Sabbatical 2023

Road trip again!!! But now with a driver :-) Start Labuanbajo, end destination Maumere, mainly over the Trans Flores Highway. Not that far in a straight line but the many mountainous roads, the sometimes missing parts of the road, the holes to be zigzagged (especially if going off the main ‘highway’), blocking working trucks, lack of patience amongst some of us, made the travel time feel eternal.

Culture and traditions are strong on this island, there are 5 main linguistic (besides bahasa) and cultural groups. On our way to Ruteng we first stop at the spiderweb rice fields: 12 ricefields shaped in what the name says, each belonging to a village of which each ‘slice of pie’ belongs to a family. In Ruteng we visit a traditional village Ruteng Pu, sleep in a homestay, have dinner in sarong with other guests and the man of house explains some of their traditions. Next morning we wake up early to see the sunrise without luck and continue with a nice hike through the (not spiderweb) rice fields.

Bajawa, home to the Ngada people, is the next stop where we visit the traditional village Bena. Houses with high thatched roofs decorated with buffalo horns and jawbones, stone monuments for sacrificial events, the volcano Inerie looming on the background, quite the experience. Followed by a jump into a hot spring, filled by one hot and one cold stream.Leggi altro