Alotau, Papua New Guinea

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Hurray! A new country for us. By my count this should be #77 of countries visited. Papua New Guinea shares an island with a piece of Indonesia. I previously thought Papua was a place in New Guinea but Papua New Guinea is the country named. They refer to it as  PNG. It was very hot and humid here and we had a morning tour where it rained lightly most of the morning. This is one of the poorest places we've been. The main product seems to be palm kernel oil. If people aren't living and working on a palm oil estate then they are probably living by subsistence. They eat a lot of fish and bananas and taro is farmed but only eaten for special occasions.

We were on time today, perhaps even a bit early. The schedule showed this as a tender port but we are docked on the starboard side.

We had 5 free ship's excursions included in our fare as an option we took. Today was our first free excursion. Clay paid for his to the Great Barrier Reef since it was too expensive to be included. There were some complicated rules and we basically could choose things priced under $200 pp per tour for our 5 each complimentary. I focused on small out of the way ports that would be difficult to do alone. Hence the ship's excursion here today. It was priced at $119. I am not sure that was a value but it would have been impossible otherwise.

The Destinations Department had about an hour delay as it was recruiting buses and drivers from all around to handle the 3 excursions they were staging here. Ours was Village Experience, the others were Cultural Extravaganza and Historical & Scenic Experience. We drove 19 people in a small community bus and others were school buses of the same type and vintage. We had to stay in a tour caravan. There were no armed escorts but it was a bit like traveling in Egypt. The buses were not air conditioned except when we were moving and the dust blew through the windows. We drove for about an hour, past the airport and the prison, to drive through Hagita Oil Palm Estate. We saw the mature and nursery palms and we also saw some manually harvesting work on the drive. We never stopped. First stop was advertised as Gabugabuna Villlage. The welcome sign said something else. Who knows. It was a freshly burned area with a few people seeming to live there permanently. Our guide (non of whom were trained or licensed tour guides) said each place we visited had friends and relatives all coming in for everywhere to see us visit. So there were dancers/singers/drummers on the dock to greet us in costumes. Costumes consist of a grass skirt for men or women, so bare chests. We didn't see any normal people walking around bare chested so that seemed to be for the tourists. Even the women doing laundry in the river we crossed were fully clothed. There were bare chested woman cooking traditional food at this first stop. This was the only comfort stop with a pit toilet having been freshly made for our visit. It was the biggest line of the trip. We held it. Next stop was our guide's home of Maiwara. There was a school there and a few homes. We could visit the school and watch a display of traditional war canoes. We could see Sirena across the bay. Then we drove back the way we came. We stopped at one of 2 war memorials we had passed and had 15 minutes at a nearby market. The offerings were mostly ball caps, rugby shirts and wooden carvings. Then we returned to the port and the ship. The performers had gone. It was nearly 1pm and everyone was spent from the heat, humidity and rough ride. It was somewhere new. I was the dirtiest I have been since Tsavo game drive in Kenya! I think it is the combo of sunscreen, bug spray, sweat, humidity and open air vehicles on dirt roads. Tomorrow we visit Port Moresby, the capitol of PNG. We have an afternoon excursion included there.

We should set sail in about 45 minutes at 4pm. I imagine we'll leave when all are aboard or when the longshoremen show up to cast off our ropes. We don't like the GDR menu tonight so we plan to eat at the Terrace Buffet again tonight. Clay enjoyed Oysters and Barramundi at the Fish al Fresco last night. I had a couple of arancini and a meatball! Since there is Internet now, I'll post this now.

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