Local guide prepares boarding for a tour of the discovery of Lake Enriquillo.
Contemplation II
Guide Ináci at the bow of a boat protected from the scorching heat that cooks Lake Enriquillo.
The Taínos Caritas
Rock engravings bequeathed by the indigenous Taínos.
Young Sunbathing Crock
A juvenile crocodile recharges in the sun.
Framed View
View of Lake Enriquillo from inside one of the Cueva de Las Caritas Taínas.
Monument to Enriquillo
Motorcyclist and passenger pass in front of the statue of Taíno Chief Enriquillo.
Flood
Trees killed by the rise of the hypersaline waters of Lake Enriquillo.
fossilization
The first stage of a fossil preserved by the salt of Lake Enriquillo.
From the Trees to the Clouds
Egret leaves its landing on a dead tree to a cloud-filled sky.
Crane Flight
Egret flies low over the warm waters of Lake Enriquillo.
Egret flight
Egret takes off from a dry trunk.
Contemplation
Egret takes off from a dry trunk.
The Iguanas Siege
Visitor to Lake Enriquillo surrounded by iguanas.
the reptiles
Two of the many iguanas that thrive around Lake Enriquillo.
native youth
Kids watch the visitor-photographers navigate to Lake Enriquillo.
amphibious trees
Dead trees, almost submerged by the rising waters of the lake.
The Possible Landing
Guide peers into the dead vegetation of Lake Enriquillo from the top of a fallen log.
Blue Lake, dry green surroundings
Scenery of Lake Enriquillo as seen from the foot of the hill of Caritas dos Taínos.
Between 300 and 400 km2, situated 44 meters below sea level, Enriquillo is the supreme lake of the Antilles. Regardless of its hypersalinity and the stifling, atrocious temperatures, it's still increasing. Scientists have a hard time explaining why.
Text: Marco C. Pereira
Images: Marco C. Pereira-Sara Wong
We take Marginal Road 4 heading north instead of the usual south. We cross Santa Cruz de Barahona, the big city in these parts. From Barahona, we head towards the interior of Hispaniola.
"Let's try to stop as little as possible on the way, shall we?" Suggests us the guide and driver Carlos. If you see something that you are interested in photographing, let me know and we will memorize it for the return.
Lake Enriquillo is a place apart. If you think you've been hot since landing in Santo Domingo, just wait a few more hours and you'll see!” and laughs like a proud guardian of a mystery. From the experience and conviviality of the previous days - including one incursion to another saline lake, that of Oviedo – we could only trust the Sir Carlos.
We continue the journey, first towards Laguna del Rincón, where we pass from the province of Barahona to that of Independencia. And, already in the vicinity of the large lake that moved us, at the height of a certain Caño del Muerto, again from Independencia to Baoruco, to which a vast northeastern sector of the Enriquillo belonged.
We crossed Neiba. Shortly thereafter, Villa Jaragua. On a Saturday morning, they were both engaged in a delicious frenzy, either mercantile or sporting.
Pleasant and genuine, the Dominican life we were passing left us frustrated that we could not interrupt our trip. “In about twenty minutes, we're really going to stop, but forget about the street markets. From Jaragua onwards, these masses of people no longer appear.”
We continued along Route 48, which eventually became Avenida Joaquín Aybar, a long promenade that fitted the line at the top of the lake. We still cross Las Clavellinas, Los Rios and Postrer Rio, any of the villages, much smaller than Jaragua.
Due to the vagaries of the demarcation of the Dominican provinces in Postrer Rio, the path returned us to the province of Independencia.
The Cueva de las Caritas de Los Indios and the view over Lake Enriquillo
“They see those handrails up there. It's right there. Follow the trail carefully as the floor is dry and, here and there, it slips. If they fall, it will be a drama.” It takes us a moment to understand why. The trail was flanked by vegetation on a slope as verdant as it was thorny.
We arrived, without a start, on an observation platform. This platform, in turn, facilitated access to a cave carved into the slope, more a wide hole than a cave, even if the Dominicans called it a cave.
We ascend to the dreary interior. From there, we gazed at the large, shadow-framed Lake Enriquillo, stretched between the cactus-studded forest at the bottom and a caravan of white clouds above the far bank.
The one that welcomed us was one of several caves of the slope and peaks that the natives call "hills of Caritas de los Indios”.
Tender, the name came from the abundance of rounded faces carved into the porous rock.
The authors of such works were the Taínos, indigenous people who, upon the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, dominated a large part of the Caribbean: the islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and others north of the Lesser Antilles, at least these.
