Sepia Saturday 270: Getting by with Smaller Brains

Our Sepia Saturday theme image this week comes from the collection of the Preus Museum which is the National Museum of Photography in Norway. It is a photograph by Elisabeth Meyer entitled "Stewardess Hugging A Puppy" and forms part of the Preus Museum stream on Flickr Commons (you will recall that we are working the way through some of the Flickr Commons participating archives at the moment).  It appears that the photograph was taken in Alaska and it dates from sometime in the 1950s. All sort of themes come to mind - dogs, cute animals, air crew, hugs: as usual it is up to you to interpret the theme in any way you want to. Simply post a post on or around Saturday 14th March 2015 and add a link to the list below.

I searched the old family pictures and have little that fits the bill as closely as this over-used shot of myself (with Barbara Streisand hair-do) plus koala bear in Sydney, circa 1984. The koala has a similar expression on his face to the puppy in the prompt photo -half asleep. He is almost in the correct position, in my arms, although not quite cheek-to-cheek. Would a cheek-to-cheek hug be a good idea with a koala? I think not, having read about their sharp teeth and sharp claws. 

Koalas have smaller brains than other marsupials and some experts opine that its brain-to-body ratio over time (evolutionary time) has followed a deteriorating path due to poor diet which consists of eucalyptus, eucalyptus and more eucalyptus. Some refer to its brain, kindly, as "svelte" and energy conserving. Our brains are getting "svelte" too. 

A caution to everybody
by Ogden Nash

Consider the auk; 

Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk. 

Consider man, who may well become extinct 

Because he forgot how to walk and learned how to fly before he thinked. 

You might not consider this one of Ogden's best, but you have to give him huge credit for the two principal rhymes: auk and walk;

extinct and thinked. And he couldn't google "rhyming words" and get every conceivable combination in less than a minute. He had to use his nicely sized brain for everything - even the scut work of finding the rhymes. 

There is evidence that our brains are starting to shrink along with our size. Are we going to exacerbate the shrinkage by using technology? Here's an excerpt from a Scientific American interview with Christopher Bryce, a paleoanthropologist and research leader on human origins at the Natural History Museum in London:

"Another likely reason for this decline is that brains are energetically expensive and will not be maintained at larger sizes unless it is necessary. The fact that we increasingly store and process information externally—in books, computers and online—means that many of us can probably get by with smaller brains. Some anthropologists have also proposed that larger brains may be less efficient at certain tasks, such as rapid computation, because of longer connection pathways.

The way we live may have affected brain size. For instance, domesticated animals have smaller brains than their wild counterparts probably because they do not require the extra brainpower that could help them evade predators or hunt for food. Similarly, humans have become more domesticated. But as long as we keep our brains fit for our particular lifestyles, there should be no reason to fear for the collective intelligence of our species.

You can read the whole interview Here.

And finally a couple of brainy and cute animals. 

Cashew, presently 11 months old, in a favorite spot - the sink.

The long departed Lulu and Squeaky, half asleep in a planter.

Read more stewardess/pet/cuteness stories at Sepia Saturday.

World of Watercolor show at Fallbrook Art Center

Nancy and Barbara let me tag along with them to the World of Watercolor show at the Fallbrook Art Center. I know nothing of watercolors but thoroughly enjoyed learning from them. I now am sure of what a "plein air" painting is. I thought it was a particular school of California painting but I learned it means that the painting was painted to completion, out of doors. 

We all liked the "Best of Show" winner, "A Man in Full" by Charles Rouse. The way the colors are deconstructed when you look close-up resembles the old paint-by-numbers paintings that were so popular decades ago. 

I almost voted for this painting for people's choice. It didn't seem like a watercolor to me or what I thought was a typical watercolor until seeing all of these. This painting is hanging on a back wall in the gallery and jumps out of the wall at you. 

'Illusion', by Denny Bond

Nor did this look like the watercolors I've seen before. 

