Willy Wonka Two Docks Down

The Cerrutti Chocolate Farm just two docks down from ours her in the Bay of Dolphins is a delight!  We visited yesterday and were led around the property – a real Garden of Eden by Linda Cerutti who is simply a font of information on the flora and fauna of the area.

 The day begin as we pulled up to their dock with a man and his son telling us there was a sloth in the trees just off to the right. We backed up, and then pulled around to the area he directed us. And, sure enough, there was a sloth!  We only got a little peek, albeit, not a very clear one, through the trees. He was about 30 feet in the air and the foliage was thick, but it was our first sloth sighting!  

 We saw several different species of mushrooms as we tromped through the forest. They’ve really been popping out since it has rained daily for the past week.  A family from Alaska was walking the tour with us and one young man seemed to really know his stuff about mushrooms.  I’ve already forgotten most of the names he told me already, but the Turkey Tail stands out in my mind. He ways it’s used as a strong immune system booster and can help to prevent/cure cancer. No way to fact checks that in the rain forest, but it sounded believeable to me!

 We wandered among prehistoric looking trees and bushes as Linda named them each and gave us a bit of background on how the Cacao tree is an important part of the rain forest. It is a species that survives only as a “second story” tree – which it grows under the higher canopy, in an umbrella shapely and it provides shade for the growth underneath.  The deep leaves and debris at the bottom of the trees is necessary as the little bugs that serve in the pollination process live there.  A perfect system!

 And now for the exciting part: Just as our tour was winding down and we were headed down the hill towards the shed David Cerrutti does his Willy Wonka work and turns bean pods into chocolate, we happened on a MASSIVE SWARM OF ARMY ANTS!  Yikes and double YIKES!  Walk fast! Linda shorted. And we did, but you can’t walk fast enough to escape a ga-zillion army ants and soon they were covering our legs and biting Norm and I through our swim shoes we’d worn (thinking they’d be good for walking the rain forest and not as hot as rubber boots.)  Wrong!  Those darned boots serve many a purpose and not only will they deter snakes; they make it harder for the ants to get you too.  I personally got 22 bites and Norm must have gotten just as many. They stings hot as a poker!The good news is they only hurt for a couple of hours; then the pain goes away.  No photos of the ants. You understand, right?

 

It was a fascinating morning spent in the rainforest. The day warm but not hot, the sun out but not beating, no rain….and only one army of ants.  It truly was ….

 Just another day in paradise.

Norm & Nancy

Ladies and gentlemen, bums and tramps,
Cross-eyed mosquitos and bow-legged ants.
Pull up a chair and sit on the floor
And I'll tell you an story I never heard before.

                                Nursery Rhyme author unknown