And they've arrived!!! Matt and Scott got here a few days ago. They were the only ones I could convince to come visit me on my travels. Thus far, we've spent our time in huts right on the water, snorkeling, a hike and attempting to canoe in the bay.
Danna and I picked them up at the airport and proceeded to the harbor to take the last ferry out to get to Lisar Bahari. Unfortunately for us, this ferry time got changed because of Ramadan. So, instead of leaving on a boat at 4, we were stuck at an empty harbor. Luckily for us, there was an English speaking ojek driver in the vicinity. He arranged for 3 others to help take us to a nearby hotel where we struck a deal for them to pick us up the next morning to go back to the harbor for round two of trying to get on the boat.
After a night of wandering and teaching Danna how to play euchre, three of the four drivers showed up at our arranged time the next morning. To add to tne confusion of the missing driver, it began to rain and Charlie (the English speaking ojek driver) told us that the boat was getting ready to leave right then. It was a race to the harbor with Danna, me, my bag, and Charlie on one bike; Matt, his bag and Danna's bag on another bike and Scott on the third bike. Somehow Danna and I fit on the bike. I was quite concerned that half my rear would be hanging off the back, but it was firmly planted on the seat. The 20 minute ride was definitely the most interesting one I've been on in my time here and I can officially check off riding 3 on a motorbike off the list!
Thankfully, the boat had not yet left but tickets were almost sold out. I bought ours and then we got our soaked selves parked in our seats on the ferry. 30 minutes after the scheduled departure time, we were off for a miserable ride! The sea was quite choppy and we did not have much air circulation in our area. As a result, people started throwingup everywhere. I was okay until about 30 minutes from out destination when the noise combined with the motions got to me. I was able to make it to the doorway with Danna and stick my head out the window before anything bad happened.
After that eventful ride, a 90 minute car ride and another longboat ride, we arrived at our final destination. Our rooms are in little cottages right over the water with a common eating area. We took a wonderful snorkeling trip our first full day here. The fish and coral are not nearly as numerous or diverse as they are in Raja Ampat, but they're still awesome.
Yesterday, we took a short trekking trip through the jungle to a bird rescue center in a nearby village. I was very excited for the trek because I thought we were going to get to go up in the canopy lookout for some spectacular views. Our guide told us that the platform was broken. I'm not sure if it actually was, but regardless, I was extremely disappointed that we did not get to go up. The climb itself got a bit hairy at times due to the slippery ground and narrow trail. Of course our guide was barefoot for the entire journey. I'm still amazed by that one! Upon arriving at the rescue center, we were given our lunch and told to look around. We did see some awesome birds, not that I have the slightest clue as to what they are.
Today, we rented a 'canoe' to take out into the bay and go to a nearby umbrellaed platform were we did a bit of swimming and snorkeling and a lot of lazying around. Somehow, all of got scrapes and scratches during this one. In all our canoeing skills are not the greatest and I'm sure we gave more than a few a good chuckle!
*As always, this was written near the ocean and will be posted once I get to an area with WiFi.
**Also, I'm super happy that these two awesome people have come all this way to visit!!
No comments:
Post a Comment