The Taínos are one of the most relevant genetic ancestors of the current populations of the Caribbean.
In the early XNUMXth century, Enriquillo, one of its prominent chieftains, led a revolt and a kind of guerrilla against the Spanish invaders from the mountains south of the lake.
The revolt lasted what it did. His courage and determination earned him the baptism of the largest lake in the Antilles and a statue highlighted above the Duvergê – Barahona – Neyba junction.
There we stopped, on the way back, determined to pay him a photographic tribute.
Admired the view and the prints caritas indigenous people, we return to the van and Carlos.
The guide takes us to the entrance to the Lago Enriquillo y Isla Cabritos National Park, where we were supposed to embark for a discovery tour.
At last, Exploring the Enigmatic Lake Enriquillo
We found the park's facilities in the shade of a forest even more leafy than the one we had seen from the top of the cueva.
When we get out of the car, dozens of iguanas approach us, we estimate that they have become used to the visitors' offer of snacks.
A Dominican lady makes an effort to get her boyfriend to photograph her in the company of the animals. Gradually, these increase in number and surround her, closer and closer to her legs.
Amused at first, the girl panics.
In such a hysterical way, that she forces her boyfriend to bring her a chair, on which she takes refuge, until the park's creak, in disbelief, is encouraged to face the heat and drive away the reptiles.
In this hilarious however, Carlos greets and introduces us to the guys responsible for showing us the lake. We board a topless motorboat.
“We'd better start later,” one of them tells us, as they slip into long-sleeved clothes with bonnets. "But since they want to take a long walk, well...let's toast...we have to leave now."
As soon as we left the protection of the forest, 46 meters below sea level, we felt in our skin what Carlos and the boatmen were referring to.
The Salty and Atrocious Brazier of Lake Enriquillo
We were immediately struck by a humid heat, between hypersaline (up to three times saltier than the sea) and unhealthy. It took us some time to understand the harm it was doing to us because the movement of the boat aired us.
Still, little by little, it cooked and dehydrated us without appeal.
The duo of the lake maneuvers the boat, between trunks of trees that the rise of the salt water had left dead, in some areas, with almost only the branches of the crowns exposed, providential landings for dozens of white herons, little fleeting.
We love in other superficial areas, almost dry. In these, we disembarked and examined the profusion of large, horizontally collapsed trunks.
There, the hosts of the lake remain alert.
They manage to locate a few juvenile specimens of recharging crocodiles, along with moistened stumps. “Before, we saw huge numbers and everywhere” informs us Ináci, aware that the scarcity and size of reptiles let us down.
The Unrestrained Increase of Lake Enriquillo
“But it's just that this lake keeps getting bigger, in a way that even crocodiles affect. They realized that they can no longer lay eggs in the usual places because the banks change from day to day.
Instead, they climb higher on the rocky slopes around the lake, where the nests are at the mercy of everything. Also for this reason, now, crocodiles are dispersed over a much wider area.”
All the species that made up the lake's ecosystem found themselves in trouble. Palm crows and several other birds have lost their habitat in the now-dead trees.
A vast community of iguanas cyclura and the Hispaniola rhinoceros were forced to migrate from Ilha Cabritos (almost submerged) and compete with rival species, higher on the margins.
Also the human inhabitants suffered.
By the end of the XNUMXth century, the lake had withered so much that its people were certain that it would soon disappear. Instead, a few years later, it increased visibly.
To the point where tens of thousands of families have been forced to abandon their riverside homes, supported by various institutions – including the European Union – which granted them emergency funds.
A Ten-Meter Ascent of the Waters in just one Decade
The question was never whether Lake Enriquillo increased. Between 2006 and 2016 alone, its waters rose more than eleven meters, doubled in size and submerged more than 160km2 of arable land, inhabited by subsistence peasants.
What has intrigued scientists for a long time is why this growth, which has paralleled, and generated an even worse drama, in Lake Azuéi, located next door Haiti.
The scientific community remains at odds. Part, argues that the responsibility lies in global warming and more frequent and intense rains.
In a discordant sector, there are apologists that the phenomenon is due to changes in the flow of the Yaque del Sur river.
Those who guarantee that it started to bring much more water to Lake Enriquillo and thus validated the Dominican government's plans to build an upstream dam.
At that time, more than the water reality of the region, we were worried about the growing dehydration and an indisposition that not even with frequent sips of water we were able to avoid.
