Descending Into A Volcano---前往世界上唯一一个居住在火山口的村庄.doc

Descending Into A Volcano To Farm OCTOBER 25 2015 1 57 PM ET KIRK SIEGLER The Pululahua Crater in Ecuador erupted about 2 500 years ago The soils remaining in the collapsed mountain are mineral rich and good for cultivation Kirk Siegler NPRFrom the rim of Ecuador s Pululahua Geobotanical Reserve it s at least a 45 minute drive no more like plunge down a winding bone crushing dirt road to the floor of the crater But it s well worth it After all how often do you get to say you ve traveled to what s billed as the world s only inhabited cultivated volcano I should offer a caveat since volcanoes are very much in the news here This one s inhabited because it s dormant It last erupted about 2 500 years ago but the soils that were left behind in the collapsed mountain are rich in minerals Today the terraced mountainsides are still excellent for cultivating crops such as corn sugar cane beans and a rare variety of potato called camoate Pululahua is loosely translated from Quechua the indigenous language to fog Almost every afternoon clouds shroud the steep mountain walls that circle the crater in a dense fog that blows in from the coast But if you get there early enough in the morning it s a stunning sight It s also a window into rural Ecuador s past Pululahua is just a short distance from the bustling capitol of Quito yet this crater protected as a geobotanical reserve in 1978 and later as a national park is a peaceful escape Getting into the crater requires traveling down a windy bumpy dirt road that plunges you about 700 meters from the rim to the crater floor Kirk Siegler NPRIt s widely believed that there has been farming here for hundreds of years But in more recent times the crater was included as part of Ecuador s large colonial hacienda system The country s first Spanish colonialists divided up much of Ecuador into vast haciendas or farms that were powered by mostly native farm workers or huasipongos Thousands of native people did the farming without pay in exchange for a very small piece of land they could farm on their own usually on their one day off a week Ecuador didn t actually abolish this huasipongosystem until the land reforms of 1963 Today on Pululahua s pancake flat floor a half dozen or so farms run by the descendants of these huasipongos remain One of them is 86 year old Humberto Moromenacho who is one of 15 full time residents still living in the crater Taking a break from work to talk outside a small shack that serves as an improvised shop Moromenacho uses a cut wooden log as a stool to sit on His hands are caked with dirt from the fields and he s missing part of his index finger on his right hand Humberto Moromenacho 86 is one of just a few people still farming in the crater He says his family has been farming in the crater for 300 years Kirk Siegler NPR Through an interpreter he says that his family has farmed here for more than 300 years All of his relatives have left though In fact most of the remaining people who still live in the crater full time are elderly Even just ten years ago the population was 50 The last of the younger families moved away when the small school closed four years ago There also isn t a doctor or other basic services But aside from that most of the farms like Moromenacho s are pretty well self sustainable Moromenacho says his relatives who live nearby in San Antonio de Pichincha and the Quito area come back to help to pick his corn and tend to his beef cows Most of the organic crops grown here are sold at markets elsewhere the remaining is consumed locally Even after a short visit you can t help but get the sense that this way of life may be going away soon Moromenacho s relatives may sell his small piece of land when he dies if there s no one willing to keep farming it The same dilemma will probably apply to the other indigenous farmers here And a few of the crater s newer inhabitants aside from the owners of a small youth hostel have come from other countries more recently to set up horse ranches and more modern organic farms mostly for tourism Some of these spiffy new