#cobservation

More, much more!

I live on the assumption that the world’s is never boring. If I find it boring is that I’m doing something wrong..

Toli-toli. If Biduk-Biduk (about 100km away across the sea) was a hidden paradise, Toli-Toli is a treasure paradise.

How to start writing down my experiences there in a way that would simply make a bit of justice of what it really is?

Well all starts with contacting the CouchSurfing community of Toli-Toli. It’s still small but the amazing multi employed starter of it (tourist official, university teacher and photographer and something else!) Hendra, together with my host, Alvin,  and his friends and family, offered me one incredible and unimaginable experience.

I’ll go with a intense summary to give a taste, but there is more, much more!
1- One.

• Sunrise sea market.

• Royal house.

• Mythology, with the story of how 3 founders of Toli-Toli transformed on the 3 main tree crops.
• Visit to the local university full of young energetic students 😀

• Street deer.
  
• Coconuts harvest and eating.

• Fast river channel swimming.
  

• Village at night.

2- Two.

• Village school visit

• Small boat trip.

• Navigating through mangroves.
• Hanging bridge to a postcard village.

• Colourful bridge.

• Snorkelling through coral fish nurseries.

• Realizing how noisy some fish are. Exploring shipwrecks.
• Rest.

3- Three.

• Holding piton snakes.

• Local smith knife and swords shop!

• Boarding 2nd fishing small boat to diminute islands

• Diving to another coral reef.
• Hunting moontail fish.
• Dancing with a fish for 15 min.

• Amazing dinner where you pick strange fish to eat, from the day catch.

Interview with the head of a village to see the Malu bird (a small penguin like) that’s supposed to be their ancestors and that buries on the sand 1m deep, eggs that are half the size of their body.

4- More much more.

• Early rising to a red sunrise.
• Interview with the only guard of the endemic maleo birds, who gets paid only 1milion rupies (150€) a month for his salary and all the expenses of the park.

• Beach.
• Boat ride with all the colours of blue.

• Beach walking with the white waves breaking the shore.

• Crossing the beach forest, with sea sound on the background, giant spiders!

• Maleo bird burring its eggs.
• Lizard unburring them.
• Humans unburring them.

• Blue ride back.

• All this marvellous world. All the wonderful people.

Continues on:
21st century explorers, 21st century way openers.