Revue Magazine 2010-11 (November)

Everywhere there were giant tree ferns, many growing to more than 40 feet in
height. More than a century ago the English naturalist William R. Brigham saw
these forests and wrote:
“Tropical vegetation cannot well be described. The real trouble that meets the novice
on the threshold of the tropics is the utter inadequacy of the English language
to express the variety and luxuriance he sees in the vegetable world. Even in color
his vocabulary fails him and he must include in the name of ‘green’ so many distinct
tints that he often fails to try.”
We observed many beautiful birds: keelbilled
toucans, flocks of little green parrots
and several colonies of oropendola, easily
identifiable by their strange nests which
look like miniature hammocks hanging
high up in huge kapok trees.
It took us another four hours to climb up
through new and abandoned cornfields and
get to the forest edge. The misting rain,
called cheepy-cheepy by the natives, had
begun and it was getting cold. I was happy
that we were nearing our destination.
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Entering the cloud forest was like stepping
into a vast cathedral bathed in perpetual
twilight. And as soon as I had entered I felt
that there was something unusual about
it. Something that seemed very ancient
and mysterious. Huge old oaks and alders
towered up to form a canopy 150 feet above
us. These massive trees were covered with a
profusion of mosses in which were rooted
ferns, herbs, shrubs and even small trees
along with countless species of orchids,
bromeliads, epiphytes and vines.
...continued on page 58