Savoring one part of the Amazon

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BO ST ON S UNDAY GL OBE JA NUA RY 3 0, 2011 | B OSTON.C OM/TRAVEL
CRUISING
N O R WAY
Elbow room
Shipping out in shoulder season leaves little behind in the way of
beauty, hospitality, variety, and interesting excursions
BY KARI BODNARCHUK | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
B
ERGEN — By 9:30 a.m., the sun had just
inched its way over the snowy mountains behind Ornes, a village of 1,500
people above the Arctic Circle. Golden
rays reflected off the morning’s dewy air
and lighted a nearby island with the
accuracy of perfectly choreographed
stage lights. As if on cue, several rainbows appeared to the left of the island
and completed the idyllic scene.
‘‘This is what I’ve been waiting for,’’ an Australian passenger said to me, as we stood on the sun deck of a Hurtigruten cruise ship.
The views up to that point hadn’t been shabby, but the
scenery and weather grew more dramatic the farther north
we traveled.
My husband and I had always wanted to see the Norwegian coast, so along with our daughter we joined 91 other
intrepid travelers aboard the MS Kong Harald last October for
a shoulder-season adventure (the ship fills all 483 beds come
summertime). The seven-day cruise would take us from the
mild and manicured city of Bergen in the southwest to the
rugged outer reaches of the country’s Arctic region, where
reindeer graze on patchy scrub, and autumn skies filter and
diffuse the daylight.
Most of the big cruise lines run trips along Norway’s west
coast from May to September, stopping at main ports such as
Ålesund, Trondheim, and Tromso. But Hurtigruten’s 11 working ships run year-round, as they have since 1893, transporting cargo, residents wanting to avoid long drives or experience the voyage, and sightseers like us.
‘‘Everyone in Norway will go on
NORWAY, Page M5
INSIDE
Save on your Alaska
cruise, but spend on
those excursions. M5
PHOTOS BY KARI BODNARCHUK FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
Morning dawns at a remote island near Ornes; the River
Nidelva wharf in Trondheim; a Sami trading post.
Savoring one part of the Amazon
By Tracey Ceurvels
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
See Utah prehistory
from a kayak on Lake
Powell, left. M6
PERU
EXPLORE
NEW ENGLAND
CATHRYN M. DELUDE FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
Grab a zip line and
get a rush in Bretton
Woods, N.H. M7
IQUITOS — I am sipping a pisco
sour, a popular Peruvian cocktail
made from a native grape brandy,
and nibbling on plantain chips and shrimp
with sauce made of
cocona, a local fruit.
While I have come to see monkeys, blue Morpho butterflies, pink
dolphins, and the lush, mysterious
rain forest, it was the chance to taste
Peruvian food in a luxurious setting
that lured me here. I am on an intimate cruise (only 24 guests per trip,
maximum) along the Peruvian part
of the Amazon. The popular chef
Pedro-Miguel Schiaffino is leading
AQUA EXPEDITIONS
Plying the Amazon, the Aqua transports 24 guests in its 12 rooms.
PERU, Page M6
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O S T O N
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U N D A Y
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L O B E
JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 1 1
On a houseboat in Utah’s grand canyons
From Lake Powell
to Jurassic history
By Cathryn M. Delude
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
With two free plane tickets after being bumped from a flight, I
thought about San Francisco,
Santa Fe, or New Orleans. My
husband suggested taking a
houseboat on Utah’s Lake Powell
to explore the side canyons of the
Colorado River.
I knew about the serpentine
slot canyons lacing the Colorado
River system from Edward Abbey’s ‘‘Desert Solitaire: A Season
in the Wilderness,’’ in which he
laments the flooding of the lost
jewel of the West, the gorgeous
Glen Canyon, all to create a reservoir for the surrounding arid
states. Since 1963, the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona has backed
up the river 186 miles into countless gorges, valleys, and tributaries to create Lake Powell, itself a
thing of beauty.
My husband’s idea was to take
the houseboat from the lake up
the remote Escalante River and
then kayak deeper into the canyons. Then we could hike farther
up the winding gulches through
steep, arching red sandstone
cliffs into places only the most
rugged individuals can reach
from the high plateau above after
backpacking across barren
deserts and down sheer cliffs.
So I said yes, and we flew into
Salt Lake City and drove south
through Capitol Reef National
Park to the Glen Canyon National
Recreation Area. As we approached, we could see the vivid
blue of Lake Powell offset by terra cotta islands — erstwhile
peaks and mesas of Navajo sandstone — and looming cliffs of the
same saturated color. An array of
white dots marked the houseboats docked at Bullfrog Bay, one
of the lake’s five marinas, 97
miles upstream from the dam.
