Should developing nations be doing more to become sustainable?

As promised yesterday, getting back into the issues with a new poll (finally). This weeks is about developing nations.

Over the last two and a half months travelling around Latin America I have seen first hand what some (admittedly overall realitively wealthy) developing nations are like in regards to the environment. Brazil, for example, has a reasonably strong Green Party, and is a world leader in production of ethanol-based "biofuels", or "agrifuels" as the European Greens insist they are called. However, it is also one of the worst offenders in deforestation in the world, behind, only, perhaps, Indonesia (if memory serves me correctly). Although there were signs of an increasing environmental awareness (demonstrated by some advertisements playing up on people´s want to do something for the environment), there were many signs that Brazil was far behind my experiences in New Zealand, which I believe still has a long way to go as well. Plastic was one of the things that pained me most. Plastic bags handed out with everything, even if you were buying a single bottle of water. I learnt pretty quickly how to say "No bag thanks" in Portuguese. I also endured very strange looks from a supermarket bag-packer when I gave her my own reuseable bag (yes, you should take them travelling too). They also use plastic cups for everything, including beer, and piles paper napkins at all but maybe the fanciest restuarants (I´m assuming, as I never went to one that fancy). There were streets that looked like rubbish tips, and especially in busy cities, people handing you fliers at every corner. Furthermore, a city like Sao Paulo had public transport, it seemed, more out of necessity, rather than out of a Government preference for the more sustainable option. Cycling is a bit of a death-wish, and cars always have priority over pedestrians. You often need to be fast to cross the road.

Brazil is similar to Venezuela and Mexico from what I´ve seen. Except cars are bigger in Venezuela and Mexico, presumably because the two countries have lots of oil. Speaking of oil, and turning to other developing nations, the US Government in particular is pointing at countries like India and China for their skyrocketing emissions when nations are debating what to do about lowering emissions. They are also being partially blamed for record-high oil prices due to their increasing thirst.

The argument over consumption of oil though boils down to an important point. Developing nations are still significantly (and very significantly in many cases) poorer than developed nations, and as such have a lot more poverty. Lower incomes = a lesser impact on the environment through less use and wastage of resources. So even if attitudes to the environment are probably overall behind (though not necessarily that far behind) developed nation´s attitudes towards the environment, per capita developed nations still have far less of an impact on the environment than developed nations. Their priorities lie with economic growth far ahead of environmental protection. Shouldn´t they be allowed to develop so they are on par with developed nations, and can the world cope with the increased use of resources? Do developed nations have any liability for the damage already done, and to help distribute resources more fairly?

These are some of the issues in a very complex one. So with the above (and more) in mind, please vote in this weeks poll.

(The photo with this post was taken in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela. It is a national park in which only indigenous people are allowed to live, and was outside a settlement that tourists have to walk through to get to one of the many waterfalls in the areas. It is a sign meant to demonstrate how long it takes different types of rubbish to break down.)

The falling angels and sandalias

I hope you enjoyed the pretty pictures of my last post – and so I’ve included some more for your viewing pleasure. Above is the “Angel Falls”. It is the highest free-falling waterfall in the world at 976m, with an uninterrupted drop of 807m.

From the last place I blogged about, Ciudad Bolivar, I forked out a pretty decent sized wad of cash to get on a small plane for an hour. Twas quite fun, with beautiful views of rivers, trees and mountains. After a sharply-banked turn we landed safely in Canaima, a small town that seems to be half tourist resort now.

In Canaima airport we were met by our guide – Freddie, though of course he had a real name, which was in his native tongue. It meant something about running with fire. He took us to the lodge in which we weren’t to stay that night, then we were lead to a motorised canoe. (Oh joy. More pain in the backside from hours of hard seats). The five people (including myself) from my tour were joined by an Italian, Brazilian and Columbian couple. We were all there to brave the rain and high prices to see the natural beauty of the area, climaxing with the incredible “Angel Falls”.