'Double Take' by Ken Goodman

No Push Zone II by Don Taylor

No Push Zone was painted on yupo....Barbara explained about the slippery surface of the paper and the kind of effects you can get with the watercolor sliding around on the surface. I looked up this youtube demonstration that I enjoyed watching, now that I have a clue. Watercolor on yupo demonstration

This LINKwill take you the Art Center website where the show catalogue can be found.

 The painting I chose for the People's Choice award is "Starry Night Flight" a watercolor by Sandy Meyer. I loved the whimsy and the use of watercolor for such an off-beat subject. 

Out of curiosity, I looked online for watercolor cartoons and was surprised by this site - apparently watercolor is frequently used by cartoonist. 
Great watercolor cartoons and illustrations

Here's a few samples. 

Batman, dussoor 005

Taguiar

Superman by Kamgates

Smithsonian Photo Contest - 2015

We're finally going to buy new phones and keep changing our minds about what kind and which model. When I saw this photo in the Smithsonian Photo Contest 2015 and read that it was taken with an iPhone 5, my decision was made. I hope Richard will agree. 

I included a few of the finalists in the contest that I particularly liked below. Here's photo of a little albino child I found captivating.
I can't stop looking at her sweet little face.

Online you can vote for your favorite of the photos for a "people's choice" award. I love this one of  a beautiful teenaged girl from Ethiopia. You can see the photographer in her eyes.

 My favorite image and the one I voted for is this one of women sewing fishing nets in Vietnam. Detail about the photographers and the cameras they used are available on the link. 

Here's a link to the finalists in the contest. 

Smithsonian Photo Contest 2015

Climbing Everest: Should you take your cappuccino machine?

I was thrilled to see the peak of Mt. Everest out of the window on our flight from Lhasa to Kathmandu. The idea of climbing that mountain or any mountain is something I can barely fathom.

The closest we came to it was a dinner at the Rum Doodle restaurant in Kathmandu. Rum Doodle got its name after the book "The Ascent of Rum Doodle", by W. E. Bowman. Rum Doodle is the name of the fictional world's highest mountain, a hilarious description of mountaineers expeditioning and scaling steep mountains. You can read a synopsis of the book here or read the Wiki summary at the bottom of this post. 

Rum Doodle, the restaurant, is an institution, and the clientele are mountain high-fliers, post-trek trekking parties, guides, Everest climbers (they can eat here for free the rest of their lives) and other tourists. We might have sat in the chairs that real mountaineers, maybe even summiters, sat in. That's as close as I'm ever going to get.  

freepublic.com

The restaurant is in Thamel, the heart of the tourist area in Kathmandu. The streets are so narrow that we could barely open the car doors to get out. The narrow sidewalks are full of people selling everything you can imagine. Roads are gridlocked with bikes, cars, taxis, motorbikes. Safety?...forget it. You've got to duck and bob and weave and stay alert or you can easily be hit by something.  Without Richard navigating through the crowd and getting us across the street and through the teeming crowds, I would still be there trying to cross the road.

Thamel teems.

If you don't get hit by a vehicle, a sign might fall on your head. 

Thamel acts as the pre-base camp for many mountaineers and you can find tons of gear shops, money exchange booth, pubs, clubs, travel agents and guesthouses. It's one of the noisiest areas I've ever experienced - a wall of noise hit us as we got out of the car - every vehicle was making some kind of noise in protest to the lack of movement: horns honking, bells ringing, loud radios, motors revving. As you'd expect it's dirty, smelly and wildly alive. Climbers and trekkers and young tourists or adventurers like to stay in the area.

Inside the restaurant, the walls and ceiling are all covered with Yeti foot shaped card boards. 

It's a tradition to leave your signature here... a tradition started with the famous first-time summiteers Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. There's also a plaque signed by many of the Everest Summiteers.

Sir Edmund Hillary (L) and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa smile after summitting the Mt. Everest in 1953 (REUTERS)

As of 2014, Everest has been summited 7001 times by 4,142

climbers, many of them multiple times. In 2014, 658 people made the summit. 267 people have died on the mountain: 161 westerners and 106 Sherpas. The most famous summit was the first in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Nogay. Since then the challenge seems to be to break records. There are records for:

fastest ascent, youngest person, youngest female, first blind person, oldest person, first married couple, first teenager and on and on. 

