评论
打印
Lake Nicaragua will need to be dredged inorder to build a canal that’s deep enough for giant cargo ships. “It will killthis lake,” Carillo said. “Many flora and fauna will die.” The local people,most of who are subsistence farmers and rely on fishing, do not have the skillsrequired for the type of jobs the canal will create, Carillo added. “Some havenever been to school, so there is no opportunity for them,”he said.
尼加拉瓜湖需要进行疏浚，才能开挖适宜大型货船通航的足够深的运河。“那样会毁了这个湖，”卡里奥说。“很多动植物都会灭绝。”当地人大多从事自然经济和依靠捕鱼为生，没有满足运河带来的工作所要求的技能，卡里奥补充道。“有些人从未上过学，因此他们得不到什么机会，”他说。
On the other hand, Nicaragua is one of thepoorest countries in the world. Officials expect the canal to bring in aninvestment of more than one trillion cordoba, which would more than triple thesize of the current economy.
另一方面，尼加拉瓜是世界上最穷的国家之一。政府官员希望运河能带来一万亿科多巴（cordoba）以上的投资，是岛上当前经济收入的三倍以上。
As we entered the lagoon, the volume of birdsongdialled up a few notches. The wetland is home to an abundance of birdlife, andwe spotted egrets, herons, jacanas and blue jays . A committee of vulturesperched on gnarled tree branches jutting out of the tranquil water. Conceptión, and thecloud surrounding its peak, created a perfect reflection on the lake’s glass-likesurface.
随着我们进入泻湖，鸟鸣声更大。湿地是大量鸟类的家园，我们发现了白鹭、苍鹭、水雉和蓝鸟。一群秃鹰栖息在伸出到平静湖面上的盘曲的树枝上。康塞普西翁火山和围绕在火山顶的云朵，在如镜的湖面上形成绝美的倒影。
After an hour of paddling –we see acaiman! Or a log! No…it’s a log –we headed back, spotting a turtle, or maybe a rock, on the way.
划了一个小时之后，我们居然看到一只美洲热带鳄鱼！或者是一块圆木！不……那是一块圆木。在我们回来的路上，我们又看到了一只乌龟，或者只是一块石头。
Many travellers climb Ometepe's volcanoes,but weather conditions often turn the hike into a walk in the clouds. This wasa convenient excuse for me to try a lighter 3km hike to the island’s 50m-highwaterfall, San Ramón. As I set out on the rainforest path that runs up the sideof Maderas, I spotted a group of howler monkeys, chattering among themselves asthey swung through the branches. After an hour's scramble, I reached thethundering waterfall, its cold mist wonderfully refreshing after the drenching humidityof the jungle.
很多旅行者会爬上奥梅特佩岛的火山，但是天气总会将这种旅行变成一次云中漫步。这是我只尝试进行3 公里徒步旅行的一个好理由，去参观岛上50 米高的瀑布——圣拉蒙瀑布（San Ramón）。当我踏上马德拉斯火山旁边蜿蜒的雨林小路时，我发现了一群吼猴，在树枝间穿梭，相互私语。经过一个小时的攀爬，我到达了发出雷鸣般声响的瀑布处，凉爽的薄雾让人在经历雨林厚重的湿气之后觉得格外神清气爽。
At sunset, the guests at Hacienda Méridagathered on its jetty. Some paddled out in kayaks towards the sinking sun,which cast a soft, purple hue over the scorched earth of Conceptión’s facade.
在日落的时候，海兹恩达梅里达旅馆的房客聚集到了防波堤上。有些人划着皮艇追逐西沉的太阳，落日在康塞普西翁火山表面灼热的土地上投射出一道柔和的紫光。
Molina traced the horizon with his arm. “In aboutfive years, huge ships could pass by here,”he told me.
莫利纳用他的手臂勾勒出地平线。“大约五年内，大船就会从这里经过，”他告诉我。
There is a still a huge amount of communityuncertainty around the proposals, Molina said. The canal could attract moretourists to see the spectacle, like in Panama, he added –especiallynow that Ometepe has a new airstrip.