At first it wasn’t raining, but the changeable skies of the start of the wet season were looking ominous. Four hours in a canoe. After walking around the rapids, and stopping for lunch and a swim, it started raining pretty much straight away. It rained hard, and barely stopped. My new jacket, for a second time (the first being in the Amazon) was proven to be not so waterproof – though it was a lot of rain. There were many rapids along the way too, which were difficult to navigate, and made us wet anyway. Between the clouds we got peeks of the beauty of the area – massive cliffs with hundreds of waterfalls. And just as we were near our camp, the clouds parted. We saw the side of the “Angel Falls”, and then it was gone again.

We arrived at our “cabin” to discover someone had forgotten to put in walls and decent toilets. This was no matter, but I wouldn’t call it a cabin, unlike he who sold us the tour. We ate like kings and associated important people, and slept in hammocks.

The next morning we awoke with the sun. That’s right, sun. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Down by the water you could see a golden “Angel Falls”, lit up by the sun. After breakfast we climbed to the viewing point, and already they were being hidden intermittently by clouds. It was very beautiful and spiritual to be next to such an awe inspiring sight.

The guide told us how the “discovery” of “Angel Falls” by Jimmie Angel about 80 years ago had ruined things for his people. They have their own name for the Falls, and a legend about how they were formed. They are very important and spiritual for the people in the area.

After the morning of awe (and luck at clouds not ruining our experience) we were back in the ass-wrenching canoe for our downstream travels. Though it seems to be nice when we got up, sure enough it was raining again by the time we were on the river again. Wet for the second time.

We got back near Canaima, and did the other highlight of the trip. We crossed the top of a waterfall so that we could go behind it on the way back. It was pounding next to us, in our hovel in the rocks that allowed us to walk through. Then we were back to the beautiful lagoon, which is fed by a steady diet of waterfall (above), to go back the next day.

And where do the sandalias fit in? Well, day two was a dark day for jandals (or flip flops for those who don’t speak kiwi). Firstly, in a river crossing, one of the fellow tour people lost her jandal. The river fed straight into the main river, and we got into the boat straight afterwards, so the guide got us to have a look for it. It was to no avail, and the others in the boat sang out “sandalia!” to mourn the loss of an old friend. Then, another sandalia deathtrap. The waterfall crossing. I had taken mine off, but the person in front of me left hers on. Just then, a cry for help – another jandal sailing away! Quick witted and heroic, I did the only thing a man could do, and dived for it. Splashing water and manly movements ended in probably one of the greatest rescues this summer, and you wont find this one in cinemas. But after the struggle was over, I turned around, and what should I see, but one of me sandalias sailing down the waterfall. “Noooooooooooooooooo!” I screamed. Somehow I let this one slip out of my fingers, and it was gone. May God have mercy on my sole, and all right-footed jandals.

Disclaimer: The above story about sandalias may have been edited for dramatic effect.

The big nipple of the Gran Sabana

A final update to update the updates so that they are currently up to date. Except for the photos, because I forgot to bring the right gear, even though the internet here is fast. Sorry.

We arrived at the border crossing between Brazil and Venezuela sometime around 1pm, checked out of Brazil, and then had to wait till siesta time was over to get into Venezuela. We also put our clocks back half an hour due to a change in January brought in by their "crazy President" Hugo Chavéz.

We checked into the hotel in Santa Elena, ate some edibles, and had a relaxing day. The next day was a full day of sight seeing around the Gran Sabana, which is in a massive national park the size of Belgium. It features rolling hills, and extremely old mountains, that are now table-topped because they have been eroded away. Most of the area is grass land, mixed in with some tropical trees. There are also many many waterfalls. Only indigenous people are allowed to live in the area, in their huts which feature roofs made out of palm leaves. The roofs are waterproof for at least seven years (which is good, considering how much it rains), and take three months to make. We visited some waterfalls, got bitten by possibly some of the most annoying bugs on earth, and marvelled at the table top mountains. There´s also one that looks like a "finger" (but it really looks like an erect nipple to be frank).

The next day, yesterday, was a chilled out day. There was the option of going on another tour with the very nice tour guide we had the day before, to see the gold and diamond mines. You can get diamonds very "cheaply" in Santa Elena - the mines are still very much being used. Around the area is also where the largest diamond in the world was found, at a mere 156 carats. I didn´t go, and just chilled instead, but apparently it was good. There wasn´t much in Santa Elena, but I had a walk around and saw what was in the town. Then last night we got on our final night bus for the trip, on Venezuelan roads. Which, in simple English, means that they have been maintained, and therefore there are no potholes.