Because the marina is so remote,
we arrived the afternoon before
and spent the night at the Defiance House Lodge, the only lodging for over a hundred miles other than campgrounds. There are
also no grocery stores, so we had
bought food way back in Torrey,
west of Capitol Reef, and kept the
fresh vegetables and frozen meat
in a cooler.
At the lodge, we learned that
because of recent dry years, the
lake was 70 feet below the highwater mark. That meant we
might be able to see certain waterfalls, Indian cliff dwellings,
and petroglyphs that we might
otherwise float past.
To our dismay, we discovered
that the 46-foot Expedition
houseboat we had rented for four
days and three nights had only a
single engine and would take us
nine hours to reach the Escalante. So we upgraded to a faster
two-engine boat.
The boat was essentially a
PHOTOS BY CATHRYN M. DELUDE FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
Cottonwood trees in Davis Gulch, on the Escalante River; and the author’s houseboat, below, anchored in Clear Creek Canyon.
two-bedroom house trailer on
pontoons, equipped with linens,
dishes for 12, a CD player, gas
grill on the front deck, deck
chairs — and of course, a water
slide from the upper deck. The
kitchen had ample counter
space, pots and pans, a microwave, coffeemaker, full-sized refrigerator and freezer, gas range
and oven. The bathroom had a
shower with hot water and a
flush toilet. Both kitchen and
bath had two faucets, one with
potable water for drinking and
cooking, the other with lake water for washing. We also rented
two kayaks. (Some people tow
speedboats.)
A marina employee showed
us how to use the twin engines,
propane generator, and navigation system. Then he guided the
houseboat into open water and
jumped into a waiting skiff. We
headed out on our own.
The boat, so large at the dock,
was soon dwarfed by the sheer
cliffs, which rose hundreds of
feet above the creamy band of the
high-water mark. Yet the sonar
told us that the water was hundreds of feet deep. We strained to
imagine how the cliffs must have
soared from the river bottom before the dam was built. After four
hours of following the twisting
lake channel for 29 miles, we entered the Escalante, a tributary of
the Colorado. A few miles later
we turned into scalloped walls of
Clear Creek Canyon, which terminates in a slot canyon called
Cathedral in the Desert. Then
If you go . . .
How to get there
Bullfrog Marina is in the Glen
Canyon National Recreation Area,
296 miles south of Salt Lake City
and 91 miles southeast of Capitol Reef National Park. Vehicle
entrance fee to the area is $15
for one week.
Bullfrog Marina
Open year round but other amenities, including the lodge and
restaurant, close from late fall to
early spring.
435-684-3000
www.lakepowell.com/rv-andcamping/hite-marina.aspx
Boat reservations
Prices vary with size, season,
length of stay; from a one-bedroom 36-foot open-air boat to a
75-footer with four staterooms
and two queen-size lower berths.
800-528-6154
(Aramark Reservations)
www.lakepowell.com/stay/
houseboating/houseboats.aspx
888-454-8825
houseboating.org/powell/over
view.cfm
Where to stay and eat
All reservations through Aramark
came the hardest part of the trip.
To park the houseboat, you
are supposed to beach it on a
sandy shore, drag two anchors
or Houseboating.org
Defiance House Lodge, Family
Units, Campground and RV Park.
Defiance House is the only hotel
in the entire northern part of
Lake Powell. Clean, comfortable
rooms, many with lake view,
$136-$173 for standard.
www.lakepowell.com/accommo
dations.aspx
Anasazi Restaurant
(at Defiance House Lodge)
The only restaurant in the area, it
serves decent food and has
stunning views of Lake Powell.
Closed late fall through early
spring. Dinner $9-$34.
www.lakepowell.com/dining/
bullfrog-dining.aspx
Onboard: Bring your own food,
or order from Meals on Board.
www.lakepowellmeals.com/
store/
out at 60-degree angles, and bury
them in the sand. Because the
shoreline changes with rainfall
and drought, no one could tell us
exactly where such beaches
would be. In fact, we could not
find any up Clear Creek Canyon,
only a rockslide just before the
channel got too narrow for the
houseboat. We looked up at the
cliff, knowing that recently a
houseboat was squashed when
an overhanging ledge crashed
down. Out of options, we
dragged the heavy anchors out
and wrapped their ropes around
some big rocks.
