There is just no way that you can really experience a rainforest without stepping into one. No photograph, film, movie, or book can truly do it justice. The power, majesty, energy, and feeling of a primeval rainforest is incredible yet indescribable. None of the pictures or videos I've taken in my jungle jaunts even come close to capturing it. I can only take solace in knowing that I am not alone in my frustration in trying to record its mystery and beauty for those that will never have the chance to experience it first hand.
The first thing that hits you when you step into the rainforest is the air. It's so heavy with oxygen and humidity that it is almost a tangible thing which just kind of envelops you. There is a heavy, rich stillness to it... because in the heart of a primary rainforest little to no wind really makes in down below the unbroken green canopy of trees above you. The clean oxygen-filled air and the sheer magnitude of living things all around you sort of energizes you somehow. The vibrancy of life you feel flowing around you and through you resonates. It's really hard to describe... but its like all of earth's core elements are there in an abundance that you've never experienced before that it can excite, overwhelm and energize you all at once. In some places, the air stays so heavy with moisture that there is an almost perpetual cloudy fog which envelopes and muffles everything around you and earns the name as a "Cloud Forest."
And yes, the jungle can be hot to some (but us Texans don't really think so!). It can be 100 degrees or a bit more above the canopy where the sun is shining... but 200 feet below, surrounded by dappled shades of every color of green you could possibly imagine, less than 10 percent of the sunlight filters down to the forest floor and it rarely rises above about 80 degrees.
The next thing that hits you is the sheer immensity of the trees and the incredible amount of different types of vegetation that surrounds you. It's an amazing display of Nature in her most flamboyant expression of life. Literally everything around you is in flux - in some state of living, breathin
g, growing, decaying and dying. You can actually watch some of the plants growing with a naked eye, and huge fallen trees that would take years to return to the earth in a temperate forest are reduced to compost in a month or two. Trees the size of skyscrapers, leaves the size of umbrellas and vines with incredible sizes and shapes seemingly knitting everything together... plants growing out vines which are growing up on trees covered with other plants.... it can be overwhelming to take it all in. Even if you've trekked a lot of forests, you are still caught off guard by the amazing diversity of different plants in a rainforest.
A really good diverse forest in the US has about 12-15 different species of trees in an acre. In the Amazon Rainforest, a single acre of jungle will have about 300 different species of trees and another 300 to 400 species of higher plants... every where you look - you see something new, different and amazing. I think the main problem in trying to capture this on film is perspective. What angle lense do you use to take a picture of a 12 story tree without losing definition, much less one that is surrounded by hundreds of other 12 story trees intermingled with literally hundreds of other species of trees, vines, shrubs and bushes? Even when you try to pan up with a video camera, you still lose the perspective... Not to even mention the lighting problems of shades, shadows and dappled darkness which mute the incredible hues of green!
I will continue to add to this page as time permits and focus more on what my trips into the Amazon are like. I am fortunate to be able to experience and explore the Amazon and its native cultures that the tourist never sees. Maybe I'll write a series of short stories about some of my more memorable adventures as everyone keeps telling me I should.
The next thing that hits you is the sheer immensity of the trees and the incredible amount of different types of vegetation that surrounds you. It's an amazing display of Nature in her most flamboyant expression of life. Literally everything around you is in flux - in some state of living, breathin
g, growing, decaying and dying. You can actually watch some of the plants growing with a naked eye, and huge fallen trees that would take years to return to the earth in a temperate forest are reduced to compost in a month or two. Trees the size of skyscrapers, leaves the size of umbrellas and vines with incredible sizes and shapes seemingly knitting everything together... plants growing out vines which are growing up on trees covered with other plants.... it can be overwhelming to take it all in. Even if you've trekked a lot of forests, you are still caught off guard by the amazing diversity of different plants in a rainforest.A really good diverse forest in the US has about 12-15 different species of trees in an acre. In the Amazon Rainforest, a single acre of jungle will have about 300 different species of trees and another 300 to 400 species of higher plants... every where you look - you see something new, different and amazing. I think the main problem in trying to capture this on film is perspective. What angle lense do you use to take a picture of a 12 story tree without losing definition, much less one that is surrounded by hundreds of other 12 story trees intermingled with literally hundreds of other species of trees, vines, shrubs and bushes? Even when you try to pan up with a video camera, you still lose the perspective... Not to even mention the lighting problems of shades, shadows and dappled darkness which mute the incredible hues of green!
I will continue to add to this page as time permits and focus more on what my trips into the Amazon are like. I am fortunate to be able to experience and explore the Amazon and its native cultures that the tourist never sees. Maybe I'll write a series of short stories about some of my more memorable adventures as everyone keeps telling me I should.
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