The INPA Tower. There are five of us and the climb is staggered to prevent the structure from swaying with our motion. At the top, the platform itself is plate steel with a reticulated surface, open to the sky and measuring about 8 meters square. I prepare my recording equipment for a wide stereo field, ask for quiet and we listen. Bats and insects occupy a broad, high frequency range of pulsing whistles and rasps.
Equatorial transitions are quick.
The sun rises and fog retreats like a veil being slowly pulled across an emerald sea. The swell, troughs and crests of the canopy hint at the lay of the land below. From our vantage above the forest, the drama of awakening unfolds. Our unspoken relief at the dawn is given voice by a group of howler monkeys, whose roaring thunders through the trees. The vocalization is a territorial display by a dominant male from a nearby troop, numbering about 10 individuals.