Around the world

since we hadn’t done much “cultural” (as in humanistic discipline) during the whole month, we though that Melaka would be a good place to stop on the way to KL. Indeed it was, Melaka is a small city on the Melaka straight. This strategic position made of the city a major hub for Asia trading companies during many years. Obviously, the city was very important to European countries which successively ruled the city leaving their architectural and cultural marks. The result is a very interesting mix of Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial architecture and cuisine topped with modern day’s Chino-Malay way of living.

The centre of the town, which has been declared UNESCO world heritage site last year, boasts a gorgeous red brick complex, build between a hill and the riverside, which served as governor housing, church and city-hall.

Being the Sunday at the end of the Hari Raya Haj (?), one of the biggest Muslim festivity, the city was dressed up for a big festival with open air performances all around the old centre. After a dodgy performance by a NZ movement researcher we moved across the river, on jalan carpenter, the road where the Chinese have settled their Chinatown.

Jalan Carpenter is a bustling little road with a night market and touristy shops. As we got there the night market was being set up forcing all the people into close proximity and obligation to watch the stands, a mix of tourist gifts, food stalls and magic cleansing products sellers. And then THE highlight of the day, a real, original, straight-to-your-heart open air Chinese karaoke where elder peoples brought their favourite midi bases and sang on a huge stage!

Definitely a nice place Melaka

The night shift!

That was definitely one of the 10 RM we spent! Apart from the 3 Germans guys that kept speaking very loud ( the key point when you try to see the wildlife at night is to SHUT UP!)

We saw snakes (yes with an s and one of them felt on our guide head…), a moon rat which was pretty cool (all white with fur), walking sticks, frog, cockroaches (beuh) and lots a insects!

The next morning we went for a canopy walk at 7 am, supposedly the best time to see some mammals! The canopy are actually bridges at 20-30 ms high between trees. . And that was really nice. We weren’t that lucky regarding the animal side…that all right, once again this is part of the game. In the late morning, we went for a self guided walk to another cave! On the way we saw quite a lot of crazy insects! Mantis, dragon flies and lots of colourful macro things..

The Pinnacles, the one sight I remember most (maybe the paradise bird dance – but that was in Papua New Guinea) from Planet Earth when David Attenbourgh is narrating about Borneo! What he does not tell is that they got there by helicopter and that getting there on foot involves quite a lot sweating and a 3 days trip (well it could be done in 2). The First day we left Mulu HQ by boat and stopped to visit Wind Cave and Clearwater cave 170km

If you have ever seen the best documentaries series ever made (BBC’s Planet Earth, which we super highly recomend) you will feel confortable with this and the next posts since we are starting the main course of our trip. Niah Caves and the Gunung Mulu national park.
But first things first, today we took a small van to the UNESCO world heritage site of the Niah Caves. As the name says the main attraction here are the limestone caves, what the name does not say its the grandeur of theese…
After walking for about an hour from the park entrance we arrived to the Traders Cave (which is actually a cavern – meening that it is very wide open on one side. A bit like the difference between a tunnel and a bus shelter), where we coud see the rests of an early bird’s nest and guano collectors settlement used as a trading post with the costal traders, hence the name.
Few minutes further we got to west mouth of the great cave. 60m high and 250m wide, it definetly deserves the name!!! And it is only the entrance… Moving into the cave we got the feeling of being in a huge place, althoug dark, you could feel how big these chambers where, foremost when the powerfull torch would’t make it to the opposite wall or ceiling. Even more spectacular are the bamboo and ironwood (belian) poles used by the local birds’ nest collectors. I have no idea how they hang them on the ceilings to later climb on them to collect the saliva-made swiftlets’ nests highly regarded in Chinese cuisine (birds’ nest soup is a very exxclusive plate as caviar is in Europe). Fortunately, the park constantly monitors the harvesting to keep the swiftlets population healty and avoid yet another ecological catastrophy caused by Chinese beliefs (see turtle eggs poaching and most remarkably shark finning).
After walking for about an hour in the dark we emerged on the other side of the cave where we walked through the forest to the Painted cave, a very quiet and relaxing place where old cave paintings and death-ships (boat shaped coffins) illustrate the burial beliefs of early Niah settlers.
On the way back after going through the great cave we decided to have a look at the longhouse nearby and of course to take the other branch of the plankwalk… Well lets say it would have been easier to listen to the kiosk ladies saying “tida bagus, tida bagus (not good, not good)” but then what explorers would we be ? So we took it and had to crawl under, jump over, climb around fallen trees that where blocking the way… Well it was hot but fun!
Cheers

Puerto Egas

Bartolome

Cerro Dragon

Rabida

New spots, new guide, new luck!?
We try, the first dive site is supposed to be a very good site to spot white tips and hammerheads, the second to see Rays (eagle, golden and maybe manta).
After a semi-complicated start caused by the new girl that didn’t have enough weight and the DM loosing her, we start drifting. After a couple of minutes luck seems to be playing with us, the fists mini school of white tips is just there. We stop, hold on a rock and watch. With the time passing, they get more and more curious and start checking us out, very cool! Meanwhile, schools of fish and turtles keep on passing by. We start moving again, we still want to see the hammerheads. As the dive goes on we keep on seeing white tips and turtles but no hammerhead, after all luck didn’t totally play with us. 60 minutes into the dive we start the ascend, three more minutes of safety stop and then it happens, at 1 m depth there they are, two beautiful small hammerheads waiting for us. Amazing! With big smiles on our faces we surface and get ready for more.
After a short lunch break we go rays spotting, as we drop to the bottom it is immediately clear why this site is so good for rays, an immense plain full of huge garden eels extends in front of us. Garden eels are thin eels that live in vertical holes in the sand, when no predator (first of all eagle rays) is around they come out of their holes standing upright catching food. When a predator (or a diver) is getting too close they quickly retract into the safety of the hole. They live in big groups creating what looks like gardens, hence the name.
After just a couple of minutes we see the first medium sized eagle ray, but it is just an appetizer to what is to come, seconds later a group of 12 spotted eagle rays is effortlessly passing five meters in front of us. The sight is amazing, but what is even more impressive is the size of the rays spanning from 80 cm to 3 m of wingspan, massive and still the most elegant sight you can imagine. The school stays around for a good five minutes giving me the chance to take some good (I hope – remember my display is not working) video shots. We move around a bit just to find another school and enjoy the spectacle. Not enough, while I’m filming Sarah spots a hammerhead!
Definitely a good day and at 2pm we’re back in Puerto Ayora to rest and enjoy our memories.
Eagle ray video coming

