追隨軟木橡樹足跡的西班牙生態(tài)游.

　　每年的6月到8月，西班牙的三處鄉(xiāng)郊都會(huì)改頭換面，現(xiàn)出一幅幅異世界般的風(fēng)景：軟木橡樹林中央處的樹木，被一棵棵剝掉了樹皮，化身為一身磚紅色的哨兵，頭頂著繁茂枝葉，守衛(wèi)著樹林。而在今年，游客們首次有了到當(dāng)?shù)赜H身感受軟木橡樹收割的機(jī)會(huì)。想要知道具體的情況，大家就來看一下這篇文章吧。

　　A new eco-tour allows travelers to watch the cork harvest and later follow donkeys carryingtowering loads to one of the traditional pueblos blancos, towns whose buildings are paintedstark white and which dot the countryside in Catalonia, Andalusia and Extremadura.

　　一項(xiàng)新推出的生態(tài)游，讓游客能夠觀賞軟木橡樹收割的現(xiàn)場，然后尾隨著驢子，看著它們將堆得高高的木材馱入具有傳統(tǒng)風(fēng)情的白色村莊(pueblos blanco)——這些村莊里的建筑，全都漆成了樸實(shí)無華的白色，星星點(diǎn)點(diǎn)地散布于加泰羅尼亞(Catalonia)、安達(dá)盧西亞(Andalusia)和埃斯特雷馬杜拉(Extremadura)的鄉(xiāng)郊之間。

　　The tour, From Bark to Bottle, leads participants on an 11-day trip through Spain’s cork trail todiscover the lives of the harvesters, the forest’s biodiversity and the cultural and gastronomicheritage of the area — in essence, the cork’s path from tree to wine. Cork is a renewableresource; every year farmers go to a different part of their land to harvest, only returning tothe same trees every nine years.

　　這趟觀光游名為“從樹皮到酒瓶”(From Bark to Bottle)，行程共計(jì)11天，帶領(lǐng)游客穿過西班牙的軟木橡樹小徑，探索收割者們的生活、森林環(huán)境的生物多樣性以及該地區(qū)一代代傳承下來的文化與美食——簡而言之，就是軟木橡樹從樹木到葡萄酒的變身之路。軟木橡樹是一種可再生資源：每年，農(nóng)夫們都會(huì)選擇當(dāng)?shù)氐牟煌瑓^(qū)域進(jìn)行收割，每隔八年才會(huì)回到同一片樹叢處再次收割。

　　The tour, the brainchild of the United States-based Cork Forest Conservation Alliance and theecotourism companies Two Birds-One Stone and Namaste Viajes, lets 40 wine-loving tourists ayear (10 on each of four tours) experience the cork harvest and its cultural, economic andsocial nuances.

　　這項(xiàng)觀光游由美國的軟木橡樹保護(hù)聯(lián)盟(Cork Forest Conservation Alliance)與兩家生態(tài)旅游公司一石二鳥(Two Birds-One Stone)、合掌旅游(Namaste Viajes)共同構(gòu)想出的，在一年里讓40名喜愛葡萄酒酒的游客(共計(jì)4趟旅程，每趟10人)感受軟木橡樹收割的過程及其在文化、經(jīng)濟(jì)和社會(huì)因素上的精妙之處。

　　“We want people to come home from the trip having fallen in love with the people of the corkforest,” said Patrick Spencer, executive director of the alliance.

　　“我們希望經(jīng)歷過這趟旅程的人，能夠愛上軟木橡樹林里的人民，”聯(lián)盟的執(zhí)行董事帕特里克·斯賓塞(PatrickSpencer)說。

　　The first leg of the $3,500 trip explores Extremadura’s harvest in the southwest of Spain.Farmers there, in the heart of the cork forest, remove bark from the same trees used by theirgreat-grandfathers. The intricate process takes only a few cuts bore the harvesters peel thebark away like a sharpening pencil.

　　這趟觀光行程收費(fèi)3500美元，第一站探索的是位于西班牙西南部的埃斯特雷馬杜拉的收割現(xiàn)場。當(dāng)?shù)氐霓r(nóng)夫在軟木橡樹林的中央處，從他們的祖父輩就用過的同一批軟木橡樹上，將樹皮一塊塊地取下。這項(xiàng)看似復(fù)雜的工作，只需要收割者先在樹皮上砍上幾刀，便可像削鉛筆一樣，輕松地將樹皮剝除。

　　In the expansive savannas there, visitors spend four days watching the harvest, eating lunchwith farmers and trying their hand at slicing jamón, the salty slab of cured pork that Spain isfamous for, on a farm where pigs are raised eating cork oak acorns. Nights are spent in either ahigh-end hotel tucked in to a rurbished medieval building or an agritourismo, a countryestate nestled among cork trees.