Ináci makes the boat speed up and wind between the mouths of the La Descoberta and Amada rivers, whose fresh, sweet waters sustain the life of a small, lively jungle, covered with palm trees and contrasting with the plant corpses closer to the lake.
From there, some native teenagers greet us, intrigued by the masochistic embarked demand we were on.
The Antecipated End of Navigation on Lake Enriquillo
“Well, guys, so within reach of this boat, we've already shown you the most interesting and log filled areas.
Crocodiles, we can walk around all afternoon and not find any more. Tell us what you want to do.”
The furnace heat and the evaporating salt continued to ruin our bodies at a rapid rate, so we were forced to anticipate our return to the park.
The setback proved negligible, considering the damage caused by the uncontrolled Lake Enriquillo in recent decades.
The hypersalinity of the Laguna de Oviedo fluctuates depending on evaporation and water supplied by rain and the flow coming from the neighboring mountain range of Bahoruco. The natives of the region estimate that, as a rule, it has three times the level of sea salt. There, we discover prolific colonies of flamingos and iguanas, among many other species that make up one of the most exuberant ecosystems on the island of Hispaniola.
It is the lowest place on the surface of the planet and the scene of several biblical narratives. But the Dead Sea is also special because of the concentration of salt that makes life unfeasible but sustains those who bathe in it.
Puerto Plata resulted from the abandonment of La Isabela, the second attempt at a Hispanic colony in the Americas. Almost half a millennium after Columbus's landing, it inaugurated the nation's inexorable tourist phenomenon. In a lightning passage through the province, we see how the sea, the mountains, the people and the Caribbean sun keep it shining.
In the northeast corner of the Dominican Republic, where Caribbean nature still triumphs, we face an Atlantic much more vigorous than expected in these parts. There we ride on a communal basis to the famous Limón waterfall, cross the bay of Samaná and penetrate the remote and exuberant “land of the mountains” that encloses it.
Saturday after Saturday, the southwest corner of the Dominican Republic goes into decompression mode. Little by little, its seductive beaches and lagoons welcome a tide of euphoric people who indulge in a peculiar rumbear amphibian.
Against all odds, one of the most unspoiled Dominican coastlines is also one of the most remote. Discovering the province of Pedernales, we are dazzled by the semi-desert Jaragua National Park and the Caribbean purity of Bahia de las Águilas.
In 1960, the Aral Sea was one of the four largest lakes in the world. Irrigation projects dried up much of the water and fishermen's livelihoods. In return, the USSR flooded Uzbekistan with vegetable white gold.
Indigenous Nicaraguans treated the largest lake in Central America as Cocibolca. On the volcanic island of Ometepe, we realized why the term the Spaniards converted to Mar Dulce made perfect sense.
If New Zealand is known for its tranquility and intimacy with Nature, Wanaka exceeds any imagination. Located in an idyllic setting between the homonymous lake and the mystic Mount Aspiring, it became a place of worship. Many kiwis aspire to change their lives there.
We depart from the seaside resort of Busua, to the far west of the Atlantic coast of Ghana. At Beyin, we veered north towards Lake Amansuri. There we find Nzulezu, one of the oldest and most genuine lake settlements in West Africa.
By geological whim, Sorvagsvatn is much more than the largest lake in the Faroe Islands. Cliffs with between thirty to one hundred and forty meters limit the southern end of its bed. From certain perspectives, it gives the idea of being suspended over the ocean.
On the world map, south of the famous brazilian wetland, a little-known flooded region appears, but almost as vast and rich in biodiversity. the Guarani expression Y bera defines it as “shining waters”. The adjective fits more than its strong luminance.
On the eminence of the coast of Mozambique, the province of KwaZulu-Natal is home to an unexpected South Africa. Deserted beaches full of dunes, vast estuarine swamps and hills covered with fog fill this wild land also bathed by the Indian Ocean. It is shared by the subjects of the always proud Zulu nation and one of the most prolific and diverse fauna on the African continent.
After several days of preparation in Pokhara, we left towards the Himalayas. The walking route only starts in Chame, at 2670 meters of altitude, with the snowy peaks of the Annapurna mountain range already in sight. Until then, we complete a painful but necessary road preamble to its subtropical base.
At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
During winter, the island of Hailuoto is connected to the rest of Finland by the country's longest ice road. Most of its 986 inhabitants esteem, above all, the distance that the island grants them.
At Pentecost, in their late teens, young people launch themselves from a tower with only lianas tied to their ankles. Bungee cords and harnesses are inappropriate fussiness from initiation to adulthood.