居民对于相关提案仍然存在很多不确定性，莫利纳说。运河会吸引大量游客来观光，就像在巴拿马运河上一样，他补充说道——特别是奥梅特佩岛新建了一个飞机跑道。
Coupled with an influx of workers who willmove to the island for canal jobs, Molina said he’s concerned about thesustainability of this population growth, especially since the island alreadystruggles with waste disposal from the minimal tourism it currently gets. Forthe time being, he has devised his own solution; he’s collecteddisused plastic and turned it into building material, using it to construct aschool next to the lodge where guests are able to volunteer.
加上大量工人搬到岛上从事运河工作，莫利纳说他担心这种人口增长的可持续性发展问题，尤其是考虑到目前岛上接待的最少游客都已经让岛上的废物处理成了难题。目前，他自己想出了一个解决方案，他已经开始收集废弃塑料并将其转化成建筑材料，用以在旅馆旁边建造一所学校，房客可以在学校中担任志愿者。
Environmental groups such as Forests of theWorld have warned about the damage that the canal could wreak over thisbiosphere, leading to the destruction of habitat, pollution, introduction ofinvasive species and deterioration of drinking and irrigation water reserves.Molino said a potential upside could be the range of ecological studies carriedout for the first time, bringing top biologists and entomologists to Ometepe toconduct research. “Huge amounts of data will be collected and hundreds of newspecies will be identified – a lot of biological information that was not knownnow will be.” The canal could also help prevent deforestation – a major problemin Nicaragua – if it succeeds in lifting people out of poverty. “But if thegovernment doesn’t improve education in a dramatic way, then really, the canalwill serve no purpose because most of those jobs will be set out forforeigners,” Molino said. By my last day on the island, the cloud that had beenenveloping Conceptión’s peak lifted, unveiling the volcano in its fullmagnitude. It had been five years since it last erupted, and against the clearblue sky it was possible to see the dents and scars on the almost-red facade.
世界森林组织等环保团体已经警告运河可能给这个生物圈造成的破坏，那会损害生态栖息地，造成污染，引入入侵物种，并且影响饮用水和灌溉水储备的质量。莫利纳说，一种潜在的好处是岛上会首次出现各种生态学研究，吸引顶级生物学家和昆虫学家到奥梅特佩岛进行研究。“他们会收集大量数据并且确认数百个新物种，发现许可目前尚无可知的生物信息。”如果运河能够让人们摆脱贫困，还会有助于阻止采伐森林，这是尼加拉瓜的一个主要问题。莫利纳说：“但是，如果政府不显著改善教育，那么实际上，运河就没有什么用，因为大多数工作都会让外国人去做”。截至我在岛上的最后一天，一直笼罩在康塞普西翁火山顶上的云都已散开，露出火山完整宏伟的真身。这座火山最近一次爆发是在五年之前，在湛蓝的天空映衬之下，依然可以看见近乎红色的表面上坑坑洼洼的爆发痕迹。
On the way to the ferry port, I stopped offat a spit that juts out into lake. The black sand, just visible, looked likethe back of a whale emerging from the water. I walked to the end, ankles justbelow the water, and was able to see the famous image of the island, describedby Mark Twain in his book Travels with Mr Brown: “Two magnificentpyramids, clad in the softest and richest green, all flecked with shadow andsunshine, whose summits pierce the billowy clouds.”
在去往渡船码头的路上，我中途在一块伸到湖中的地方停了下来。湖底黑色的泥沙清晰可辨，就像是从水底露出来的鲸鱼背。我走到头，湖水刚好没过脚踝，我能看到岛上著名的风景，正如马克·吐温（Mark Twain）在他的著作《和布朗先生的旅行》（Travels with Mr Brown）中的描述一样：“两座宏伟的山峰，笼罩在极其柔和/丰富的绿色之下，一切都光影斑驳，峰顶直冲云霄。”
But 149 years after Twain visited, withsuch uncertainty over the future of the island, I wondered if the author’sobservation about Ometepe –“so isolated from the world and its turmoil” –would remain asenduring as the image before me did now.
但是在马克·吐温到访149 年之后，岛上充满了对未来的不确定性，我怀疑如果此时作者对于奥梅特佩岛的印象会不是会——“如此的与世隔绝，而又如此的骚动不安”，一如现在我眼前的景象一样，让人久久不能忘怀。