Climbing is expensive. I've read about various cost estimates and found the average to be about $50,000 if you climb with a small group. The costs can be up to $90,000 if you use western guides, purchase insurance to the utmost for every possible hazard and find it necessary to take a cook along. Climbing with a crowd and a sketchy entourage will cost about $40,000. The license alone is $11,000. As inflation is running between 9 and 10% in Nepal, do not delay if you plan a climb...it gets more prohibitively expensive every year.

If you should have the money to climb, getting in shape would be the next challenge. You can read suggestions for training here Alpine Ascents Everest Training Guide

"Roughly a month before your climb, you should be at the conditioning level where you are comfortable hiking on consecutive weekend days, what is referred to as Back-to-Back training. This involves hiking with your target climb pack weight (60 pounds) on the first day for at least 3,000’ gain, and a somewhat lighter pack (40 pounds) for greater mileage, elevation gain, or both on the second day to simulate the back-to back requirements of long days on your trip. This will not only be helpful physically but also prepare you psychologically for the challenge of repeat high effort days without significant recovery days in between."

If you manage to get the money and the training, here is the way the climbs are staged. I found this on one of those "list" pages: How to climb Mt. Everest

"A Nepalese departure will send you along the southern route to the summit. Getting to Everest Base Camp, where the trek ostensibly starts, is itself a 10-day, 17,000-plus-foot affair. From there, you'll climb to Camp 1, atop the glacial Khumbu Icefall at 19,500 feet. It'll be 1,500 feet or more on a gradual slope to Camp 2, and 2,000 between that and the third camp, situated at the head of the Lhotse face. Above this, you'll need those oxygen tanks on the mixed snow and rock path to Camp 4, at 26,300 feet, in what's known as the "death zone." A day's rest, then onwards along the South East Ridge to the South Summit and the Hillary Step. And in the morning, the final summit attempt."

Here's an account of a climb up the final summit from mounteverest.net

The summit
8850 m / 29035 ft.

Finally, the hour is come. At about 11 PM we put on the final gear and step out in the night. There, in the distance, we can see a worm of light slowly moving up a dark wall. It´s climbers head torches flickering in the dark. It’s completely silent. Nobody talks. If you do, you whisper. It is absolutely terrifying and you climb and climb, awaiting the first ray of dawn. It’s desperately cold. It's steep and at parts very icy. The ice axe and the crampons cut skin deep into the ice. You need to pee. Forget it. Someone turns around. "Can´t go on, good luck".

A cold, white moon rises from below, but you hardly glance at it or even the bright twinkle of Universe above. The adrenaline keeps your body moving. And then, suddenly, after hours and hours of despair, you notice a thin blue beam of light at the horizon. Sunrise! If you are lucky, now is the time for the fabled mountain ghost. The mountain projects itself onto the morning fog. The shadow towers in front of you like a giant mirage. Beneath lies the world in all its glory, glowing in the rising sun. You feel the warmth and all hope returning.

You kick your feet to beat the oncoming frostbite. You are at the Balcony, having a short rest, changing to a new oxygen bottle. A ridge lay ahead, and just above you, not far at all, is the South Summit. You begin to enjoy the view, and the possibility of success. Finally, you step up onto the small plateau of the South Summit, and there - just around the corner - is the Everest summit itself!You have watched it so many times from the distance, and suddenly it is so strangely close. Just right there, only 95 meters / 310 ft away. You can almost touch the white tail of snow.

This is as far as we came in 1998, so our report on the site had to end here. On this update however - following our 1999 attempt - we are very happy to at last be able to guide you all the way - to the summit!