Early day today, we meet at the dive shop at 7… we leave for Floreana, the southernmost of Galapagos Islands, about 30 nautical miles from Puerto Ayora. The trip there lastas about two hours and the ocean is fairly calm but it manages to knock down Ryan and Luca’s wife and to make Sarah focus on the horizon.
Once we get there the Capitan decides that (to help the seasick ones) we will first do the land visit. On the dock we meet huge marine iguanas, pelicans, sally footed crabs and sleepy sea lions. A short bus ride gets us to the visit site, first we go for a stroll to see where buccaneers used to live and hunt in the 17th century then we go to the giant land tortoises.
What to say about them… HUGE! Those things can live up to 150 years (rough data) and keep on growing until they are around 80. Well, you’ll ask what the secret to such longevity is, definitely take it easy!
Half more hour of navigation takes us to the first dive site: Champion. Here we are supposed to se white tips, seals and a lot of fish. The site is very nice; there is a “bit” of current but nothing dramatic. As expected we se sea lions and white tips and lots of fish. Unfortunately no big surprise coming from the blue but for this the second dive should be better.
After lunch we move to Enderby where big big things (I’m talking whale-sharkish here) could surprise us.
First we go after the weird looking batfish over a sandy bottom. For once that I’m not being the lowest one to follow what our guide said, the others saw it and we didn’t… oh well. Then we moved to the rocky reef where all the activity was. There we saw plenty of fish, an octopus, a school of jacks and we fought hard against the very strong current waiting for the big ones to pass by but we were unlucky again. Well, not really unlucky, the dives were really cool; we just do not seem to be meant to see hammerheads and whale sharks…

Yipiha..we are finally going diving!! With all the underwater advertising picture that we saw, we were more than ready to see school of hammerheads, whale sharks, turtles, penguins and all the rest. Apparently the place is one of the best to see what we really want to see: Hammerheads. We had the video camera of the dive shop with us, it was part of our deal for 130$ for two dives. The problem is that the housing screen is not working, so Marco will have to record without really knowing what he will point at. Will see… It was a short one hour ride from Puerto Ayora to the dive site. The current was stronger that we were used to. We had to grab the rocks to be able to stay at the same place for a while. During the first dive, I kind of see my first hammerhead but he was pretty far and disappeared fast. We saw lots of turtles sleeping at the bottom that we could admired from close.
The second dive is pretty much the same, thousands of fish everywhere. We hadn’t seen that anywhere else so far. It is really nice even though nothing big…BUT WHERE ARE THOSE SCHOOLS?

After leaving Mendoza we got to San Agustin de Valle Fertil, a small village the is known among travelers only for being the starting point for trips to the Ischigualasto (moon valley) and Talampaya parks. Once we got to hostel we met Thierry, a Fribourgeois we had met in Malargüe coupple of days ago and a Spanish couple. We spent the evening eating asado (typical Argentinian BBQ), drinking wine and watching Argentina vs. Brasil for the world cup qualification.

In the morning we leave for our long day visiting the two geologically incredible parks (UNESCO . Our first stop is at Ischigualasto, one of the only places where a complete superior triassic sediment series is visible. As well, the oldest dinosaur fossil was found here. The nickname of the site is valley of the moon, and as you can see on the pictures it is a very good nickname.

The place was formed (or better said put in this state) during the formation of the Andes around 100 mio years ago when the Nazca plate and the South american plate collided and created a subduction zone. The old triassic (250 to 205 mio years ago) lake sediments where then pushed up in a 45° angle by the subducting Nazca plate forming the nowadays visible series.

Ischigualasto is an incredible landscape marked by different colors like red, green, orange, yellow and gray coming from the different mineral composition of the sediments. Furthermore, the seasonally torrential rainsand the high winds create an extreme erosion that contributes in shaping the moon-like landscape.

After visiting the park’s museum where fossils and reconstructions of the oldest dinosaurs are shown we get on our van again and 2 hours later we’re at Talampaya.

Talampaya is geologically similar to Ischigualasto (although the series visible here are from the inferior triassic) but geomorphologically the two parks have nothing in common. In Talalmpaya the main erosion was (and is) fluvial, resulting in a huge canyon. At the beginning of the canyon we see some rock arts that show how the locals ancestors hunted and farmed guanacos (the local llama). The further we get into the canyon the more spectacular it gets, high walls of about 200m with condors flying around and some vegetation at the bottom, very very cool! As well we experience the best echo ever, from a special spot (like a big u eroded into the wall) the canyon repeats full sentences up to four times.

Around six our driver drops us off at an intersection where a bus is supposed to pass by and take us to La Rioja and then to Salta. After two hours of waiting in the local store-restaurant-ticket office-bus stop house having some cheese and wine and counting 5 cars passing by, the bus arrives and we’re off to Salta.