After enjoying a well-earned
local beer called Polygamy Ale
(whose motto is ‘‘Why have just
one?’’) on the upper deck, we
fired up the grill for our chicken
marinara, fixed a salad and pasta, and ate dinner by candlelight.
Then we settled in for our first
night in the hushed canyons.
The next morning the cliffs
still hid the sun as we climbed
from the houseboat into our kayaks and rounded the bend leading through the vaulting cliffs of
the Cathedral in the Desert. The
sky was a wavering sliver above
us as we floated among the salmon-colored alcoves streaked by
centuries of chocolate and rust
desert varnish. We had hoped to
see a certain waterfall that is
lighted by shafts of sunlight shining through the cliffs for just a
brief midday hour. After decades
under the waters of Lake Powell,
it had reemerged in 2005 during
a prolonged drought, but by now
the water had risen again almost
to the top the falls.
Later that day we took the
boat another three miles up the
Escalante to Davis Gulch. At one
abrupt hairpin, we almost ran into the opposite canyon wall. The
light shining on one cliff reflected
off the opposite side, which
glowed as if from the ancient sun
that had once shined on the sand
composing that rock. Geologists
say these cliffs started as windblown sands some 150 million
years ago in the Jurassic period.
Deposits from a shallow sea cemented the sand into stone,
laced with iron, manganese, and
other minerals that have oxidized
into the reds and oranges that
now radiate from the cliffs.
Just when the sinuous passage became too narrow for comfort, we found a sandy beach
where we anchored and then
kayaked farther up the canyon.
At a trickle running over a ledge,
previously a waterfall, we tied up
our kayaks and walked upstream.
Hanging gardens of tiny ferns
marked the spring line where the
water seeping slowly through the
porous Navajo sandstone meets
the impermeable underlying
Kayenta standstone and seeks
outlet, sometimes as a waterfall.
We scrambled up to a high alcove
looking for a pit house built by
the Fremont Indians who lived
here from around 500 to 1300
AD. We did not find one but saw
petroglyphs of mountain goats
and other creatures. Nearby, improbably delicate lavender trumpet flowers grew among the
scrubby olive sage and yellow
rabbit bush.
When we returned to the
houseboat, we built a fire in a
sandy alcove. Later, we lay on
cushions on the upper deck and
gazed at the dazzling Milky Way.
The next morning we motored Fiftymile Canyon during
the photographer ’s ‘‘golden
hour’’ when sunlight imparts an
inspiring glow to the world. We
parked at another wide sandy
beach and then paddled the kayaks through treetops, reeds, and
floating logs.
When we came to a waterfall,
we left the kayaks, climbed to the
top and waded on through another slot in water reaching our
thighs. Later, we reached a wash
that led to a trail up to the canyon
rim and then west to Hole in the
Rock Road. Eventually we turned
back for another evening by firelight under the stars before returning the boat to the marina
the next afternoon.
We knew that if we ever returned to these canyons, we
would find them changed. An alcove we explored yesterday may
be flooded in tomorrow’s wetter
season, or stranded high above in
a future drought. But why repeat? There are thousands of alcoves and even, perhaps, still uncharted side canyons to explore.
Cathryn M. Delude can be
reached at cathryn.delude@
gmail.com.
Floating and trekking, tasting and seeing Amazon life
º PERU
Continued from Page M1
not only the kitchen of Aqua Expedition, but also his country’s
rising culinary scene.
This is the beginning of highwater season in the Amazon rain
forest. The rivers, streams, and
lakes here will soon be about 23
feet higher than usual.
RIVER BOUNTY
Find Peruvian adventures
along the Amazon at
www.boston.com/travel.
On a skiff with fellow passengers — we venture out twice a day
— I see how residents prepare for
the time when the Amazon will
nearly reach their homes, which
are built on stilts. The water will
stay high for more than 90 days,
so this is the time to gather fish
for future meals. Once the water
rises, the fish disperse. Along the
banks, people camp out and we
stop to say hello. Two brothers
patiently string together their
net, which has been torn by the
sharp teeth of small-nosed piranhas. Their catch sits in a basin,
preserved with salt. We fish, too,
for piranhas — not to eat, but to
see them up close.
Plantain and banana trees are
abundant along the Amazon and
a group of monkeys seem to be
eyeing a pile of bananas a man
has collected. Squirrel monkeys
jump from tree to tree, but they
won’t approach the bananas
while humans are nearby. A pot
of bananas boils over a makeshift
fire so the fishermen can eat
them soft and warm.