When you reach the South Summit you are just a couple of hours from your dream come true. But there is one more obstacle in your way. The Knife Ridge. You will grasp your breath upon seeing it. It is steep and looks truly nasty. The ridge towers almost freely over Nepal and Tibet, it’s sharp and very steep. Hillary Step is in the middle somewhere, a rock climb in the sky.

You step onto the ridge via a small, half open tunnel from South Summit. You climb with your crampons at a sharp, crooked angle towards the side of the ridge. Occasionally, the snow gives way and you slide down for a hairy second. This is not a place to climb without fixing ropes. Clip in carefully, focus on each step and keep moving. If there is a lot of snow, the ridge could be almost wide and quite nice. We had a dry, sharp climb.

The Hillary step was, in our opinion, not too bad. Although very exposed at parts, the climb is fast and feels safe, given the conditions. The danger is to get tangled in the ropes. Bring a good knife. Check the ropes well for strength.

After the step, you will spot white, strange wave-formations of frozen snow pointing out from the summit. Keep climbing towards them. This section is usually unroped, yet not too steep. Still, be careful and use your axe. You might eagerly look for the summit now, yet all you’ll see is a white edge on the horizon. You will not know how far you have left and feel frustrated and tired.

Then you reach another white edge, but this time – it doesn’t continue. Behind it, there is instead a slope down. You are peeking down at the North side of Everest. You have reached the summit, friend.

Not everyone is thrilled with what an Everest climb has become. Here's what a son of Norgay, Norbu said recently:

“It is a travesty, what has happened to this beautiful mountain. Everest has become a cash cow, where the government takes millions of dollars a year but very little or nothing actually goes back. The business of Everest is all tied to money.”

High altitude Sherpa climbers must now “carry Westerners with their luxury tents and their cappuccino machines”, Norgay said.

Peter Hillary, Sir Edmund's son and Jamling Norgay, Tenzing's son climbed the mountain together in 2002. 

You can read about the problems that are developing on the mountain which include crowding, pollution and ignorance, here:

Vanity, pollution and death on Mt. Everest

Crowds of Everest Climbers. 

Wikipedia Synopsis of the novel, The Ascent of Rum Doodle:

The Ascent of Rum Doodle is a short 1956 novel by W. E. Bowman (1911–1985). It is a parody of the non-fictional chronicles of mountaineering expeditions (notablyH. W. Tilman's account of the ascent of Nanda Devi and Maurice Herzog's book  Annapurna chronicling the first ascent of Annapurna in Nepal) that were popular during the 1950s, as many of the world's highest peaks were climbed for the first time. A new edition was released in 2001 with an introduction by the contemporary humorist Bill Bryson. It has been critically well received. Though a parody, it has become one of the most famous and celebrated books of mountaineering literature.

The narrator, "Binder" (his radio codename), is asked by the "Rum Doodle Committee" and its chairman, "Sir Hugeley Havering", to lead an expedition to climb "Rum Doodle", the highest mountain in the world (with an elevation of 40,000 and 1/2 feet), in the remote (fictional) country of "Yogistan". He assembles a team of climbers to play all the roles seen in the parodied literature:

• Burley, the "strong man";
• Constant, the "linguist";
• Jungle, the "route finder";
• Prone, the "physician";
• Shute, the "photographer";
• Wish, the "scientist."

It rapidly develops that each of the climbers is utterly inept in his nominal field of competence, as they demonstrate in a series of chaotic adventures en route to Yogistan; for example, Prone endures a never-ending series of illnesses, while Constant mispronounces a Yogistani word (the language hinges on variously "pronounced" belches and gastrointestinal rumbles) and offends a "short but powerful" Yogistani wielding a knife, having informed him that he lusted for the man's wife — not his intention at all. Binder handles these mishaps with typically British aplomb, having been reassured by the expedition's sponsor that "to climb Mont Blanc by the Grépon route is one thing; to climb Rum Doodle is, as Totter once said, quite another."

