baggie held four frogs. Salio Chiwakeng was next,
with five lizards and six frogs. Markenson James
confidently delivered a large black scorpion,
Tityus obscurus, and his friend presented a spider
fit for a Stephen King movie. Bruce pulled it out
of the bag with his bare hand, pinching its hairy
body between his fingers as one might hold a
crab. “Theraphosa blondi,” he said, “aka the Goli-
ath birdeater.” A member of the tarantula family
that happens to be the world’s largest spider by
mass (and yes, it eats birds), this one tipped the
scales at half a pound and was six inches across.
It stared at us with beady eyes and bared curved
black fangs that looked like a vampire’s. After
jotting down a few notes, Bruce put it onto his
balding pate and let it walk around.
Meanwhile, Alex, Fuco, and I loaded up with
food and gear for the climb, including a thou-
sand feet of rope and three hanging cots, called
portaledges, for camping on the side of the cliff.
Two Akawaio guides, Harris Aaron and Franklin
George, led us up a narrow ridge and over a hump
into a thick forest. Wielding machetes, they
slashed a path through a carpet of giant ferns
and between old-growth trees held fast in the
thin, sandy soil with colossal buttress roots that
extended, pyramid-like, 20 feet across their bases.
Spiky bromeliads of every conceivable size
and color covered the ground and grew up the
sides of the trees, sprouting from clumps of moss.
Orchids with delicate white flowers emerged from
rotten stumps. White bellbirds, rainbow-coloredUP THE MOUNTAIN, TO A WORLD APART 65