Legends And Myths In The World’s Highest Forest

“Ladies, be careful,” warns Juan, our guide for Cajas National Park in Ecuador. “This forest is known to have evil elves.”

We are currently in the Quinoa Forest, which we are told, at 13,124 feet high, is the highest forest in the world. Because I’m from New York and don’t believe in elves, the warning does not scare me. However, there are various legends revolving around the forest that stem from Incan beliefs.

For one, elves, or chuzalungu in Cachua, the native Inca language, live in the forest and kidnap women and children. In my opinion, this may have stemmed from the highlanders being short, and if anything bad happened to a woman or child, the wrongdoer may have been mistaken as being an elf.

It’s not surprising so many mystical legends exist here. Walking through the Quinoa Forest, you’ll feel like you’re hiking through some kind of bizarre fairy tale, as you climb over twisted trees and tangled roots. In reality, the jungle gym-like terrain is due to the three feet of soil.Another legend is the Quinoa Forest is home to talking animals. This also stems from the Incas, probably because at that time they didn’t understand the talking macaw. To the Incas, a talking bird would have been preposterous. However, it created a belief that the forest was full of animals that could speak their language.

Finally, there is the legend – or possibly fact – that spirits roam the forest. The reason I say “possibly fact” is that many people have actually died here, from altitude sickness, getting lost, starving or freezing. According to Juan, 20 tourists have died since the boundaries of the park were created in 1979. Furthermore, many locals, including a 10-year-old boy whose skull was later found in a nearby lake, have lost their lives among the dark shadows of the Quinoa Forest trees.

For those who want to learn more about the Quinoa Forest and its many myths and legends, there is currently an Ecuadorian movie being made at the location. I’m not sure of all the details, but the premise has to do with a tourist getting lost in the woods and running into elves, spirits and other mythical characters.

Sexy goddess bares all in Boston


The ancient goddess of love, sex, and beauty is making an appearance at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Aphrodite and the Gods of Love is a new exhibition examining one of the most popular ancient goddesses and her place in the Classical world. More than 150 ancient works of art are on display, including famous pieces such as the Knidia, a life-size sculpture of Aphrodite made by the 4th-century BC Greek artist, Praxiteles. Another interesting piece is the Sleeping Hermaphrodite, a reclining figure who from one side looks like a voluptuous woman, and from the other like a man.

The exhibition traces Aphrodite’s sexy origins in the Near East and the place of her cult in Greek and Roman society. Aphrodite was a Greek goddess who was adopted into the Roman pantheon as Venus. She was the symbol of romantic love and ideal beauty. She also oversaw marriage, an odd choice since many of the myths surrounding her involve her cheating on her husband, the blacksmith god Hephaistos (Vulcan). Men worshiped her because she aroused male virility.

Being in charge of such important aspects of life made Aphrodite extremely popular. She was the patron goddess of Pompeii. Interestingly, Ramsay MacMullen in his Paganism in the Roman Empire points out that altars in private homes in Pompeii were more often dedicated to Foruna, Vesta, and Bacchus than Aphrodite. Perhaps because love received so much public worship, people felt they needed to give good luck, the home, and drinking some attention. They can be related, after all!

McMullen’s book (which I highly recommend) also touches on various ways the Romans worshipped Venus, including picnicking in the orchards around her sanctuary in Cnidus, and wild processions where a woman playing Venus led a string of dancing children playing Cupid. She and the other deities were very much part of daily life.

The exhibition also looks at related figures of Classical mythology, such as Aphrodite’s sons Eros (Cupid), the well-endowed Priapus, and Hermaphrodite.

If you want to meet this lovely lady and her interesting offspring, you better hurry. Aphrodite and the Gods of Love is only on until February 20, 2012.

Top photo: Fresco of The Judgment of Paris, Roman, Imperial Period, 45–79 A.D. Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. © www.pedicinimages.com. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Harla: Ethiopia’s lost civilization


Eastern Ethiopia’s history is shrouded in mystery. Most archaeologists investigate early hominids like Lucy, the famous Australopithecus afarensis, or study the great civilizations of the north like Gondar and Axum. The east, though, is virtually unknown, and only enigmatic ruins and strange legends remain.

