Mukumugi

On Sunday, after the end of the CAST meeting in Hualien, some of us went on a trip to one of the nearby valleys. Sixteen or eighteen got into two vans and started on the road that goes to the Mukumugi valley. There are several very touristical places near Hualien, because of their beauty or so it is said. One of them is the Taroko Gorge, which I have been is one of the must-see places on the island. The bad news is that it is full of tourists. On the other hand, nearby Mukumugi is not so crowded. In fact, one should apply for a permit, because it is a kind of a natural reserve and only around 600 people are allowed to go in every day. I guess that the LOC made the necessary arrangements, because we should have shown our papers at some point, but never were asked to.

We followed the river with the vans. The river twists between very steep mountains. Several hydroelectrical power stations were built during the japanese occupation, which used the water that falls down the hills' slopes.

The guide told us that there are seven or eight along the river. Not very big, but we saw several. The japanese also built the road, with heavy taiwanese loss of life, to control the mountainous inner regions.

The valley is very beautiful, the slopes are blanketed with a dense forest that covers everything.


The riverbed, which doesn't have much water because it's all used for the power stations, is full of large rocks. Many are made of marble that used to be extracted from here. It looks like now it is imported, because the extraction was forbidden —they would have probably finished with everything by now. In the road that leads to the valley, there are many fields littered with huge rocks, similar to megalithic monuments.



The day was rather cloudy and a shifting mist hid the mountain tops, giving an air of mystery and melancholy to the picture. It reminded me of old chinese drawings. I was surprised by the the forms of some trees. And listening to the concert of locust-like insects. I guess it's normal due to the heat and the place, but I identify that sound with the warm and sunny days of summer, with a completely blue sky and a burning Sun, not with fog and drizzle. Oh, I also saw many butterflies. Some are very large.


We walked a little bit on the way back, which was good to enjoy nature and leave behind the van's noise —and their driving style. We stopped in a shed to end the trip, where we bought some food and drinks. After that, back to Hualien.

There, after a good dinner, we nursed a coffe for about two hours before taking the train, while the students kept on asking me how a list of sentences were said in Spanish. They were also telling me how they were in Chinese, but I don't remember much of it. A different weekend indeed.