Santo Domingo is the longest-inhabited colony in the New World. Founded in 1498 by Bartholomew Colombo, the capital of the Dominican Republic preserves intact a true treasure of historical resilience.
There are more than 5 million ultra-tech light boxes spread across the country and many more exuberant cans and bottles of appealing drinks. The Japanese have long since stopped resisting them.
In 1870, a community of traveling Mandingo musicians settled next to the current city of Bafatá. From the Tabatô they founded, their culture and, in particular, their prodigious balaphonists, dazzle the world.
Finland's Lapps have been competing in the tow of their reindeer for centuries. In the final of the Kings Cup - Porokuninkuusajot - , they face each other at great speed, well above the Arctic Circle and well below zero.
On the way up to the Ghyaru village, we had a first and unexpected show of how ecstatic the Annapurna Circuit can be tasted. Nine kilometers later, in Braga, due to the need to acclimatize, we climbed from 3.470m from Braga to 4.600m from Lake Kicho Tal. We only felt some expected tiredness and the increase in the wonder of the Annapurna Mountains.
We descended from the high and mountainous lands of Meghalaya to the flats to the south and below. There, the translucent and green stream of the Dawki forms the border between India and Bangladesh. In a damp heat that we haven't felt for a long time, the river also attracts hundreds of Indians and Bangladeshis in a picturesque escape.
Vasco da Gama opened the Indian Ocean to the Portuguese empire. In the XNUMXth century, the Zanzibar archipelago became the largest producer of cloves and the available spices diversified, as did the people who disputed them.
We were surprised, on the biggest island of the Azores, with a caldera cut by small farms, massive and deep to the point of sheltering two volcanoes, a huge lagoon and almost two thousand people from São Miguel. Few places in the archipelago are, at the same time, as grand and welcoming as the green and steaming Vale das Furnas.
Unique to the heights of the Earth are the northern or southern auroras, light phenomena generated by solar explosions. You Sami natives from Lapland they believed it to be a fiery fox that spread sparkles in the sky. Whatever they are, not even the nearly 30 degrees below zero that were felt in the far north of Finland could deter us from admiring them.
In 1993, frustrated by the Portuguese government's disregard for his work “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ”, Saramago moved with his wife Pilar del Río to Lanzarote. Back on this somewhat extraterrestrial Canary Island, we visited his home. And the refuge from the portuguese censorship that haunted the writer.
The phenomenon is not unique, but in Manaus it has a special beauty and solemnity. At a certain point, the Negro and Solimões rivers converge on the same Amazonas bed, but instead of immediately mixing, both flows continue side by side. As we explore these parts of the Amazon, we witness the unusual confrontation of the Encontro das Águas.
Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
This region of the high interior of Madeira has been in charge of repopulating the island's rainbow trout for a long time. Among the various trails and levadas that converge in its nurseries, the Parque Florestal Ribeiro Frio hides grandiose panoramas over Pico Arieiro, Pico Ruivo and the Ribeira da Metade valley that extends to the north coast.
The announced day passed but the End of the World insisted on not arriving. In Central America, today's Mayans watched and put up with incredulity all the hysteria surrounding their calendar.
Timothy Treadwell spent summers on end with the bears of Katmai. Traveling through Alaska, we followed some of its trails, but unlike the species' crazy protector, we never went too far.
Discovering the Virgin Islands, we disembark on a tropical and seductive seaside dotted with huge granite boulders. The Baths seem straight out of the Seychelles but they are one of the most exuberant marine scenery in the Caribbean.
Six days after leaving Besisahar we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). Located at the foot of the Annapurna III and Gangapurna Mountains, Manang is the civilization that pampers and prepares hikers for the ever-dreaded crossing of Thorong La Gorge (5416 m).
Until 1947, the Tren del Fin del Mundo made countless trips for the inmates of the Ushuaia prison to cut firewood. Today, passengers are different, but no other train goes further south.
20 years ago, New Zealand had 18 sheep per inhabitant. For political and economic reasons, the average was halved. In the antipodes, many breeders are worried about their future.
From 1954 to 1983, Gérard Pierre screened many of the famous films arriving in Martinique. 30 years after the closing of the room in which he worked, it was still difficult for this nostalgic native to change his reel.
The name of the Tortuguero region has an obvious and ancient reason. Turtles from the Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea have long flocked to the black sand beaches of its narrow coastline to spawn. On one of the nights we spent in Tortuguero we watched their frenzied births.
In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.