Boat ride to Komodo Island

We transfer to Labuan Bajo's rustic jetty, where wooden homes and piers hug the blue water. We board small boats for our ride to Komodo Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Like Australia, Komodo was first settled as a penal exile colony, but the descendants of its first settlers are now avid fishermen.

It's not the human inhabitants for whom the island is best known in the popular imagination however; that distinction goes to the island's “dragons,” the existence of which was first reported 200 years ago but not proved until the early 20th century. More accurately described as a monitor lizard, the scaly giants have attracted scientists and curious travelers from around the globe. A local ranger will greet us when we go ashore on Komodo Island, then lead us on a walking exploration of the island's flora and fauna, keeping an eye out for the lizards. They have famously keen hearing, so our guide may encourage us to be fairly quiet on our walk, in hopes of not disrupting its natural behavior patterns.

Then, we discover the island's other unique feature: pink sand. One of only a handful of pink sand beaches on Earth, this shoreline is colored by foraminifera, living marine protozoa which turn the sand reddish; when the red sand and white beach sand are tumbled together by the tide, the resulting blend is an attractive pink color.

Lunch: We'll enjoy a picnic on the pink sand beach for lunch.Read more