What does the loss of the rainforest mean to the world ?
I am sure that it would take the equivalent of many lifetimes to find out all the secrets of the rainforest,  if that could ever be done.   The Indians say that the spirits within the plants give them the power to heal.  The real fact is that they do accomplish results we do not understand. Only one percent of the forests of this region have been studied to discover what benefit they may have to man.   The Indians also have knowledge of close to four hundred plants that have medicinal value. I understand that some twenty five percent of the drugs in western pharmaceutical laboratories have their basis in plants found in the Amazon.

Now the problem is we are running out of time, as the forests are being cut down.  I can understand why there are so few medical technicians willing to work in this remote area but the benefits to humanity would be felt world-wide if there were only a few, ready to face the isolation and riggers of the Amazon.

Gilberto was a great help, in showing us many of the plants of the area and describing how they were used by the Indians.  Starting with the basic plants,   we were first introduced to a plant called "Athiote"   more commonly known as the lipstick fruit.   The Indians use its intense color as a dye but mainly for marking the face for ceremonies and to keep away evil spirits.    We were informed that,
the color would never come off................

With this information,  the women in the party decided to have it applied to their faces so that they would not look like tourists.   I don't think the Indians were fooled, besides, our guide was only joking about the color never coming off.
           It only lasted three days.......

Proceeding through paths cut out of the jungle, Gilberto continued to explain the various uses which were made of the plants growing there.  I was not unfamiliar with the tropical forests of Florida, having made many trips into the everglades,  but this was beyond anything I had ever seen.    One of the helpers on our safari found this excellent specimen of the Cocoa family.  Without this plant,  I understand we would have no chocolate ice-cream !

As we continued our journey, certain trees were pointed out as being used by the Indians for medicinal purposes.   Among them was,  a fern tree berry, used for birth control and a plant used to stop bleeding and heal deep wounds.  I asked about the topless people of the forest and the mosquitoes.  He said that the water from certain rivers, contained chemicals which repelled mosquitoes.  The Indians  splashed this water over their bodies during the day.

Gilberto also gave jungle cooking courses,  to demonstrate how the leaves of certain plants were used to wrap up rice, eggs, chicken, spices and other vegetables into a ball and then it was cooked in boiling hot water until done.    I do not think Julia Child has to learn this method....

We made our way through the heavy growth, with our guide who pointed out trees that were wrapped in strangler-fig vines  and some that were covered with philodendrons.  Both of these plants are fairly common in forested areas of Florida,  although the giant termite nests on many trees were something new.   These nests were also on trees which were standing in water.  The question I have is, do termites know how to swim?   I am including this picture as a curiosity.  I have never seen this termite in Florida,  so we have something to be thankful for.   Approximate size of the nest is three foot wide and about six foot high.

We had been told that there was the father of all trees located quite far back into the heavy growth.

Everyone had been handed a long walking stick, at the beginning of the trip.  This was to probe the path ahead for snakes and to help keep your balance in muddy areas. 

A cleared trail, of sorts, lead in the general direction of the tree location.  As we got deeper into the jungle the mosquitoes descended on us in force....  This was the first real test of the insect repellant we had brought with us.
       100% industrial strength jungle off.

As we proceeded  deeper in the underbrush something grazed my shoulder and hit my wife on the head.   I don't know whether this is unusual but it was a small bat attracted by the bright red color of the bandana she had to cover her hair.  It did no harm but their were jokes made concerning Translavania and Dracula.

Trail ?  leading to the Giant Tree 
A clearing came into view ahead and it was the first time we could see anything above the low folage of the pathway. Up to this point the overhead branches had blocked out the sky.

There were thoughts of the adventure movies, where forgotten cities lay buried in dense jungles, and we were the first people to visit after centuries had passed.

The base of The Forest Giant.   The tree is well over one hundred thirty feet tall with a trunk between thirty five and forty feet thick.  No one, up to this time, had looked to the very top of the tree and seen the face.



All pictures were taken with a 3CCD video camera and a 10x telephoto lens.

Located some two hundred feet back, from the tree was a small opening in the dense undergrowth.  This enabled me to get a clear shot of the top.  The tree is so immense there is no other way to see
                         all of it.

This is a Kapok Tree.  Varieties of this tree are found in many areas of our world but, I venture to say,  this has to be one of the largest.   The tree is host to many types of mosses, ferns, vines and bromeliads.  There are also many species of  ants and insects which use its incredibly large trunk as a stairway to the upper canopy.

If you do not think this tree really exists, email me and I will either tell you how to get there,
                      or I just might make the trip again  I missed quite a few pictures.

There are many surprises in the Amazon jungle.  This is one of them.  Our guide was paddling a long
boat down a waterway completely surrounded by jungle.  He called my attention to a magnolia tree that was growing up out of the water. Guiding the boat up to the tree he cut this specimen of a pink variety of the flower so we could look at it.  This is a type of magnolia I have never seen and it may not exist anywhere outside of this area.  It is only one of the thousands of plants living in the Amazon which should be studied before they no longer exist.

One of the principle reasons,   for our spending time in the Amazon was a children's book that my wife is working on, called The Jungle HarpŠ.   The story revolves around a gigantic tree the forest creatures call Arbolito.  When we first saw the tree, pictured above, and realized that there was a face looking down on us, we knew that there was, indeed, trees like the one in our story and that the Amazon was waiting for the completion of our book.  We have a greater respect for the rainforest now, after our trip, and hope that the children's book will make a difference in the way people look at this area of our world.