KAMCHATKA LAND OF MYSTERY AND MISTS - Page 8

The itinerary fell apart in Esso. The only day that even began to follow it was Saturday, when First Fish Day was celebrated. Rather than try to give a detailed account of each day's activities in Esso, I'll mention those things I enjoyed most and remember best.

It was the 1st evening we were in Esso that Noorgenek, a troop of children learning local, aboriginal dances, together with the ladies instructing them, came to the guest house to perform for us. As with the Itelmen near Petropavlovsk, the costumes, dances and accompanying instruments reminded us of those of the northern American Indians. The children were good and most looked as if they were enjoying themselves.

An advertised highlight of our time in Esso was a helicopter flight to visit semi-nomadic reindeer herdsmen and learn a bit about their thousands of years old lifestyle. They were somewhat shy about their 1st visit from a tour group and apparently not eager to see us. They wandered off without telling anyone where they would be. We already had the helicopter reserved for most of the day, so we packed the makings for a picnic lunch and flew off for some spectacular volcano viewing and visiting near Klyucevaskya Sopka. This helecopter was older than the one we used earlier. {Pic. 23 & 24}It still had a row of hard seats along each side of the passenger compartment. And when the machanic inspected and tinkered with the engines at one stop, I wondered if I should worry because he thought that necessary or not worry because he was taking such good care of the engines!

We made 2 stops near the tops of young, but [we prayed] dormant, volcanoes. Both were cinder cones, built up mostly of ash and cinders. At some point, they had thrown out "bombs" - rocks of various sizes up to 5-6 feet in diameter.{Pic. #25} Victor had hoped, but hadn't really expected, to find a few plants other than the very simplest. He would have happy to find mosses and delighted with anything more complex. He was amazed and nearly ecstatic to discover that the 2 volcanoes had everything from algae and fungus through herbaceous flowering plants and a tree [arctic willow - an inch tall, except where the upright catkins added another inch] to grasses [at 4-18 inches, by far the tallest plants]. Most of the flowering plants were tiny [Few were even 3 inches tall: most were well under 2 inches.] with colorful blossoms and looked extremely delicate and fragile although they had to be very sturdy to survive in their harsh environment. {Pic. #26}In addition, we saw bees, ants, spiders, butterflies and evidence ofsmall rodents. The 2nd volcano was younger and somewhat higher than the 1st. It had a wide variety of plants, although not as many as the 1st and they grew farther apart.