ZECO TRAVEL TALK

Zegrahm Director Kevin Clement recently returned from an extraordinary trip to Manado and the northern tip of Sulawesi Island. Thrilled with his experiences, he agreed to share some of the many trip highlights with our Zeco Travel Talk readers.

On the map, the sprawling island of Sulawesi, formerly known as Celebes, has a shape that resembles nothing so much as a giant squashed spider. The northernmost tip of the northern leg, a region known as Minahasa, is a place seldom visited by outsiders. Everywhere I went people were surprised and pleased to see a Westerner. The land rises from the coast into volcanic mountains, dotted with villages caught between the ancient and the modern. We visited several fascinating places outside of Manado:

• An hour-and-a-half into the mountains outside the capital city of Manado is Tomohon and it’s deservedly famous market. Bustling with traders, this place is renowned even among Indonesians, for the variety of weird things people eat in the region. Many people in the area still get around by horse-drawn two-wheeled carts, which function like cheap, short-range taxis.
• Another nearby landmark is the lovely Lake Tondano, with its over-the-water restaurants, bamboo fish traps, and fishing boats of antique design. It’s surrounded by rice fields festooned with flocks of flags and banners to scare birds, fluttering against the backdrop of the looming mountains.
• In nearby Walowan, the main road is an open air showroom of traditional Minahasa-style houses that are designed to be broken down, shipped somewhere, and then reassembled. There are many designs—in fact, each house is unique. They are also gorgeous—the people are real craftsmen.
• Also in the mountains is attractive Lake Linau, a small pocket lake in a still-active crater. There is a well maintained trail along the lake from which you see boiling shallows, fumaroles, and steam rising from several points around the lake.

From Bitung, on the opposite side of the peninsula to Manado, the options for exploring are just as varied. The village of Waruga contains an important archaeological site. In the back of the colorful modern cemetery is an ancient one, with 149 stone jar tombs, some of which are 1,800 years old. They are all elaborately carved with human and animal figures as well as marks that indicate the number of bodies interred within. It’s an impressive sight.

Tangkoko Nature Reserve is a great spot for birding enthusiasts in search of Sulawesi endemics. We set out into the reserve by boat from Batuputih and had a very successful afternoon with sightings of Sulawesi owls and green-backed and lilac-cheeked kingfishers. But the best part of my time in the reserve was seeing the tarsiers. Tarsiers, tiny, big-eyed primates no larger than your hand, are, I must say, some of the coolest little animals I’ve seen in a long time. In the company of a local guide, we visited a “tarsier tree,” which is a strangler fig, with a complex trunk with many hollow spaces and crevices. The tarsiers are active at dawn, heading for their crevices to bed down for the day, and at dusk, as they head out for an evening of hunting insects.

Just off the coast of Northern Sulawesi lie the Bunaken Islands. I visited three islands of the group, Bunaken, Manado Tua, and Silauden, places renowned for their diving and snorkeling. The moment I dropped into the water, I knew why. The snorkel and dive sites are along coral walls and drop-offs with an abundance of small fish and tunicates—so many that it was like I was floating over the edge of a brightly-painted skyscraper during a multi-colored ticker tape parade. Water clarity was excellent, with a good 70 feet of visibility and no noticeable current. Any of the sites I visited could be the snorkeling highlight of any trip I’ve ever been on.

Coming from an avid explorer who has made expedition travel a full-time profession, this insight has officially moved our Best of Indonesia expeditions in February / March 2010 to the top of my wish list!