Somehow the group does make it to Yogistan, where they hire Yogistani porters, parodies of the Sherpas who were the indispensable indigenous porters and mountain guides (and sometimes climbing partners) to many of the great mountaineering expeditions. However, the Yogistanis do not share the invariable positive attributes of the Sherpa — quite the contrary. Hijinks ensue, as the expedition cook, "Pong", produces food so inedible that the expedition tries (unsuccessfully) to continue on up the mountain without him; the inevitable fall into a crevasse leads to the consumption of the party's champagne (brought along to celebrate reaching the summit and for "medicinal purposes") during the rescue attempt; and scientist Wish embarks on a never-ending quest for "Wharton's warple", an endangered species indigenous to the mountains. Eventually, Binder and a colleague manage to stumble to the top of the lofty spire the group has been approaching ... only to find that they have climbed the wrong mountain (and to see the porters, with Prone in tow, climbing the right one).

Sepia Saturday #269: Polka

Polka, Shmolka. Where I grew up everyone seemed to emerge from the womb knowing the polka. At every dance, there was always at least 1/2 hour of uninterrupted polka music. It was normal to dance for the entire 1/2 hour, then to drag yourself off the floor drenched in sweat. Ukrainian weddings were famous for polka dancing and as a bonus, the food was great: pierogis and beer, pierogis and beer and to finish things off - more pierogis and beer. 

The polka was fun for everyone, young and old - easy to do and you could get as fancy or plain as you wished with it. Most of us bounced around at a Lawrence Welk type pace..."a1anda2". LW is the artist I associate the most with the sound of polka music. 

Not only a smart band leader, he made some shrewd investments. Where I live in Fallbrook, California, we are very near one of LW's best, the Lawrence Welk Resort: time share condos, a golf course and a theatre.

While I remember polka-ing and polka-ing at weddings, school and canteen dances, I could find nary a picture of anyone in my family or my friends actually photographed in the act. I'm guessing the dim light and fast action in dance halls would be a problem for photography. I know our little Brownie with flash attachment couldn't have handled it. 

Here's one sepia photo I found in an archived group from Stanford. From the description of these "polka sets" it sounds very much like polka dancing in a square, which would probably be fun. 

Kerry Sets Fast polka sets from Ireland "Formation:  Four couples in a square, taking closed waltz position with partners.
The polka step is a fairly smooth leaping two-step, without a preliminary hop, but there are many regional style variations, and a traveling pas de basque in polka time is also seen on occasion."


For serious dancing however, you do have to leave Ireland and visit the Ivory Coast, made easy for you here on YouTube. Perhaps this clip has been around the world a couple of times by now...I just saw it this week and was very impressed with it. My husband caught me trying the dance in the kitchen. He strolled in, saw me and said, "What the hell are you cooking?" I had to talk as fast as I was dancing to keep him from having me carted away. 

Actually I didn't think I was too bad at the dance in 10 second bursts, considering I had no costume. You really have to wear the mask thing and the striped socks to get the full effect.  

I recommend you watch this clip as an antidote to the simple cadence of the polka. This is the Zaouli de Manfla, or Mask Dance, for short, of the Ivory Coast.

A Cremation in Nepal

Note: Some of these pictures might be difficult to view and it might seem intrusive of us to have taken them. However, the attitude toward death and cremation is very different from ours in the west and photography of the cremations is not discouraged. 

In Kathmandu, we were taken to a cremation ceremony at the Pashupatinath Temple on the Bagmati river which eventually flows into the Holy Ganges. The temple complex is the holiest place in Nepal for Hindus. On the day we visited, the Teej festival (women's festival) was winding up and the grounds were teeming with women beautifully dressed and celebrating the occasion. The contrast between the vividly dressed, beautiful women, so intensely alive, and the cremations taking place just a few yards away was startling.

Cremations are performed in public and in Kathmandu have become a kind of tourist attraction. Tourists arrive by the busload, file into the seats and watch the proceedings from  across the river from the site of the actual cremations. Nobody seems to be offended or disturbed by this practice...it's simply accepted as a fact of life. 

