Sydney
Sydney is a beautiful clean city with so much to do!
We made a short walk down to Darling Harbor to see Wildlife World and the Aquarium. Since we will not have time to explore the Outback of Australia we decided that, although we don't like zoos or enclosed animals, we should do this to see kangaroos, koalas, casawarys, duck billed platypus, dugongs and Rex, the most enormous crocodile!
We took a ferry from the Opera House to Darling Harbor which had amazing views of the city and the Harbor Bridge all lit up.
Papua New Guinea
The trip from the airport at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea to the island of Loloata was intriguing. We passed men in local costumes preparing for some event and then took a boat to the island.
On the paths to and from our room we met many wallabies, huge blue crested "pigeons" that looked more like peacocks and even some highly venomous striped sea krait snakes that we twice nearly stepped on!
We went to an outdoor market which had beautiful fruits and vegetables and some chickens and crafts. The produce is all organic and these people are amazing gardeners and have been for millennia.
Magic Mountain, a rustic accommodation that is just starting out so few people end up here. We were treated to a small show called "Turnim head" which is a courting dance for the men and women where they bump and roll their heads together like certain birds of paradise do.
The owner of Magic Mountain Lodge, Pim, is also the organizer for the Tumbuna sing-sing and that of course was the main attraction of our trip here.
Sing-sings are celebrations that the people have for any number of reasons. With the Christian influence peaceful gatherings have increased in order to replace the usual warfare these people engaged in regularly.
We got to wander around the grounds viewing the preparations of face painting and applying leaves and head gear. Most of the headdresses are made from the variety of birds of paradise feathers. These headdresses are highly valued and will be passed down for generations.
One of the highlights of the trip was a surprise event scheduled to honor the opening of The Mt. Hagen Tourism Bureau, and we were evidently the honorary tourists! We were lead through a gauntlet of dancers, drummers and thousands of people waving and smiling at us as if we were royalty.
Cameron was right to bring army jungle boots and the rest of us envied him while we ineptly negotiated muddy trails and slippery bamboo bridges in ridiculously inappropriate tennis shoes!
On our way to town one day we saw a group with a pig hanging from sticks, its gut cut open and entrails hanging, but still breathing. We were invited to the "Mumu" or roasting of the pig (underground with hot rocks and Taro root).
The women sleep in huts with the pigs.
There is great respect though for the ancestors and their bones are well treated and placed in miniature decorated mausoleums.
Huli Wig Men grow their hair for 18 months in order to shave it and create a wig which they decorate with pig fat, clay, flowers and feathers (they even incorporate new found items such as cardboard ad symbols).
Toilets, which were perhaps constructed just for us, are holes with a wooden platform surrounded by a thatched fence for "privacy."
From Mt. Hagen we took a small eight seater plane to another area of the Highlands called Ambua (which is Huli for yellow, a highly popular color). Planes are the main form of transport and landing on the tiny airstrips is always exhilarating.
We witnessed bizarre juxtapositions of barefoot grass-clad tribal men with cell phones handing out business cards!
Around Ambua we visited a local school where you will see all ages in one class.
We also visited a medicine man and a fortune teller. Bones and stones are a big part of this process. A few of the "stones" appeared to be old cannon balls that were left from the foreign wars that have been fought here.
The Highlands had been reasonably cool with a predictable afternoon rain, but now we were to set off to the Sepik river.
We flew on the small plane from Ambua to Timbunke. Here we began our voyage on MV Sepik Spirit, a boat that looks somewhat like an old Mississippi paddle boat, without the paddle.
Here, the river changes frequently and at times the people have to actually live on their dugout canoes if their stilt houses have been flooded.
The women fish from these tiny unstable hollowed out trees catching mostly catfish.
These tribes pride themselves on having been head hunters and not cannibals. They are also very into crocodiles. So much so that their initiation involves a month or so scarification process that leaves the skin on the back and chest looking like crocodile skin.
We visited one of the largest Spirit houses in the area, in the village of Palembie. The thatched roof is curved and on the front is a woman with her legs spread to give birth. The idea is that a woman gives birth to a baby but the men make a man.
The next village, Yentchen, performed a crocodile sing-sing that included all the children, some of the little boys with penis gourds.
The women were busy cooking the sago over fires, drying the fish and weaving the penis gourds that now are mostly for tourists to buy.
All in all we travelled over a hundred miles of rivers, from the Sepik to the Crossmeri (angry woman) and up the the Karawari, ending at the Karawari Lodge, another of the beautiful Trans Niugini Tour accommodations.
This one was built many years ago after World War II and again was filled with huge, intricate carvings including the Kamanggabe or spirit sticks that were used to detect where to find the enemy in times of war.
A surprise performance by The Karawari Bamboo Band.
We boated to the shortest grassy runway yet, with our thatched roof "terminal" and naked children "ground crew".
