DreamWorld (December 1999)

Ecuador's Kapawi Lodge is a pearl set in an emerald forest

A morpho butterfly normally displays broad wings of the most exquisite neon blue. Today though, the dim, early morning light of a rain-forest glade turns the morpho a glinting silver as it pursues its jerky, jitterbug flight. Startlingly, when it flaps it wings and exposes its dull underside, the butterfly becomes briefly invisible, only to reappear a few inches away in a different position. This disjointed staccato lends an otherworldly quality to the morpho's movements, giving the illusion that it's been caught in its own personal strobe; the green background remains the same, only the butterfly is subject to the flickering flashes of light.
The Achuar who live here on the Capahuari River in the most remote area of the Ecuadorian Amazon basin believe that when they die their lungs become butterflies. They consider butterflies, and certain other animals, iiviancb, a materialized form of a person's soul. The morpho butterfly's talent for sorcery supports the Achuar's supernatural view of their rain-forest world. The iwianch animals are never harmed.
Our group of ecotourists is exploring the rain forest from Kapawi Lodge, near the Pastaza River, which joins the Maranon, a main branch of the Amazon. A 12-seat Cessna air taxi flew us here from Quito, down the Avenue of the Volcanoes, before hopping over the Andes in a driving thunderstorm that lashed the windshield with explosive raindrops. Thick clouds hid the high peaks during much of the hour-plus ride. When the plane finally cut through die clouds, we gazed down upon a forest canopy that looked like the florets of giant broccoli stalks. A short, dirt landing strip awaited us at the Achuar village of Wayusentsa. From there, a motorized canoe took us an hotir-and-a-half downriver to the lodge, our isolated home for the next few days.
Kapawi opened for visitors in 1996, a joint effort of NAE (Federation of Ecuadorian Achuar Nationalities) and Canodros S.A., an experienced cruise-ship operator specializing in ecotours of the Galapagos Islands. Canodros wanted to form a partnership with an Amazonian tribe to create a destination that would allow travelers to combine a rain-forest adventure with a tour of the islands that inspired Charles Darwin. The Achuar, who until the 1970s had little contact with the Western world, wanted to obtain some of the trappings of civilization while preserving their land and their independence. Canodros turned to Daniel Koupermann, a veteran Amazon guide, for help. He suggested building a lodge in the heart of Achuar territory, and helped negotiate an agreement.
It took 120 Achuar, Koupermann, and several others two years to construct the complex: two central buildings for dining and gathering connected by raised hoard-walks lo 20 cabins. Following Achuar architecture, no nails were used. Wooden pegs and sturdy vines hold everything together. From below, the woven palm-leaf roofs look like the insides of giant overturned baskets. The fragrant thatch sheds rain and shelters squadrons of small, insect-eating bats. Each of the cabins has a wide veranda that extends on stilts over Kapawi Lagoon. From a swaying hammock or a lounge chair, a relaxed guest can watch red-capped cardinals winging by, or a ringed kingfisher surveying the watery expanse from a favorite perch. Each cabin has its own full bath, but hot water, in solar-heated, five-gallon bags for showering, is delivered only once a day.
The Achuar benefit from the lodge in several ways. They lease the land to Canodros for a monthly rent and receive a $10 fee from each guest. A number of the Achuar work for the lodge as cooks, waiters, guides, canoe pilots, and in other jobs. Most important, they arc being trained to take over the day-today management. The Achuar Intend this enterprise to be a bulwark against oil mining and logging. Koupermann quotes an Achuar elder as saying, "If oil conies, they [the oil men] cannot say there is nothing here." According to the agreement, full ownership of Kapawi reverts to the Achuar in 2008.
The comforts of lodge life may tempt guests to birdwaich from their hammocks, but forest bikes provide more excitement. Guides can arrange a variety of expeditions, from very easy canoe trips and walks along cut trails, to long, demanding treks and overnight camping. For travelers arriving at Kapawi from the Galapagos, the richness of the bird life here will prove to be a sharp contrast to the relative paucity of land bird species found on the volcanic islands.
Our group was particularly excited at seeing its first hoatzin. This chestnutplum-aged, ehickenhke bird has an electric blue face, bright red eyes, and an untidy blond crest. The hoatzin hangs out along watercourses in low trees and bushes, where it can be beard crashing about and barking. The prehistoric-looking chicks hatch with tiny claws on their wings. At the first signs of danger, the chicks launch themselves headlong into the river. After the danger has passed, the claws enable them to scratch their way back to the nest.
The hoatzin also has a unique diet for an avian. It eats the alkaloid-laced leaves of rain-forest plants. The bird's crop acts like a cow's stomach, fermenting the foliage and breaking down the nutrients and protective chemicals. Few other animals compete for this food source, and the plant poisons give hoatzins a disagreeable smell and distasteful flesh; human hunters rarely bother them. Kapawi Lodge's logo is a hoatzin—and we saw many flocks of them lurking in the bushes.
