The title of this post was supposed to be "Wamena and the Baliem Valley", but as you can see, it's not...
This place I have wanted to get to since first coming to Papua three years ago, the Baliem Valley, remains elusive to us... We arrived in Jayapura to meet Cecilia (a wonderful reunion in Indonesia - it was almost exactly two years prior that we travelled to the same town together for the
Danau Sentani Festival). But with a mysteriously missing reservation, broken planes, and no possibility of flying into the highlands of Papua (even with the various Missionary Aviation services, like
MAF), we were forced to change our destination. We looked for alternatives to Wamena and our highlands hike... and as you can see, found a very satisfactory one - BIAK!
Although we spent probably the same amount of time 'on the road' as we had originally planned with our Baliem Valley hike, the FORM of transportation was different... where we were planning on some rigorous hiking in the Baliem Valley, we actually ended up on busses, minivans (angkots or pete-pete as they're sometimes known), ojeks (motorcycle taxis), boats, and fin (for swimming)... instead of on foot.
Did I mention the main reason for this? Biak is HUGE! (We weren't expecting this, and of course, thought we would see all the sights in our mere five days there - ha!) We did get all the way up to the North Biak and Supiori Reserves, and out to the Padaido Islands (you can see our approximate route in red).
Our first day on the island we did a little sight-seeing around the small city of Biak; it is pleasant and much cleaner and more orderly-seeming than other cities in Papua (and Indonesia, for that matter!). But hotels are outrageously expensive for what you receive! The markets were similar to most markets... a variety of fruit, veg and fish... I found these 'ready-made' packets of veggies particularly cute.
... and i had never seen sagu packaged so neatly...
At 7 am the next morning we headed over to the main market to catch a bus to North Biak... the 2 hour bus ride was hot and cramped, but the people were very friendly and helpful. They sort-of dumped us out at a cross-roads and just said to wait for a next bus... well, just there was a nice-looking little path out to the beach, so we thought we'd check it out... but not 50m from the road a police truck pulled up saying we had to report our presence.... ? Ok, so we reported ourselves at the Police Station - a formality, really - and a way to keep Papua a little less accessible, and under 'control'. We didn't have a proper "Surat Jalan" (takes valuable time to process, and seems ridiculous to me... I've never had one), but that wasn't a real problem, especially because we could speak and schmooze in Indonesian. We checked out the beach just beyond the canal separating Biak and Supiori Islands, had a quick bite to eat and then jumped on a 2 hour ojek tour to Yengarbun in Supiori Reserve (Taman Pulau Supiori). We thought we would go to Wapur, at the farthest North/West point of the island, but Yengarbun was already far and our butts were sore from being on the motorcycles! We stopped along the way at the popular Wafur beach. It was deserted.
One of my favourite parts about our trip (other than the company), was my great motorcycle taxi driver cum guide... he taught me a lot of bahasa Biak along the way as well.
There are no hotels in North Biak, so we expected to be staying with the people in a simple home, but arrived in Yengarbun to find a pretty swank, out-of-place, set of cottages owned by the Vice-Head of the Regency. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess, after finding out the exorbitant cost of staying here), we found the 'cottages' closed up, but the caretaker offered us to stay in the house on the other side of the road... We actually ended up staying on the porch of the beach house (and not sleeping a wink, between the hard ceramic floor and the mozzies)!
We enjoyed a sunset walk along the lovely beach at Ayami village next door... This picturesque island bridge sits just in front of the village.
We bought supermie (instant noodles) at the only little store in town and cooked it for ourselves for a complete dinner. Mmmm... appetizing, no?
The next day we enjoyed an early morning walk through Sagu plantations (hoping for hike, and a chance to inaugurate my shiny new white shoes, but our guide didn't show). We expected this area to be relatively pristine forest, since we were in a 'reserve', and all - I should know better, after this long in Indonesia...
Anyway, it was a nice walk, and our hosts, a group of Sagu farmers that invited us to join as they cut and worked a Sagu Palm (Tokok Sagu). It was great to learn more about this traditional staple of Papua from these kind and fun men!
We also each took a turn trying our hand at pounding the sago pith into mulch...
A giant stick bug showed up for the work bee as well...
... careful not to get pricked by the sagu spikes, we picked our way through the forest...
Then we enjoyed the long, bumpy bus ride with lots of interesting passengers along the remote North Supiori Road - pitted and potholed, steep drop-offs to exquisite secluded beaches...
We got off in North Biak Reserve at Wasur Waterfall (Warfasak)... this place was magic. Absolutely gorgeous... fossilized coral and seashells hundreds of meters up at the big waterfall. Something about the porous nature of the limestone over which the water falls makes it look frothy, or foamy or 'soft'... it's hard to describe, but it was unlike any other waterfall I've ever seen! Our guide was the greatest - an ancient little man who was nimbler climbing up the watercourse than we, all less than half his age! Here he is up by the falls (you can see the scale of the waterfall, and the tree!).
It was a butterfly-filled walk up to the inner falls, and we all got a chance to walk on water!
The next day, we chartered a boat to the Padaido Islands. It was slow-going with our single 15hp outboard motor, but nice to be on the water. We ended up going to Rurbas kecil for a fresh fish BBQ on the beach; coconuts with local family and swimming in the turquoise waters.
impromptu fish bbq on the beach...
... i've never actually eaten sitting IN the water before... such decadence!
a nimble local kid scaled the tree to get us some fresh coconuts to go with our fish lunch...
... you see where the get the name 'island of the fuzzy hairs'!?
Then it was off to Rurbas besar for some snorkelling. It seemed like a nice site, but with the current and waves, better for diving, I think!
Our final day was most tiring; after a 4am wake-up and check-in in Biak and flight to Jayapura we had about 4 hours to kill in Sentani. So, we sweet-talked our way into leaving our baggage at Lion Air (yes, I know I said I would never fly with the airline whose motto is "We Make You Fly", but ... never say never!), and we spent a few unsuccessful hours trying to see a little more of Sentani. We disappointed by the General McArthur Lookout Point at Gunung Ifar - the view of Lake Sentani was nice, but we had planned to hike, and given that it it was just an asphalt road on a military base, we were uninspired... so we paid our motorcycle taxis to just take us down again.
We ended off our Papua tour with a walk around town, and a very popular, entirely traditional Papua meal... at Dunkin Donuts!?
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