Tomahon, North Sulawesi

Ok, one month later, life gets going fast, it's almost time for summer break and I still haven't written anything about the second leg of our North Sulawesi journey into the mountains.  It was a 2 night stay, cooler than on the island, and the landscape, outside of 'overall tropical', was completely different.  My favourite landscape photo was of a volcano we stayed near.  In the early morning the moon was slowly sinking down the blue sky while the sun worked its way upwards, and I attempted to get a nice, clean shot of it all.  In doing so, I intentionally kept out a plume of yucky brown smoke that just made the photo a little 'dirtier.'  Later, as I looked at our friend Jeff's photos of the same mountain on that same morning, I realized I had missed out on an opportunity to photograph the volcano smoking...I thought the smoke was from a nearby village.  Duh.

Our transfer from Bunaken to Manado's port was quite uneventful, which is always good when you're on water, but we did see a unique sight at the port itself.  Yellowfin tunas were being transported from a boat to a small truck, and it was quite something to see young guys haul 100 kg frozen tuna onto their shoulders, skirt up a skinny, worn wooden plank and plop the frozen fish into the truck.  I've seen big salmon and West Coat fish, but these were BIG.

Once in the mountains, we took advantage of the terrain and went white water rafting.  That, by far, was my favourite part of this trip.  I think I grinned the whole way down the river and then some.  That was a first for me, as was peering over the edge of a volcano into the crater below.  That didn't thrill me nearly as much as the hike up the volcano, with the fields of varying crops on all sides, in various shades of greens and browns.  Absolutely lovely!

Of course, how can you get the full feeling of a place unless you go shopping?  Just before our trip up the volcano, we needed to find 3 year old Caleb a pair of shoes, as he lost the only ones he had.  As his parents and the rest of the gang dug through shoes, chose the perfect pair, and dickered for a good price, Matthew and I wandered around and took a bunch of photos.  My favourite 'person' photo was this one of an older woman in the market.  She was quite willing to pose for me, although it's the candid shot of her than I like the best.  If ever I had to take a survey, I think that Sulawesi is by far the most friendly place to visit in Indonesia (with Jogjakarta a close 2nd), and this woman epitomizes that for me.

There was more to our trip in the mountains, with a hike into a waterfall, free massages for each cabin, dinner with friends and even a movie channel in the villa!
It was a super "Spring" break for our family, and traveling with other families was a great way to go.  Indonesia is such a huge country and we'd like to experience a bit of every part of it, so who knows if we'll ever go back to Sulawesi.  I hope that sometime in the future we'll have another opportunity, and if you're thinking of visiting, I highly recommend it.

Thanks for reading.