The guide let us off at a gate, beyond which we had to navigate past kiosk after kiosk where Hindu religious items, small packages of pigments and various kinds of prayer beads were sold. We didn't see anyone using pigments, but I've since read that they are sometimes sprinkled on the corpse before burning. Holy men or fake Holy men, depending on whom you ask, hang out around these sites begging or offering themselves up for photos at a price and cadging handouts. 

The real holy men are known as Saddhus, and they are ascetics devoted to one God or one form of God. They take a vow that includes not having a family or home, not working for money and not sleeping in one specific place for more than three days. Revered for their holiness they're also feared for their curses. Despite their often bizarre appearance, they don't get a second look from locals - they are an accepted part of daily life and admired for the prayers they offer up for the good of all mankind. They use a lot of pigment on their bodies. 

In Nepal, a person is cremated as quickly as possible, often within minutes of death. On the temple grounds, there's a hospice and a nursing home where elderly people are nearing death and are moved after dying onto the river bank. On any given day, the body will likely wait in a line of others bodies waiting for cremation. The place is busy day and night - about 50 cremations a day take place. 

Bodies being washed on the ghats. 

We saw a young man being cremated. He must have died in an accident as we could see evidence of trauma to his face. It's likely he was brought directly to the cremation site. His family was extremely distressed and were still reeling at the news of the death. It was brutal to watch them. The sight of their suffering filled me with sadness and empathy for the mourners. It brought back to in a unexpected rush, the same grief I'd experienced when my family members died. 

The body was arranged on the ghats (stairs), wrapped in an orange cloth, washed in the holy water from the river, and sprinkled with marigold petals and garlands. In most instances, the head of the deceased is shaved...in this case it was not. Also the head of the chief mourner, generally the oldest or closest male relative is also shaved. Ghee was sprinkled in the mouth of the deceased. Holy water was scooped up in plastic bottles and sprinkled on the heads of the mourners as well as on the body. The river water is very polluted - mourners no longer get into the water, as they used to.

Bodies are washed on the stairs, sprinkled with flowers and carried to a bier for burning.

After this ritual, the body was carried to a pillar for burning where it was laid over a layer of wood. Another layer of wood was placed on top, and finally straw was scattered over the top. The closest male relative walked around the corpse on the bier three times. Then he lit the fire. People milled about, some crying; some consoling the others. 

Getting the fire going.

Monkeys in gangs roamed around scavenging food from the tourists and food left as offerings by the mourners.

We thought it was odd that small boys were playing in the water so near the cremation site. Turns out they are scavengers too, diving to the river bottom (despite the pollution) trolling for valuables from the bodies that might be overlooked and scooped out with the ashes into the river. Coins are sometimes thrown in the river as offerings and the boys use magnets on a long pole, like a fishing pole to retrieve them. Police come by from time to time and shoo the kids away but they return quickly. 

Cows wander around. 

After 4 hours and the consumption of 250 kg of wood, a body is completely burned. Daily at the cremation site they use up approximately 9000 kg. of firewood. Nepal is running out of wood and it has become very expensive, adding considerable cost to the ceremony. The air we were breathing was filled with the smoke from burning bodies; the river was sludgy from the ashes being thrown into it. 

In a few months, an electric crematorium should be completed in Kathmandu which will reduce wood consumption and pollution. Bodies will be cremated in an hour. It will probably take some time for older people to accept electric cremation over the traditional ceremony; younger people understand the benefits of modernizing the process. 

After the cremation, family members mourn for 11 days during which they are prohibited from eating certain vegetables and meat. They are only allowed to wear white clothes and must not wear anything made of leather. On the 10th day, a Hindu priest will set up a ceremony where gods and goddesses are invoked and worshiped in the name of the deceased. On the 11th day family members are allowed to return to their normal lifestyle. 

"This stark Hindu funeral and those I have seen since have deeply impressed me. Once I thought this must be a grotesque custom, but I have come to respect Hindu cremation. No body is ever taken to a sterile lab where its fluids are drained by an expert class of morticians and replaced with chemicals, nor does it lie in a commercial parlor tended by businesspeople. Their way of death is an act of family love and powerful religious ritual. The body is burned within the day of death, the soul is released to new life, and the heat by which the gods brought the universe into being is rekindled."
Carolyn Brown Heinz, Anthropology, Chico State

Is Bigger Better?