One last thing before I tell you about what my future holds. The petrol prices here are mental. I´d heard it was cheap, and that Venezuela was oil rich, but nothing prepared me for the disbelief of seeing something so unbelievable. There were lines about 200m long outside the gas station in Santa Elena, filled with people from Brazil, trying to get some of the limited ration of petrol allowed to be dished out each day. Naïvely I thought that was strange, until I saw the price. About 0.074 Bolìvares per litre for 91 unleaded. That´s about NZ$0.03, and the Venezuelan Bolívar is quite high at the moment. Insane. It´s about the same price to fill up a small tank as it is for one litre in most places at the moment. Lots of people own big cars here.

Now I´m in Cuidade Bolívar, which is our guide´s hometown. From here, those that can afford the unmissable and expensive trip to see the Angel Falls will fly out tomorrow morning for two nights in the jungle beneath the Falls. The Angel Falls is the tallest waterfall in the world, with the water free falling from a height of 976m. It should be spectacular.

In the jungle, the mightily diverse jungle

Getting back to jungle-mania...

We arrived in Manuas from the Amazon river boat, left our stuff in the hotel where the people who didn´t want to go into the jungle were staying, booked a trip, had breakfast, packed our stuff, emailed loved ones to tell them we were still alive and got into an old car that took us to port again so we could get on a boat to take us to our jungle-destination. All in about two hours. Busy busy, and back onto water after very little time on solid ground.

The boat first took us to where the rivers Rio Negro and Rio Sallamon (I´ll edit the spelling of that one later) mix. Or rather don´t mix. There is a clear line where the black Rio Negro hits the brown water of the other river. Quite strange looking, and it goes for a long way. It´s tanins - like in tea - that make the Rio Negro black, and it really does look black.

From there we continued up the Rio Negro to a souvenir shop, where there were also giant lily pads. They were well over a metre in diameter, and were used by bugs and birds alike as landing pads.

We then continued, stopping at animal abuse point. Three people - two of whom were children - jumped onto the boat to show the tourists their animals from the jungle. It made me very uncomfortable to see people paying them to have their photos taken with animals like that, so needless to say I didn´t participate. They had a baby anaconda, a sad looking sloth, and a baby monkey. The boy carrying the sloth bandied him about like a teddy bear, and the poor thing obviously just wanted to get back into a tree, as they are made to cling. The next worse off was the baby monkey, which was tiny and clinging to the little girl´s arm. He/she needed its mummy! The anaconda was the one I felt least bad about, as there is the possibility that they can be brought up as pets and cared for alright, given the right person. Of course it was impossible to judge whether this was the case, but it could well have suffocated it´s captor if it really wanted to. It was only eight months old, so just a baby, and obviously raised from small by humans. It was still massive though.

After that it was lunch on the boat (more boat food - yay! Though not half shabby this time) and then we made it to our floating log cabin (another night on the water). There we met our guide, and soon were out piranha fishin´.

As the river waters were quite high, we were surrounded by half-submerged trees. We had to go through these many times - difficult, and sometimes painful. Piranha fishing was no exception. The rods were made of sticks, with nylon string tied to the ends. The bait: fresh meat. We got a few bites, but nothing too exciting. It was quickly clear we wouldn´t catch enough for dinner. Our guide finally caught a baby one, but it still had very sharp teeth. We threw it back. I was the next closest to catching one, pulling one up several times. One big one I almost had, but I didn´t lift him far enough out of the water in time. Damn.

That night we went alligator hunting. Alligators, pirranhas, birds, monkeys, snakes, jaguars, panthers, so many plants. You don´t know the true meaning of biodiversity until you´ve been to the Amazon. It was astoundingly beautiful and infinitely fascinating. Anyway, baby allis. Our guide spotted one quickly in his torch light, with the charateristic red eye reflection. He jumped out of the canoe, and was back in five, holding one. It was about 30cm from head to tail. I was the only other one to hold it. Better this time as we weren´t harming it, and releasing it again once we were done. From counting the rings on its tail, Charles (the guide) determined it was 12 months old. It eats mainly insects - poisonous ones. This causes problems if it bites you. It had long been set free by its mother; left to its own devises. All the older, larger alligators aren´t around that area when we was there, so just babies. The one I held will grow to be about three metres. A lot smaller than the largest species, which only grows to eight metres.