An English-speaking guide accompanies all outings, but an Achuar leads the way. Not only do the Achuar know the land intimately, they are amazingly proficient at finding camouflaged insects and other invertebrates. On a rainy, early evening walk along a darkening trail, our Achuar guide, Ruben, pointed out stick insects, tin}' brown tree frogs, and hairy caterpillars that most people would have trouble seeing on astroturf on a sunny day. Ruben also discovered a huge, beautifully patterned land snail whose shell spanned a good six inches.
We added many birds to our life lists. Braces of screeching bluc-and-yellow and cinnamon-fronted macaws fly over the lagoon. Mealy and other small green parrots flock around the lodge. Chachalacas call their name from nearby trees, while crimson-crested and Imcatcd woodpeckers work their way up the tree trunks. White-winged swallows swoosh up and down the rivers in their perpetual quest for mosquitos, and tropical kingbirds, lesser kiskadees, and other flycatchers take their toll on the larger insects. This is major tanager-land, with bold black-and-white magpie and blue-gray tanagers among the most conspicuous. Anhinga, black caracara, white-throated toucan, blue-throated piping guan, white-eared jacarnar ... but the list goes on and on. More than 500 species have been identified around Kapawi, and birders find more all die time.
One afternoon, Ruben and Nelson, our English-speaking guide who grew up in Quito, took us to a black water lagoon covered with duckweed. Scooping away the thick green carpet revealed water stained the color of tea by tannins in fallen leaves. In the center stood a tree festooned with dozens of oropendola and yellow-ramped cacique nests. The oropendolas weave a palm-fiber, athletic-length sock, compared to the shorter, rounder sock preferred by the caciques. The nest builders flew all around us, keeping up a steady, raucous dialogue. Jacanas strode about the lily pads, pausing every once in a while to glean an insect tidbit. In the low trees girdling the lagoon, we could see nesting hoatzins.
To be sure, there are mammals at Kapawi, but they are much less visible than the bird life. The area has deer, tapir, jaguar, ocelot, eight kinds of opossum, monkeys, and many other species counted as common. On our early morning walks we heard the low, throaty roars of howler monkeys, but met up with only one large, scolding troop of squirrel monkeys late one afternoon.
Nearly every visitor sees river dolphins. These surprisingly large mammals use echolocation to navigate the opaque rivers in search of catfish. On our way back from the blackwater lagoon, a group of five dolphins surfaced just yards from our canoe, exhaling "with gusto through their blowholes. Though they don't often leap from the water with the abandon of their marine cousins, these dolphins elevated a good part of their bodies above the waves, allowing us to sec their taut, pinkish undersides and small dorsal fins.
Ruben and Nelson arranged an afternoon visit to an Achuar village a few miles from the lodge. An Achuar home consists of one large, open space with designated cooking and sleeping areas. To receive guests, the family head sits in the middle of the room on a stool carved into the shape of a tortoise. Guests sit on a wooden bench facing him. Following some polite, ritualized exchanges with our guides, our host asked his wife to serve us the local staple beverage, which in Spanish is chicha and in Achuar, mjiamanch. To make it, the women chew up tough manioc root and spit the pulp into earthenware jugs. It ferments, producing a low-proof beer that die young woman served to the group by hand-scooping generous portions mixed with water into colorful ceramic bowls scorched from baking in an open fire. Each of us gingerly accepted a deep bowl filled nearly to the rim. The thick, sour smelling drink tastes bitter, but the Achuar love it. When a bowl of nijiamanch is handed to you, it is considered impolite to put it down.
Nelson explained that the Achuar do not draw large distinctions between their conscious world and the world of their dreams. They sleep on uncomfortable wooden platforms, which makes sleep fitful and dream-filled. They awake often during the night and talk about their dreams. A hunter may change plans based on his dreams, and dreams may explain fishing failures or successes.
Perhaps the chicha helps foster the strong Achuar belief in the verity of the spirit world, but the jungle sustains it. The dense greener, that truncates sight- lines, the frequent fogs, the sudden silences broken by plangent bird calls, the dim light all contribute to the eerie atmosphere of the rain foresc. The plant life grows unfettered, almost animal in its aggressiveness. And decay goes on ontinually as the forest recycles its fallen leaves, branches, and tree trunks, adding the not-unpleasant perfume of rotting vegetation to the mix of sensations. The darkness under the forest canopy holds mysteries and feeds fantasies. For the Achuar, it's probably reasonable to give equal weight to the shadowy dreams of night and the dusky reality of day. Travelers can more easily shed those dark feelings and concentrate on the insistent liveliness and brash colors—the sublime hues of the red-orange heliconia flowers, the flashy brilliance of a macaw, or the dreamy, bright blue of a morpho butterfly.

Time and Place
THE BEST TIME of year to visit the Ecuadorian Amazon is a matter of opinion. In April and May, the forest floods. Hiking can be impossible, but it's fascinating to canoe through the forest on trails you'd normally be walking on. July through September are springlike. Plants flower or fruit. Birds hatch, mammals are born, and fish spawn in great numbers. The water boils with their activity.