Our relative Mac posted this picture on Facebook of a gigantic chayote he grew in his yard. I didn't know the Chinese call this Fo Shou (short version) or Buddha's hand. 

I thought Buddha's hand was the popular name for citron, which I grow.  I've also heard it called Buddha's fingers.  The fruit I grow looks like this: 

Last year, we visited the largest Buddha statue in China outside of Chengdu. You can see the resemblance between Mac's squash and this Buddha's hand.  

The trip from Chengdu 100 miles to Leshan to see the Big Buddha was big alright - a big waste of time. It took us all day to get there and back by car, most of the time spent sitting in traffic. When we finally arrived, we had to board a boat and float out in front of the statue where we idled for 10 minutes or so and then returned to the port. Two tiny nuns who were on the boat with us were positively transported by the sight and they were more entertaining to watch than the huge Buddha. "Tiny" was the size that won the day. 

Here's a photo of the whole Buddha. 

This is the big reclining Buddha in Yangon, Burma. Not a very attractive setting in a kind of warehouse, but it is big. 

Some temples claim to have the most Buddhas...here's a typical array in Mandalay, Burma

These two are among the largest standing Buddhas and the largest reclining Buddhas in the world - they're in Burma just outside Monywa. These impressed me more than any I've seen before. 

 A repeat of the above with the standing Buddha alone. 

The Buddha in Thimpu, Bhutan is still under construction. Inside this statue, they plan to place 1,000,000 small Buddhas. 

Tiny Zuzu and big Buddha, Thimpu, Bhutan.

Note: 

An interesting bit of information from Wiki on the mummification of bodies manifested in San Bernardo, Columbia which the locals attribute to a high consumption of chayote. This smacks (to cynical me) of propaganda from the Chayote Promotion Board. The mummies have become a tourist attraction. 

Driving 99 km. (three hours) out of Bogota to San Bernardo to see 14 mummies I'm guessing would be more even more disappointing than the ride to Leshan to see the Big Buddha. 

From Wikipedia re chayote:'

Mummies

Due to its purported cell-regenerative properties, it is believed as a contemporary legend that this fruit caused the mummification of people from the Colombian town of San Bernardo who extensively consumed it. The very well preserved skin and flesh can be seen in the mummies today.

My Vietnamese friend Diep is writing a cookbook about N. Vietnamese cuisine. She grew up in Hanoi where they love chayote as a snack. Here's a sample recipe from her book...the introductory notes are mine. 

CHAYOTE SQUASH SNACK

Serves 4

My friend Diep tells me that “In Hanoi we eat chayote with rice as a main meal or as a side dish for a larger meal. It also makes a very good snack.”

Excellent when sautéed with beef or pork with green onion, the gentle flavor is enhanced by fish sauce and garlic. The Vietnamese waste little in the kitchen. Diep says, “It’s a treat for me to drink the water left after boiling the chayote.”

Diep's Recipe for Chayote

1 medium chayote, washed, peeled and cored

1/2 carrot, washed, peeled and cut into small pieces or decorative shapes, about 1” each

Water sufficient to cover vegetables in a small saucepan

3 tablespoons sesame peanut dip or other dip of choice

Cut chayote into half lengthwise and then into thirds lengthwise to yield 12 pieces.

Bring the water to a boil. Add the vegetables and boil for three minutes until fork tender. Use a slotted spoon to drain vegetables. Arrange on plate. 

Serve warm, at room temperature or cold with dip

Diep’s Kitchen Notes

• Be sure to core out any stringy tissue
• To cut: For safety and stability while preparing, cut the chayote straight across stem end so that the squash can be stood on flat end. Cut in half through seed. Cut each half lengthwise into thirds or fourths. Remove seed and core.