　　在廣袤無垠的稀樹草原上，游客將有四天的時(shí)間觀看收割現(xiàn)場，與農(nóng)夫們共進(jìn)午餐，還可以嘗試親手片切風(fēng)干火腿(jamón)——這是西班牙的特產(chǎn)，一種味道偏咸的厚塊腌豬肉，所用豬肉全部取自農(nóng)場里用軟木橡樹的橡子喂養(yǎng)的豬。夜間則要么下榻建在翻新后的中世紀(jì)建筑中的高端酒店，要么在置身于軟木橡樹間的鄉(xiāng)村住宅農(nóng)家樂(agritourismo)里度過。

　　Days 5 and 6 take travelers farther south to Andalusia, into Los Alcornocales National Park, thelargest national park in Spain housing cork forestry. The focus shifts to food, with visits toartisanal cheese, wine and olive oil producers. The evening can be spent attending groupdinners while watching burros carry loads of cork bark into town as the sun goes down. Twovans are available to participants, so early-risers have a chance to head back to the hotel,while others can enjoy a late evening out.

　　第五天和第六天里，游客們會(huì)被帶往安達(dá)盧西亞的更南處，深入軟木橡樹國家公園(Los AlcornocalesNational Park)，這是西班牙境內(nèi)軟木橡樹森林覆蓋面積最大的國家公園。行程的重點(diǎn)則會(huì)轉(zhuǎn)移到美食上，游客將被帶領(lǐng)著造訪當(dāng)?shù)氐氖止つ汤?、葡萄酒和橄欖油制造商。夜間則可在日落時(shí)分，將大家全部聚在一起，一邊觀看驢子馱著軟木橡樹皮進(jìn)鎮(zhèn)，一邊共進(jìn)晚餐。這里有兩輛貨車可以搭載游客，因此習(xí)慣早睡早起的人可以先行乘車返回酒店，其余人則可繼續(xù)逗留至深夜。

　　The trip ends in Catalonia, in the mossy and forested northeast, with a visit to a 405-acreprivately owned cork forest near the region’s rocky coastline, a sensory experience at theCork Institute, a cork factory excursion, a small-production cava-maker tour, and a chance toeat fish bought that same morning at a fish auction.

　　行程的終點(diǎn)設(shè)在加泰羅尼亞，位于遍布著青苔與綠森的東北地區(qū)，內(nèi)容包括游覽當(dāng)?shù)貛r岸附近的一片面積達(dá)405英畝的私人軟木橡樹森林，在與軟木橡樹同名的科克理工學(xué)院(Cork Institute)內(nèi)享受感官體驗(yàn)，到一間軟木橡樹加工廠遠(yuǎn)足，造訪一間小型西班牙卡瓦起泡酒(cava)酒廠，還有機(jī)會(huì)吃到當(dāng)天早上購自魚市拍賣的鮮魚。

　　Stops include tiny towns the typical tourist doesn’t see, like ninth-century Ronda, the historictrading center with cobblestone roads and ancient churches that is modern bullfighting’sbirthplace. Imagine a city divided by a deep canyon, traversed by an arched bridge reminiscentof a Roman aqueduct.

　　途中逗留的地點(diǎn)，包括一般游客不會(huì)留意的小鎮(zhèn)，譬如建于9世紀(jì)的龍達(dá)(Ronda)，這是西班牙歷史上的商業(yè)中心，鎮(zhèn)內(nèi)可見鵝卵石鋪就的大路以及年代久遠(yuǎn)的教堂，現(xiàn)代的斗牛運(yùn)動(dòng)就發(fā)源于此?？梢栽囍胂笠幌逻@樣的風(fēng)景：一座城市被一道深邃的峽谷隔成兩半，中間一座頗有羅馬時(shí)代水道橋風(fēng)味的拱橋橫跨兩地。

　　Cork bark is closely intertwined with the lives of the people in these regions.

　　軟木橡樹的樹皮與這些地方的百姓生活密切地交織在一起。

　　“When you go to a little village of 600 people, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a cobbler or yousell cheese or you run a laundromat or you pump gas,” Mr. Spencer said. “All of the moneythat’s coming into your village is coming from cork, so everyone is invested. There’s anintimacy between the people of the cork forest and their trees.”

　　“如果你去的是一座僅有600人的小村莊，不管你是補(bǔ)鞋匠，賣奶酪的，還是開自動(dòng)洗衣店的，甚至開采天然氣的，都無所謂，”斯賓塞說道?！八辛魅脒@座村莊的財(cái)富都來自軟木橡樹，因此每一個(gè)人都牽涉其中。居住在軟木橡樹林區(qū)的百姓與他們的樹木之間，存在著一種特別的親密關(guān)系。”