Scattered around eastern Ethiopia all the way to Somaliland and the Red Sea are the ruins of towns with large stone buildings unlike anything made by the modern Oromo and Somali peoples. These are the remnants of the little-known Harla civilization. Wanting to learn more, I contacted archaeologist, author, and Harar tour guide Muhammed Jami Guleid (guleidhr @yahoo.com). “Dake”, as everybody here calls him, helped me travel to Somaliland last year and is an invaluable resource for local culture and history. He knows everybody and he’s excavated Harla graves in Ethiopia’s Somali region and in Somaliland.

They were a race of giants, people say, and immensely strong. They’d perform amazing feats of strength like playing with balls made from the entire hide of a goat. A schoolkid we gave a lift to told us the Harla were three meters tall! This rumor probably came about because of their unusual graves. They’re long and thin, sometimes three or four meters long, although the skeletons in them aren’t unusually tall. The graves are usually covered with a layer of ash (probably from burnt offerings), the skeleton of a sacrificed cow, and below that a stone slab sealing the tomb.

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Harla skeletons are often buried with pots resting above their head. Inside the pots are black sand (why? nobody knows), necklaces of gemstones, and silver coins that are slightly smaller than a dime. There seems to be writing or designs on the coins but they’re old and poorly minted, and if they ever once said anything, they’re unreadable now. The necklaces are usually agate, but also ruby and amber. The style of the pots, coins, and jewelry are the same both in the mountains around Harar and in the Somali lowlands all the way to the Red Sea. This has convinced Muhammed Dake that the sites all belong to the same culture.

Legends say the center of this civilization was around Harar, which makes sense since it has the best land in the region. The kings of Harla were wizards who boasted about their powers. One said he’d make a river of milk between two mountains; another bragged he could make a sorghum plant that could be laid down and be used as a highway all the way to the Awash River, 150 miles away. Allah got angry at all this and destroyed them. A few Harla survived and fled to Kush in the Sudan, the site of another great civilization.

The Hararis are believed to be descended from the Harla. The closest Harla site to Harar is at the Oromo village of Harla, from which the civilization gets its name. We have no idea what the Harla called themselves. When Allah destroyed the civilization and the survivors fled to Kush, one woman stayed behind to found the modern town of Harla. With a population of about 2800, it’s a half-hour drive from Harar on a winding mountain road that offers sweeping views of the lowlands to the north.

When we arrived at the modern Harla I saw the Oromo there looked and dressed a bit different than other Oromo I’d met. The women didn’t wear the usual Western-style striped shirt that’s almost a uniform for Oromo women in this region. Was this a remnant of their different origins? It’s hard to say, but the modern residents of Harla say they’re of different origins than the rest of the Oromo. Over the years they’ve taken on Oromo customs and the Oromo language, but still consider themselves a distinct people.

Like everywhere else, Muhammed Dake seems to know everyone in Harla. Some of the villagers showed us the ruins. There are thick walls of stone cemented together with a type of plaster that’s still strong after centuries of weathering. Some remain standing above the height of a man, and one field is filled with a network of walls, showing the ancient town was a cluster of closely built structures. In one spot, a tree has grown up through a wall. Plants may be slow, but are almost unstoppable. This tree cracked through the tough Harla plaster and grew around the ancient stones, lifting them into the air as the tree grew. Now the building looks like it’s frozen in the middle of an explosion, its stones suspended several feet above the ground. The local kids love to climb this tree, using the Harla stones embedded in the wood as footholds.

Muhammed Dake believes the Harla people were pagan, judging from how they built their graves. They don’t look either Muslim or Christian. But the Harla village presents another mystery. At one ruin that looks constructed in the Harla style, a villager pulls away some bushes along one wall to reveal a niche. To confirm my suspicions he raises his hands and says “Allahu akbar” (God is Great). It’s a miqrab, the niche in a mosque that points the way to Mecca. And it does point the right direction. Is this mosque from the Harla times? If so, the Harla were the first Muslims in the region, predating the Harari people who can trace their roots back to the tenth century.

Or perhaps it’s a later ruin. So little is known about the Harla, and so little archaeological research has been done here, that for the time being all we have are legends of a race of giants who once ruled the land.

