with gnarled trunks and branches, forming dense, compact crowns. Their leaves become smaller, thicker and harder with increasing altitude. The high moisture promotes the development of a high biomass and biodiversity of epiphyte, particularly bryophytes, lichens, ferns (including filmy ferns), bromeliads and orchids. The number of endemic plants can be very high.
An important feature of cloud forests is the tree crowns can intercept the wind-driven cloud moisture, part of which drips to the ground. This fog drip occurs when water droplets from the fog adhere to the needles or leaves of trees or other objects, coalesce into larger drops and then drop to the ground.
Due to the high-water content of the soil, the reduced solar radiation and the low rates of decomposition and mineralization, the soil acidity is very high, with more humus and peat often forming the upper soil layer. This is very helpful downwind where the high acidity is great for growing great coffee!
The hike down was really, really pleasant and easy allowing everyone to socialize and tell stories of adventures past. Around 4:00 PM Liz led the Team into the next amazing Lodge, the Colpa!
Cooling Out Colpa!
Perched on a 1,000 foot bluff above the river, the Colpa Lodge is surrounded by forest, overlooking the Colpampa Valley, where you can hear the union of the three rivers that form into the Amazon. The Lodge had conspired with Liz to provide a traditional Peruvian Barbeque!!
Of Mice and Men!?!
We will not be Guinea Pigs !! Mike and Bone on eating Rodents - After dumping their gear, Mike, Bone, and rest of the Team grabbed a beer and followed the time honored tradition of hanging out by a fire cooking meat! The Pervian Staff gave the Team a chance to try things one would not find at a McDonald's! Cuy, one of Peru's most famous dishes, is not for the faint of heart; it's fried or roasted guinea pig! Also on the menu was Alpaca (Llama)! Most of the Team tried a little of everything (even tender-tummy Bone). Mike and Bone liked most things, even the Alpaca,,,,, the Cuy, not so much! it tasted like Guinea Pig!
After Dinner the Boys had a few more beers with Bruce, Ron, and Mike S, only to turn in early around 10:30, because tomorrow,, They were gonna see the Amazon River!