ON COLOMBIA’S LOS NEVADOS NATIONAL PARK

It’s been nearly a decade since I climbed Machu Pichu and visited Cusco but, somehow, I feel as if the effects of heightened elevation would still affect me to a similar degree. It must be said, of course, that in Peru I benefited from a knowledgeable guide who prepared my team well for the trek. The hotel where we stayed offered oxygen masks and at least one of my fellow travelers made use of them. I made but one miscalculation which fortunately resulted in nothing more serious than the need to take a seat in the lobby until my illness passed. After eating substantially to prepare for the higher altitudes I, upon returning to the hotel after a day in Machu Pichu, sat down to a plate of tough alpaca steak which did me in. And yet, I feel confident that my over-forty constitution can tolerate another visit to the land of the Incas. In part, though, this explains my unpreparedness for Los Nevados of Colombia late this March. Los Nevados is at a higher altitude than both Machu Pichu and Cusco, but the rate at which I made my way to the national park’s entrance seems to be the main reason for how hard the change in altitude affected me. The park, it must be said, is well prepared as the first aid room located in the visitor center had a long wait line. Not helping matters was the slow grind uphill to the entrance of the park due to rocky roads and free-ranging traffic entering an exiting the gates (with the rangers seemingly having little to no control directing head-strong drivers), all adding a sense of claustrophobia.
Nonetheless, Los Nevados National Park is one of the most startling of natural beauties in Colombia and one of the few places in the country in which much of its larger fauna such as the mountain tapir and the Andean bear. Adorned by the snow-capped mountains which give it its name, Los Nevados is also home to an assortment of flowers and vegetation giving the land a decidedly North American look.
Los Nevados is periodically closed to visitors when the activity of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano elevates to dangerous levels. This is not o be taken lightly, for the neighboring town of Armero and a dozen other villages were destroyed by mudslides following an eruption in November of 1985 killing an estimated 25,000 inhabitants who were failed by a negligent government. Our guide also informed us that irrespective of volcanic activity, visitors are allowed only as far as a specific marker to the summit. Beyond this point, according to our guide, visitors are asked to sign a waver in which they are made to understand that neither the state nor the park rangers are responsible for their rescue. We did not go very far anyway as the ride to the entrance had taken a bigger part of the day than anticipated. But the beauty of Los Nevados is that even a stroll near the base and within close proximity of the welcome area offers spectacular views of the Colombian Andes. In a country where I had previously visited mostly tropical parks, Los Nevados is a reminder of the richeness of Colombia’s biodiversity.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SALVATORE MARANZANO: THE KILLING AND ERASING OF A MOB BOSS

  The modern Mafia was born with the assassination of Salvatore Maranzano on September 10, 1931, and yet not a single photo of Maranzano alive has surfaced. There is but one verified photo of Maranzano, after he was stabbed to death by Lucky Luciano’s gang at Maranzano’s office in New York Central Building, a bloodied corpse spread on the floor with his face mutilated beyond recognition. From this photo a face impression was recently stitched together by computer wizards but the limits of technology show. One mystery the technicians, with all their skill, could not crack is the identity of the assailants who brought Maranzano down.   This lack of record is baffling considering the pivotal role Maranzano played in the history of the Mafia, his rise to power coming at a pivotal time in its transformation. Maranzano saw opportunity playing upon the growing rift between the new generation of mobsters and the old guard but instead became its second victim and kicked off a purge o...
Read more

MY UNFINISHED NOVEL

 Perhaps what fascinates me most about unfinished works is that they leave so much to the speculation. What is left to us are clues to a mystery that, if they could be solved, would tell the full story that exists only within the artist’s imagination. I make a point of seeking out examples of works left incomplete deliberately (a decision often born out of artistic frustration) or as casualties of finances, destruction or death of the artist. It’s become a hobby to fit these tantalizing pieces into an artistic canon and patching together what the artist envisioned. What if Jane Austen had finished Sanditon and what was the true ending (though letters left behind have officially confirmed the identity of the murderer) of Dickens’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood ? Though it takes turns conventional and breathless soon after Henry James’s The Sense of the Past begins so atmospherically one wishes the author had not abandoned it. Even cinema has its ghosts. Existing scraps from Orson Wel...
Read more

THE BLEAK FASCINATION OF SIX FLAGS NEW ORLEANS

Image
 Urban exploration, as the term is used by the seekers of crumbling architecture, has a distinct appeal from the more popular and not specifically named spectacle of ancient ruins. The latter offers clues to a long-vanished world, a life so abstracted from our own that any narrative assembled from the remnant pieces is fueled by speculation. Urban exploration hits closer to our shared cultural home. It offers pieces of a familiar world and a life we know. For some an abandoned urban landscape evokes specific memories but, even for those visiting the shattered remains of a once thriving location, there are enough commonalities to imagine the place at its peak with relative accuracy. Whether or not we knew the now decaying place in person we bond over the shared history, a bond formed by remnants of a shared culture, history or routine. There is a haunting bittersweetness, then, to most such spots not entirely different from visiting a cemetery or a memorial. Most abandoned areas tel...
Read more