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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.
尼加拉瓜湖需要進行疏浚，才能開挖適宜大型貨船通航的足夠深的運河。“那樣會毀了這個湖，”卡里奧說。“很多動植物都會滅絕。”當地人大多從事自然經濟和依靠捕魚為生，沒有滿足運河帶來的工作所要求的技能，卡里奧補充道。“有些人從未上過學，因此他們得不到什么機會，”他說。
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窮的國家之一。政府官員希望運河能帶來一萬億科多巴（cordoba）以上的投資，是島上當前經濟收入的三倍以上。
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.
隨著我們進入瀉湖，鳥鳴聲更大。濕地是大量鳥類的家園，我們發現了白鷺、蒼鷺、水雉和藍鳥。一群禿鷹棲息在伸出到平靜湖面上的盤曲的樹枝上。康塞普西翁火山和圍繞在火山頂的云朵，在如鏡的湖面上形成絕美的倒影。
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.
劃了一個小時之后，我們居然看到一只美洲熱帶鱷魚！或者是一塊圓木！不……那是一塊圓木。在我們回來的路上，我們又看到了一只烏龜，或者只是一塊石頭。
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.
很多旅行者會爬上奧梅特佩島的火山，但是天氣總會將這種旅行變成一次云中漫步。這是我只嘗試進行3 公里徒步旅行的一個好理由，去參觀島上50 米高的瀑布——圣拉蒙瀑布（San Ramón）。當我踏上馬德拉斯火山旁邊蜿蜒的雨林小路時，我發現了一群吼猴，在樹枝間穿梭，相互私語。經過一個小時的攀爬，我到達了發出雷鳴般聲響的瀑布處，涼爽的薄霧讓人在經歷雨林厚重的濕氣之后覺得格外神清氣爽。
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.
在日落的時候，海茲恩達梅里達旅館的房客聚集到了防波堤上。有些人劃著皮艇追逐西沉的太陽，落日在康塞普西翁火山表面灼熱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.
莫利納用他的手臂勾勒出地平線。“大約五年內，大船就會從這里經過，”他告訴我。
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.
居民對于相關提案仍然存在很多不確定性，莫利納說。運河會吸引大量游客來觀光，就像在巴拿馬運河上一樣，他補充說道——特別是奧梅特佩島新建了一個飛機跑道。
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.
加上大量工人搬到島上從事運河工作，莫利納說他擔心這種人口增長的可持續性發展問題，尤其是考慮到目前島上接待的最少游客都已經讓島上的廢物處理成了難題。目前，他自己想出了一個解決方案，他已經開始收集廢棄塑料并將其轉化成建筑材料，用以在旅館旁邊建造一所學校，房客可以在學校中擔任志愿者。
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.
世界森林組織等環保團體已經警告運河可能給這個生物圈造成的破壞，那會損害生態棲息地，造成污染，引入入侵物種，并且影響飲用水和灌溉水儲備的質量。莫利納說，一種潛在的好處是島上會首次出現各種生態學研究，吸引頂級生物學家和昆蟲學家到奧梅特佩島進行研究。“他們會收集大量數據并且確認數百個新物種，發現許可目前尚無可知的生物信息。”如果運河能夠讓人們擺脫貧困，還會有助于阻止采伐森林，這是尼加拉瓜的一個主要問題。莫利納說：“但是，如果政府不顯著改善教育，那么實際上，運河就沒有什么用，因為大多數工作都會讓外國人去做”。截至我在島上的最后一天，一直籠罩在康塞普西翁火山頂上的云都已散開，露出火山完整宏偉的真身。這座火山最近一次爆發是在五年之前，在湛藍的天空映襯之下，依然可以看見近乎紅色的表面上坑坑洼洼的爆發痕跡。
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.”
在去往渡船碼頭的路上，我中途在一塊伸到湖中的地方停了下來。湖底黑色的泥沙清晰可辨，就像是從水底露出來的鯨魚背。我走到頭，湖水剛好沒過腳踝，我能看到島上著名的風景，正如馬克·吐溫（Mark Twain）在他的著作《和布朗先生的旅行》（Travels with Mr Brown）中的描述一樣：“兩座宏偉的山峰，籠罩在極其柔和/豐富的綠色之下，一切都光影斑駁，峰頂直沖云霄。”
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.
但是在馬克·吐溫到訪149 年之后，島上充滿了對未來的不確定性，我懷疑如果此時作者對于奧梅特佩島的印象會不是會——“如此的與世隔絕，而又如此的騷動不安”，一如現在我眼前的景象一樣，讓人久久不能忘懷。