The next day we went to a nearby village. We were greeted by a very old woman, who was the mother of pretty much the whole population. She was very nice, but spoke to us in Portuguese and expected us to know what she was saying, no matter how many times we told her otherwise.

The village was small, but full of a huge variety of plants. We saw vegetables growing that we´d never seen before, plus many old favourites like bananas (smaller than us westerners are used to), passionfruit (slightly bigger, and yellow-skinned, used mainly just for juice), avacados (massive - more than twice as big as in NZ, and delicious) and other favourites. We also saw acaí berries, which have only recently become popular all over Brazil. You can only eat the skins, as the rest is seed. The skins are boiled to make various things like ice cream, an acaí mash thing and jam. The seeds are used to make jewlery as they are very hard. Acaí berries supposedly have many health benefits. They are a deep purple, and have quite a distinctive flavour.

That afternoon we went for a paddle through the trees in our canoe. Lots of bugs, and we eventually saw monkeys! All around us, in the trees above. Scurrying around, but obviously quite curious.

In the evening we went to a native dwelling, near the village, to stay the night. There was a mother and father, with most of their nine children, plus some others, like a nephew and a granddaughter. It was a wooden building on stilts next to the water. Very basic. The family obviously had it set up so visitors could stay in hammocks. A bit of a money making venture for them. We couldn´t communicate well unfortunately though, due to the language barrier. They had chickens, dogs and cats. And a pre-emptive rooster.

Next day it was jungle trek day. And what a beautifully overcast day it was. By the time we got to the track, it was raining quite hard. And then we had to paddle up it for about 20 minutes till we reached land. It was hard rain, what with us being in a rainforest and all. Still, it was great to be walking through the Amazon, with someone cutting our path with a machete. Charles, a Native from north of Manuas, had an extensive knowledge of the plants in the jungle. Whilst we have an extensive knowledge of how to operate in our environment of cities and so on, so do Natives know how to operate in their environment. It´s astounding that their isn´t more outside interest in the huge range of plants in the Amazon, with their many uses.

Firstly, he showed us the Amazonian panadol. You make the leaves into tea, which lower fevers and reduce pain. We bit the leaves, and they numbed the tongue. He would just stop at a tree or a vine, recognise it straight away, and show it to us. There was the vine quinine, the cure for malaria (and used in some malaria medications that we´re familiar with too). There were ants that you get to climb on your hands from their nest. You can then squish them, and rub the scent all over your skin. Natural mosquito repellent. You can also make them into tea, which supposedly cures peoples´ vision problems that we generally correct with glasses and contact lenses. There was a vine that you can cut and place on insect bites, which makes them go down. You can also dry it and smoke it to "help relax". There was a tree that produced a smelly resin. When out in the jungle, hunters use it´s inflammability to light fires. They also place it around their campsite in a circle. Its unpleasant smell keeps out everything from insects to jaguars. We saw a rubber tree. The dried line of sap on the outside was far more stretchy than a rubber band. Charles coaxed a couple of tarantulas out of their holes for us to see. They were massive, and not fully grown. Frightening for some. There was a small plant whose roots are extremely toxic. You can kill someone with them, or grind them, put them into water, and kill all the fish. Easy fishing, but now highly illegal. It sucks the oxygen out of the water, so kills everything. There was a diarrhea cure as well as other things he showed us, but I think you get the idea, and I´m having trouble remembering them all. Lots of teas though.

After a freezing and extremely wet boat ride back to the lodge, we got ready to go back to Manuas. The rush was not over. We had to take a speedboat back to get there in time. Then we had an hour and a half to get ready to leave. We had another night bus, that would begin the long and massively potholed journey from Manuas to Santa Elena in Venezuela, where I currently am.

A very busy, and very exciting end to my stay in Brazil. After almost two months there, it was sad to see it go. I´ve learnt a lot about Brazilian culture, a little Portuguese, and had a great time. Bring on Venezuela and it´s confusing Spanish.