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Outside Magazine's 2002 Travel Guide

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International Parks
Lost World: Found (Cont.)

AT AHFELD CAMP (one screened lodge and a rough kitchen), we mentally prepared ourselves for the next day's nine-mile hike to Arco Iris. Tim roused us before dawn. Coffee, instant oatmeal, headlamps. The trail ascended steeply up the plateau, and we hauled ourselves along fixed ropes. When the trail leveled, we stopped to poke at a few sap-sucking insects disguised as styrofoam flecks and pocket lint scuttling over plant stems. Such weird organisms are exactly what one hopes to see in this hothouse of evolution.

After a final scramble, we ledged out opposite the great Arco Iris. Cascading more than 15 stories from behind a Seussian spire of red rock and green hummocks, Iris easily fit the Platonic ideal of tropical waterfalls. It had taken us nearly five hours in a boat and three hours on foot, after four days of travel, to get here.

Was the trip worthwhile? I took measure of this place as I inhaled a sandwich. The waterfall was certainly stunning, but it seemed slightly unreal to me. The problem could have been a matter of scale. Arco Iris was more than a hundred feet across a deep chasm.

So after lunch, our intrepid guide led us over the side of a ledge. We slid down lianas, crashed through spiky bromeliads, and skidded down several hundred feet to the swiftly flowing Paucerna River. We scouted the swirling eddies, dived, and made for the opposite bank.

Stroking slowly upstream, we rounded a turn and clambered up the red boulders that formed Iris's spill cup. The noise was deafening, the water white. I shouted to Tim, who was grinning like a Cheshire cat a couple of rocks over.

"Have you brought many groups up here?"

"None," he said. "I didn't even know the river could be crossed during the rainy season; I didn't know if we could get up here."

Sitting inside Arco Iris, the setting was equal parts The Lost World and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Tropical foliage tinted the air, the purest water swirled around our feet. I scanned the towering red amphitheater and wiped cold spray from my face. Treetop Cessna landings no longer concerned me. If for some reason our exit strategy failed, I'd be content to await rescue right here.

Outfitter: Neblina Forest Birding and Natural History Tours: 866-868-4797; www.neblinaforest.com
Cost: Four- to 15-day trips cost $1,500 to $6,700 and run year-round. (Price varies depending on number of days and group size.)
When to Go: The wet season (December through May) is best for waterfall viewing; the dry season (June through November) is best for bird- and wildlife-watching.

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