We had a pretty busy weekend, but still lots of time for visiting and catching-up. Because it was a mere three-days, we wanted Cecilia to see as much as possible of this area… but we had to start off nice and easy because of her her delayed arrival (at 3 am – no big surprise with Indonesian airlines… if you’re not on the first flight of the day, you’re almost guaranteed to be delayed!), and of course, since it’s been 6 months since we’ve seen eachother we stayed up chatting ‘till 5am(!). So we had a liesurely breakfast and hung out at our place until mid-day on Friday, then hit the port just in time to catch public transportation to the islands (an experience in-and-of itself!). We had fortuitous timing all the way along, in fact, our stars were definitely in-line!
The purpose/pretext of our jaunt to Manado Tua Island was to go for a hike to see the monkeys (Sulawesi Black Macaque) which are said to reside at the peak of the mountain. We never did, by the way, see the monkeys, although we think we heard them, and I definitely SMELLED their presence! Manado Tua ‘mountain’ turned out to be a LOT steeper than it looks (and we’re probably not in the best shape of our lives after spending a year at sea-level), but we had a lovely, if somewhat more gruelling hike than we were expecting! We spent half of the hike on foot, and the better part of the descent on our butts!~ Our ‘guide’ was Hendra, a friend who lives on the island, and told us he knew the path to the summit - after all, he led the project to MAKE the trail! As it turns out, the project to create a path to the top of Manado Tua was completed about 10 years ago, and hasn’t been in use very much over the years… taking into account the rate of growth of lush, tropical rainforest, well, you get the picture: there was no path, at least, no continuous one. On the way up, this wasn’t a huge deal… we knew that as long as we were headed up (and it was straight up!!!), we would eventually reach the top… and we did, several hours after our ETA. (Some of the ‘several hours’ might be attributed to the frequent rest stops, including one at the family farm (how they farm on the side of that mountain, I can’t imagine!) for some refreshing coconut water…)
Of course, by the time we reached the apex, it had completely fogged over, and the promised, spectacular view that had kept driving us on all along was lost! Anyway, we had a nice rest, ate some peanuts, chatted, and prepared for what was to be the ‘much easier descent’. Well, it was the way down that was a departure from the plan… This is where the forever-stained pants come into the picture! As we hiked (bushwhacked) along, an occassional glimmer of hope would hit us as we came across a path, and followed it for a while, but it was usually short-lived, as we got a view through the trees which told us that we were headed toward the back of the island, or somehow off-course! So, we very literally, SLID our way down the mountain! What fun… but although we were exhausted, with aching feet, we were privy to some pretty fantasic views, and got a little exercise along the way! After a little break, and a late lunch, we headed back to Manado aboard Hendra’s K-ting-ting (that's Manado Tua in the background):
We slept well that night.
Sunday, before Cecilia had to catch her flight mid-day we rented a car and went for a tour into the Minahassan Highlands (and even to some areas we had yet to see in our year here!) The highlight was a beautiful lake which changed colours by the minute… due to the unique combination of its sulphurous nature, shallow depth and altitude, a slight change in the weather or the angle from which you’re looking at the lake seems to transform it completely – from deep blue, to green to aquamarine, to all shades in-bewtween!
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