CANOPY WALKS

Visitors to the Amazon are often surprised by how dark, gloomy, and colorless the floor of a rainforest can be. The situation is completely different a hundred feet or more up in the air, where a dazzling array of orchids, cacti, bromeliads, and mosses hang out on the treetops and soak in the scorching sunlight. The fragrant scents of these epiphytes and the succulent fruit of the ubiquitous matapalo, or strangler fig, lure monkeys and a huge range of pollinators, including birds, bats, and insects.

Most of the Amazon’s biodiversity is in fact in the canopy, which American biologist Bruce Rinker describes as a “leafy aerial continent, elevated on stilts, called the treetops.” No longer content with studying fallen trees, biologists have come up with ingenious ways to explore this airy world with a combination of suspended cable walkways, treehouse-like platforms, and rope-climbing techniques adapted from rock climbing.

In the early 1990s the nonprofit ACEER organization funded the Amazon’s longest canopy walkway, which was built 80 km south of Iquitos at the Explorama Lodge. It is a cable bridge, suspended between a series of giant rainforest trees, that runs for nearly half a kilometer and reaches a dizzying 35 meters above the ground. Visitors hang out for hours on the walkway, peering down the sides of trees to the jungle floor below or scanning over the treetops for hundreds of different birds.

The bridge is completely safe, even for children. There are safety cables at shoulder height to grab onto, a wooden floor, and thick mesh stretched between. The whole thing is like a giant channel of mesh out of which it would be hard to climb, much less fall. Visitors climb up a wooden tower with wide staircase to access the bridge, and no harnesses or other safety precautions are necessary. Guides usually let visitors wander wherever they want on the bridge.

Reserva Amazónica in the Puerto Maldonado area is building a similar canopy walkway and a dozen other lodges in Peru’s rainforest offer observation platforms. These platforms, such as the one at the Manu Wildlife Center, are up to 35 meters off the ground and are usually reached via a circular staircase that is made of steel and held upright via a series of steel cables. Again no safety harnesses are required and, as long as you are not terrified of heights, getting to the platform is easy.

There are plenty of more-adventurous canopy options in Peru’s rainforest, including the wooden platforms at Cocha Salvador in the Parque Nacional Manu. To reach these airy treehouses, you must don a rock-climbing harness and climb the rope via a set of jumars, or cammed ascending devices. It is a completely safe, though strenuous, experience that allows you to appreciate how high 35 meters off the ground really is. For those uncomfortable with climbing the rope, another option is to be pulled up into the treehouse by a geared contraption that is cranked by the guide (the device is similar to that on trailers for hauling boats out of the water).

The Tahuayo Lodge, 145 km upstream of Iquitos, has what it calls a zipline, which is essentially a harness that slides along a set of steel cables about 30 meters above the ground. From a wooden platform, visitors launch into space and can either zing through the canopy or stop and hang quietly in order to observe wildlife. Obviously this is for those extremely comfortable with heights! Many other lodges in Peru’s Amazon offer canopy walks; see the individual descriptions for more information.

CANOPY WALKS

Visitors to the Amazon are often surprised by how dark, gloomy, and colorless the floor of a rainforest can be. The situation is completely different a hundred feet or more up in the air, where a dazzling array of orchids, cacti, bromeliads, and mosses hang out on the treetops and soak in the scorching sunlight. The fragrant scents of these epiphytes and the succulent fruit of the ubiquitous matapalo, or strangler fig, lure monkeys and a huge range of pollinators, including birds, bats, and insects.

Most of the Amazon’s biodiversity is in fact in the canopy, which American biologist Bruce Rinker describes as a “leafy aerial continent, elevated on stilts, called the treetops.” No longer content with studying fallen trees, biologists have come up with ingenious ways to explore this airy world with a combination of suspended cable walkways, treehouse-like platforms, and rope-climbing techniques adapted from rock climbing.

In the early 1990s the nonprofit ACEER organization funded the Amazon’s longest canopy walkway, which was built 80 km south of Iquitos at the Explorama Lodge. It is a cable bridge, suspended between a series of giant rainforest trees, that runs for nearly half a kilometer and reaches a dizzying 35 meters above the ground. Visitors hang out for hours on the walkway, peering down the sides of trees to the jungle floor below or scanning over the treetops for hundreds of different birds.

The bridge is completely safe, even for children. There are safety cables at shoulder height to grab onto, a wooden floor, and thick mesh stretched between. The whole thing is like a giant channel of mesh out of which it would be hard to climb, much less fall. Visitors climb up a wooden tower with wide staircase to access the bridge, and no harnesses or other safety precautions are necessary. Guides usually let visitors wander wherever they want on the bridge.

Reserva Amazónica in the Puerto Maldonado area is building a similar canopy walkway and a dozen other lodges in Peru’s rainforest offer observation platforms. These platforms, such as the one at the Manu Wildlife Center, are up to 35 meters off the ground and are usually reached via a circular staircase that is made of steel and held upright via a series of steel cables. Again no safety harnesses are required and, as long as you are not terrified of heights, getting to the platform is easy.

There are plenty of more-adventurous canopy options in Peru’s rainforest, including the wooden platforms at Cocha Salvador in the Parque Nacional Manu. To reach these airy treehouses, you must don a rock-climbing harness and climb the rope via a set of jumars, or cammed ascending devices. It is a completely safe, though strenuous, experience that allows you to appreciate how high 35 meters off the ground really is. For those uncomfortable with climbing the rope, another option is to be pulled up into the treehouse by a geared contraption that is cranked by the guide (the device is similar to that on trailers for hauling boats out of the water).

The Tahuayo Lodge, 145 km upstream of Iquitos, has what it calls a zipline, which is essentially a harness that slides along a set of steel cables about 30 meters above the ground. From a wooden platform, visitors launch into space and can either zing through the canopy or stop and hang quietly in order to observe wildlife. Obviously this is for those extremely comfortable with heights! Many other lodges in Peru’s Amazon offer canopy walks; see the individual descriptions for more information.