Indo Maiz Biological Reserve

I write this note swinging in the hammock on the verandah of our room overlooking the Río San Juan rapids at the end of what, for me, has been our best day in Nicaragua.

We fell asleep last night to the roar of the rapids, cascading a few feet away from our balcony, and awoke at 6.30am to the even louder rattle of torrential rain beating upon the corrugated iron roof.  We were reminded that in crossing the country from the Pacific to Caribbean coasts, we had entered the rainforest where seasons are different, and rain here in January is to be expected.

After a wonderful breakfast prepared by our host, Manuel, we set out with our guide, Orlando, in a 3 person kayak following the current of the Río San Juan.  As at first we had to  negotiate the rapids I reluctantly left my Nikon behind in favour of my small Samsung camera.  We followed the course of the river for 90 minutes spotting egrets, osprey, kingfishers, cormorants, flycatchers, mango swallows and toucans. We watched a colony of spider monkeys effortlessly swinging from one branch to another high above our heads.

Red Poison Dart Frog

We arrived at the confluence with the Río Bartola, where a military ranger station has been set up to protect the reserve from poachers, changed our footwear for rubber boots and began a trek into the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve that had looked so impenetrable from the air only 24 hours earlier.  There were, in fact, a number of muddy paths spreading out from the ranger station, in deep shade beneath the high forest canopy.  In some, remote corner of the Reserve a small tribe of about 80 indigenous tribespeople still live in complete isolation from the rest of humanity.  Orlando has lived in this area all of his life and many of the old customs had been passed down to him, so he proved to be a great authority on the ways of his ancestors.

We were fascinated by his knowledge.  We chewed on the leaf of one tree that numbed our tongues with a powerful antiseptic, used as an aid for toothache or to alleviate the pain of a snake bite.  We spotted the green and blue poisoned dart frog,

and the even more potent red dart frog that the Indians used to tip their blow darts.  We were shown the thorny tree from which the darts were obtained.  We watched a line of leaf cutter ants transporting material back to their nest. The colony of up to 70million ants work like farmers storing the leaves and incubating a fungal growth upon which they feed.  Like bees they service only one queen, and like bees different ants have different functions.  As we stamped our feet upon the ground the soldier ants emerged to protect the colony.  Orlando placed one upon my t-shirt where it held fast with its pincers, leaving two small holes when it was eventually removed.  He explained that natives used soldier ants in this way to seal wounds by stitching the skin together.

We were shown another group of ants known as bullet ants or 24 hour ants, so called because a single bite leaves an intense swelling that does not subside for a full day.  Some Brazilian tribes use these ants as a rites of passage to manhood, exposing inductees to as many bites as they can tolerate.  Only the strongest will be given the high ranking positions in the tribe.

(At this point I have had to beat a hasty retreat from my balcony as darkness has fallen, and the light of my iPad has attracted countless small jumping insects that are obscuring the screen. A number have followed me into the room and I am preoccupied with killing them! And then a further interruption as we discuss our choices for dinner with Manuel)

We were shown a palm that can be used as a house broom, a simple action collapsing the leaf into a sturdy brush.  Another plant, the water-vine, when cut with a machete, provides clean drinking water allowing a man to survive in the jungle for many days.  Yet another leaf, like sand-paper, was used by Orlando's mother when he was a child as a natural pan-scourer.

We took lunch at an Eco-lodge for environmentalists opposite the entrance to the reserve and were served the most tender beef steak, washed down with fresh tamarind juice, and then travelled back upstream to El Castillo by motor boat.