Don’t miss the rest of my series: Harar, Ethiopia: two months in Africa’s City of Saints

Coming up next: Exploring Ethiopia’s Somali region!

The top 5 myths about getting upgraded

Business class. The promised land in the front of the aircraft with wider seats, free drinks, meals and checked bags. Who wouldn’t want to take the opportunity for a free upgrade once in a while?

Yes, it is possible to purchase a coach ticket, work the system and get upgraded to the front of the airplane. Is it easy? No. Is there an inexpensive shortcut? Not really. Contrary to many empowering articles out there, upgrades are a tightly controlled, regimented benefit that are doled out to only a few deserving passengers.

Many of the oft repeated tricks to sneaking up front have expired with new technology, prolific resources on the web and plain old common sense. So we’ve compiled the top five myths about getting upgraded to save you time and embarrassment at the airport. Read on for the details.1. Dress to impress: We’re well past the days when passengers dressed up for the pleasure of flying on an airplane. Any ticket agent, gate agent or flight attendant knows that people from all walks of life fly in business class. There are days when the Fortune 500 CEO wears a hooded sweatshirt and buys a first class ticket and days when the neighborhood plumber has enough miles to upgrade. Either way, if you dress nice thinking that you’ll be selected for an upgrade, you’re probably just going to be uncomfortable in coach.

2. See an empty seat? Grab it. Flight attendants have manifests that show which passenger is sitting in which seat and whether or not they got upgraded (haven’t you ever seen Executive Decision?). So if you happen to find a seat up front that hasn’t been taken and are able to slip in, they’re going to notice during the preflight checks and you’re going to get the boot.

3. Ask the flight attendant for an upgrade. Flight attendants have no control over who gets upgraded when – there always might be one last business class passenger coming down the jet bridge right before departure, so they can’t give away a seat. After the boarding door is closed? Maybe if you’re discreet, but with everyone watching, the flight attendant will most definitely say no.

4. Ask the ticket agent to put a special code on your e-ticket. This just doesn’t happen. Any request for upgrades are managed by a different system that’s independent of your reservation. If they add anything to your ticket or boarding pass it’s going to be SSSS.

5. Be charming and polite. While airline employees will surely appreciate your kind behavior, any deviation from the set upgrade process shows favoritism and is something that the agent could get nailed for. Shouldn’t you always be charming and polite anyway?

It’s important to remember that behind paid upgrades, the entire engine behind getting moved up front is fueled by elite status, the preferential treatment that one earns after flying a certain high volume of miles — usually over 25k. If you’re close or you think that you’ll get close to that limit this year, you should check out Gadling’s Guide to Mileage Running.

So the fact of the matter is, 90% of upgrades are managed by a computer system that automatically upgrades those who pay for an upgrade and elite passengers that worked hard to earn them. The other 9.5% of upgrades are handled by gate agents at the airport who sweep up any elites or paid upgrades that fell through the cracks. That remaining 0.5%? That’s your window of opportunity. Better think of a creative approach.

China releases Olympic visitor “do and don’t” list

Visitors planning a trip to the Beijing Olympics have had a lot of information to absorb in recent weeks. Between the tragedy of the Sichuan earthquake, the ongoing controversy surrounding the Olympic torch and somewhat inevitable construction blunders, there’s been no shortage of China-related news. And if you weren’t already on China Olympics information overload, the Beijing Organizing Committee saw fit on Monday to release a list of 57 “Do’s and Don’ts” for foreign Olympic visitors.

The rules run the range from the fairly obvious (best take your Opium smuggling elsewhere) to the practical (how to file a complaint to the health department if you get food poisoning) to the more draconian (no materials detrimental to China’s politics, economy, culture and moral standards). While I can understand the need for visitors to be conscious of local cultural customs, this list oversteps its bounds. Aside from the fact it reminds everyone of all the ongoing controversy, it does nothing but serve to frighten your potential visitors. What kind of host would do that?

Headed to Beijing for the games? Don’t let travel bogeymen like “Do’s and Don’ts” lists or potential controversy scare you away. Like any unknown travel situation, the rumors often overshadow the true story on the ground. By the time that opening ceremony kicks off you’ll remember why you showed up in the first place.