The boat passes fields where
rice and watermelon are harvested, two staples of the Peruvian
diet. Potatoes aren’t grown in
this part of Peru but yucca is. The
starchy root vegetable appears
often as a side dish. One night, it
is used in a dessert: fried yucca
beignets filled with chocolate and
aguaje (a fruit from the palm
tree) ice cream. Another local
delicacy, star fruit, is the main ingredient in a chutney served
alongside a brochette of beef or
chicken, and it is served again in
a salad dressing and as juice at
breakfast. Camu camu, which
comes from a riverside tree, and
cocona, an edible berry from a
hardy plant, are used in drinks,
sauces, and many dishes.
Another morning we search
for wildlife from our skiff. The
dolphins we see popping out
from the dark water turn pink
when they’re excited, ‘‘like blushing,’’ our naturalist guide tells us.
The water here is almost black
from vegetation and rainfall. And
some parts of the river are full of
what’s known as water lettuce,
which the manatees love to eat.
This vegetation makes the water
look like a field, but the driver of
our boat navigates through the
greenery easily. We spot blackcollared hawks, a white-headed
toucan, yellow-headed cara cara,
tropical kingbirds, macaws, a
sole egret, orioles, and vultures.
In the early afternoon we enjoy an Amazonian lunch on-
If you go . . .
AQUA EXPEDITIONS
Among almost 1,800 species of bird in Peru, the toucan is well known. From the kitchen of Aqua
Expedition, shrimp with avocado sauce topped with slices of heart of palm.
board: fresh hearts of palm salad,
shaved into a tangle of fettuccinelike strips and dressed in yellow
cocona vinaigrette. Cocona tastes
like a cross between a lemon and
tomato, fitting for a salad dressing. Large local river snails are
filled with sweet pepper salsa. A
piece of chicken is surrounded by
rice and stuffed with a hardboiled egg and an olive, then
wrapped in leaves for a unique
rendition of a tamale. For dessert
there is a choice of two tarts: camu camu custard or the denser
huito, the fruit of a medicinal
plant, served with guava sauce.
We pass by villages named
January 20th, for when it was
founded, and Buenos Aires.
Women wash clothes in the dark
water while children bathe along
the banks, stopping to wave hel-
lo. Along the way we pick up a
boy named Pedro, who comes
with his machete, because today
we’ll venture into the Amazon by
foot and the long knife might
come in handy. The jungle seems
to be a million shades of green as
we walk along a path looking at
the vast bounty. Ricardo, our
guide, rubs termites on his hands
and the smell is like turpentine.
Pedro stabs the large base of an
ancient tree and a white milky
substance pours down the bark.
‘‘This is for lung problems,’’ Ricardo says. ‘‘If you have bronchitis, you can drink this to feel better.’’ But then Pedro notices the
ants, letting one crawl onto the
sword so we have a close-up view.
To an outsider they look like any
other ant, but these, if they bite
your skin, will cause pain for over
24 hours and can even paralyze.
Dinner that night consists of
short ribs stewed in South American red wine. Between the main
course and dessert there is a palate-cleansing sorbet made with
local fruit. Elegant profiteroles
are filled with eggfruit ice cream.
On another evening we have
hearts of palm soup with avocado
puree, cold and refreshing, followed by baked catfish with sauteed vegetables.
Our three naturalist guides,
Juan, Ricardo, and Victor, grew
up in small villages along the
Amazon and possess what seems
an innate knowledge of their
backyard. One day Juan points
out an amazing double rainbow.
Eagle-eyed Victor spots a threetoed sloth in a tree and I see it
through binoculars. ‘‘They laze
Aqua Expeditions offers
three-, four-, and sevennight cruises on the Amazon.
Travel from Lima to Iquitos is
required (about a 90-minute
flight). There are two excursions daily on a skiff with
a naturalist guide. Prices
range from $2,400-$5,950
per person double occupancy
and include all meals while
onboard, all excursions, all
beverages, transfers to/from
vessel, Pacaya Samiria entrance fee.
www.aquaexpeditions.com
866-603-3687
around 80 percent of the day,’’
Juan tells us. We leave the sloth
tree-bound, since it could be
hours before he moves again and
there’s so much else to see, such
as the caiman, whose red eyes become noticeable at night.
As dusk begins to reveal its
dark blue hues, a colony of bats
zips by the skiff in a zigzag pattern. Soon our three skiffs are
floating side by side. The guides
hand out mimosas, and with the
sun making its final descent, we
snack on nuts called monkey
brains and toast our adventures
on the Amazon.
Tracey Ceurvels can be reached at
tracey@thebusyhedonist.com.