Tangkoko and its most-visited inhabitants, the Tarsiers!

Over the Christmas holidays Martin and I rented a motorcycle from a local ojek driver to get out of the city and see some of the rest of North Sulawesi.

One of our intended destinations was the Tangkoko-Dua Saudara Nature Reserve in Batu Putih, just on the other side of the northern arm of Sulawesi from Manado. "Intended?", you ask? Exactly. Oh, don't get me wrong, we made it there... eventually. Luckily life's about the journey, right!? There really are no such things as 'road maps' in Indonesia, so we didn't even bother trying to find one before setting out... we figured, hey, our Indonesian is beyond passable at this point... we'll find our way.

We had a breath-taking tour of the ENTIRE Northern tip of Sulawesi before finding a toppled over road sign (another rarity in Indonesia!) indicating a turnoff down a cow path to the tiny town we'd been in search of. The vistas were absolutely stunning, and although the roads were somewhat treacherous at points, we certainly found a few lovely out-of-the-way spots along the coast on our way to Batu Putih (translated: White Rock, and no, there wasn’t a single one!)

The jungles of the Tangkoko Reserve are home to a variety of flora and fauna, including Black Macaque Apes, Hornbills, and Maleo Birds, however its mascot species is the Tarsier Monkey.

The Spectral Tarsier, smaller than the size of my fist, is said to be the smallest monkey in the World! Its eyes (and satellitic ears, for that matter) are literally bigger than it’s stomach… and it can rotate its head almost 180 degrees in every-which direction! Needless to say, these little gremlins really impressed me. We trucked through the jungle at sunset (trusting that our guide would be able to find his way back in the dark!), to arrive at the ‘sleeping tree’ of a family of Tarsiers just as they would be waking and heading out to find ‘breakfast’. They are nocturnal animals, and live in family groups – they spend the night foraging for insects, but always return to the same tree at dawn to sleep the day away. About ten minutes after sunset the first set of eyes peered out at us from the hollow trunk of a giant fig, then another, then another (I counted 10 in total, including one tiny baby!)… the group spent a few minutes interacting (or posing for pics???) before leaping off in different directions in search of food. These miniature munchkins can leap about 2 meters in a single bound!

Another tiny inhabitant of the Tangkoko Reserve left its impression on me as well… the genones (chicken fleas?) left me scratching for days!!!