Adventure in Alor Part 1

August 12, 2013

Our time here in Alor is wrapping up, which is quite sad as we have all made this island home from adjusting to the ladle flush toilets to making friends with the locals. I am sad to say good bye to Simon and Baz, as our two crew members disembarked on this island as planned - they are off to find waves and make it to a wedding in Singapore.  Fear not - the rest of our crew managed to get into plenty of trouble without them!

We spent the morning whale spotting as we sailed into Alor.  I identified these as pilot whales thanks to Julian's whale book.

Here's our neighbor, Reflections.  Sherry is sharing candy with the kids who paddled  out to say hello from shore.

Can you find 6 white people and 1 Mexican?  I wasn't kidding when I said we were making friends with the locals!

I am pretty sure this flavor should be introduced to America! Seaweed snack is huge there right now!

We took a tour to the traditional village of Takpala.  It was cleaner than the town of Kalabahi where we are staying.  Check out that three story hut behind us - sweet!

I hope you like cassava!  The best thing about these huts is they actually light fires in them for cooking.  

This one is for you Simon and Marta . . . you can use my new friend's teeth for a before and after ad for the new ortho office.  Or maybe a PSA teaching people not to chew beetle nut.

Thanks to Orla who took one for the team and chewed some beetle nut, the local villager put on his Sunday best for us in return.

I love these boats!

I think the best village of the day was Bampalon high up in the mountains.  It means secret place in Indonesian.  

Here was Omar starting the hike out to Bampalon… we now refer it to as it the death march.

Maybe this photo illustrates why . . . now imagine me in flip flops and a dress!

The huts in Bampalon were amazing - much more intricate than the first village!

I'll get Part 2 - the snorkeling and scuba pictures up ASAP!