9 April 2013 Daporijo to Ziro

We started out with an immediate sighting of a Marsh Harrier along the road leaving town, then when we stopped to see the local market, our driver had to repair a flat tire, and when we finally got going, we were stopped by angry teenage males swinging heavy sticks at a roadblock.  We stayed in the car while our guide got out investigating to see if we could pass the roadblock. He found out that two teenage girls from the village had been killed the night before by a hit-and-run Tata Solo vehicle just like ours. After a few anxious minutes, a tribal leader appeared and told the boys that we were not  a taxi vehicle but a tourist vehicle, and to let us through, which they did. We saw a number of good birds, including an eagle eating a rodent on a tree,  several  kestrals, and some spectacular Yellow throated Barbets.

The road went up to a 6,000 foot pass, and then down a few hundred feet to Ziro, which is headquarters for the Apa Tani Tribe. The Apa Tani are well known for the women having large nose plugs and facial tattoos. Our guide is Apa Tani and explained that a couple of hundred years ago his tribe became enemies with the neighboring Gallo Tribe, and sought to distinguish themselves by having tattoos and the women tattoos and noseplugs. This has started to die out about 40 years ago but generally the women over 40 generally have them.

We did not have any reservation here, but managed to get into probably the best place in town, Pratigya Zero Valley Resort. The hotel has hot water showers and an electric space heater, both of which work reasonably well if the electricity is working, which seems to be one hour on, one hour off. It also has satellite TV, and we saw part of a movie “Tough Night in Little Tokyo”, before the electricity went off. We had to wash clothes as we have not been anywhere with washing facilities for a while, and this hotel said “Do them yourself” when we asked if they did laundry. The problem is that it is cold, damp and rainy, and we are worried if anything will dry, but we will have faith in the electric heater to work enough to do the job.