The Secret Woods

“The woods hold secrets only the curious discover.” Anonimous. That´s what we did when we went for a week´s holiday to Rocha, a beautiful province on the east of Uruguay. Our children were young, which means I´m talking about nearly more than twenty years ago! (Still wonder where time went!). We rented a bungalow in Aguas Dulces, a small but lovely seaside resort and decided to explore the surroundings. We found out we were staying near a place called the Ombues woods (Monte de Ombúes, in Spanish). This wood was not easy to reach, we had to drive about twenty minutes and once we arrived to the quiet Valizas river, we had to take a boat which would take us to see this hidden woods, five km away.

It was a beautiful morning and we were all enjoying the ride. We got to a tiny dock and the owner of the boat told us we had arrived and invited us to step on solid ground. Then he just said: “follow the signs, I’ll meet you here in 2-3 hours.”

We turned round to face the land and a great wood was in front of us. It was not easy to see the few signs so we felt like Indiana Jones, ready to discover a treasure! We saw big trees (or that’s what they looked like) which some of them had holes in the middle of the trunk.

We could get some information about these “trees” in one of the few signs we found. To our great surprise, they are not trees, they are considered a bush. This is due to the fact that they do not produce wood, they have many layers in their inside.Its trunk could be a delicate springy wood, the rings are free and not at all like appropriate timber rings. It is resistant to fire and dry spell and typically due to its numerous trunks which store water in its huge base.They can live hundreds of years. The ombu is a dioecious plant, it produces male and female flowers on separate trees. The flowers are greenish white, little and many on one long spike. The fruit is green and is clustered in a bunch together. They depend on the wind to pollinate and the seed once on the ground should get daylight to ended up a “tree”. They are well known for being solitary but there is always a male and a female nearby. Although known as lonely, this was an exception, we were in the middle of a wood which is the largest in the world, and it has been kept for years a secret place.

We have some things in common with the Ombu, we are born from a male and a female, have the opportunity to enjoy the sunlight, need lots of water to be healthy and strong. We do not live hundreds of years, just a few decades. But we are indeed a treasure full of secrets for the curious one who may cross our path and stops in the search for a lifetime discovery! Or the other way round, we can be the curious one falling in love while discovering lifetime secrets in someone else!

Ombu Flower

Ombu Fruit

Ombu Leaves