Cruising

On Monday we stopped at Ujung Kulon National Park, a natural sanctuary for Asian wildlife.  The last population of seventy or so Javan rhinoceroses live in this park, but we were never going to see them.  If the rangers spot a rhino, they close off the entire area to all humans.  Monkeys (macaques) abound in the park, as well as wild pigs, bats, and a lot of birds.

We had a choice between a seven kilometer walk through the rain forest or a short two kilometer walk.  Unfortunately, it rained hard all morning.  Imagine that ... tropical rain in a tropical rain forest.  They postponed the landing for an hour and finally said that anyone who wanted to go could.  I had planned on the longer hike, but even two kilometers did not appeal in a pouring rain.  Besides, I figured the animals would be too smart to hang out in the rain.  So I missed my chance to see Ujung Kulon National Park.

Fortunately, the next day was clear when we went to see Krakatoa.  The eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883 was the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history.  It was also the loudest noise ever on earth.  It could be heard 5000 kilometers away, and anyone within sixty kilometers had their eardrums blown out.  The ash spread so far that there was global cooling for several years.

Krakatoa blew its top completely and most of the caldera is under the water, but a few small islands in a circular pattern show where the rim was.  In 1930, a new volcano poked out of the sea in the middle of the caldera.  It erupts frequently, so it continues to grow and is now three hundred meters high.  It is named, appropriately, Anat Krakatoa, which means "child of Krakatoa."

One of the things I have learned about Indonesia is that it is extremely fertile because volcanic soil is so rich.  But it takes a while for lava to become fertile soil.  Unlike the other nearby islands which are green and lush, Anat Krakatoa is mostly bare lava rock and pebbles, although you can see moss and lichen, and even a fern or two taking hold.  We climbed to the rim and had a view of the smoke coming out of Anat Krakatoa.

Walking to the crest on lava pebbles.  The other islands are tree covered.

It is hard to see the lichen, but a single fern is to the left of the gray area.

Overlooking Anat Krakatoa with steam coming out.

The next morning we were scheduled to visit Enggano but an expedition cruise can change the itinerary because?  Well, because.  They told us things had not gone well at Enganno before, so instead, we went to the nearby uninhabited island of Pulau Duo  We took the zodiacs to a pristine sandy beach where we went snorkeling over a coral reef.

More interesting facts about Indonesia:  it has somewhere between 13,000 and 18,000 islands, depending on how you count the sandy cays and rocky reefs that are submerged at high tide, and over 7,000 of the islands are uninhabited.  Indonesia also has eighteen percent of the coral reefs in the world.

From coral reefs to the tiny native village of Siberut to see traditional Mentawai culture.  Siberut is an island group of at least thirty three islands off the coast of Sumatra, but has a population of only 40,000.  We were led to believe that the Mentawai still practice traditional dance and medicine and they did demonstrate that for us, but aside from the demonstrators, every single person was wearing modern clothes.  They even demonstrated the traditional method of tattooing.

Crushing sago to make flour.  Just like making wine.

The shaman.  Notice the tattoos on his legs as well as chest and arms.

Another tattooed shaman.

The next day we visited another remote, local village on Pulau Nias.  This is also a small island off the coast of Sumatra but unlike Siberut, it has a population of nearly 900,000, and it is primarily Christian.  Go figure.  We saw another native dance festival, but this one was special enough that most of the local people came out to watch it as well.  The main show was the War Dance with over fifty warriors running at each other brandishing swords, stomping, and yelling.  The show climaxed with a few of the springier warriors vaulting over a seven foot stone barrier.

A family band

Houses shaped like boats

War dance

War dance

Traditional vaulting

This is a local fishing boat.  The long arms extended on both sides hold nets that can be lowered into the water.  They only fish at night and they shine lights from the extended poles.  The lights attract the fish and voila! The nets catch them.

Tomorrow we are off to another tropical beach for more reef snorkeling.