Tuesday, April 23
We had a great day! We rented a scooter and started early and got up on Kelimutu mountain. The mountain is famous for its three colored lakes. One is turquoise like the glacial lakes in the Canadian rockies, one is rusty brown and the other is dark blue/black. It's rather interesting that the blue and brown are right next to each other. it was a beautiful cool morning, clear skies and barely any people aroound it, was great to feel Kenny's presence.
We have been missing this, there are always people around which is no surprise the country is overpopulated, I believe it's the third most populated in the world.
We hiked around for a while and then we headed down on our scooter in a neutral. It was great, the scenery was just beautiful, rice paddies everywhere, tucked in the misty mountain ranges.
Got back to Moni and tried to get some fruit at the weekly market. In the whole market I counted 2 papayas, a few bananas and 5 avocados they treat the avocados as fruit. It was unbelievable, we are in a tropical country and we can barely find fruit! I ended up with a papaya and a string of bananas. We headed back to negotiate on a new scooter. Prices have doubled in the last couple of years and the locals are constantly testing the tourists, so this involves tiering negotiations. we managed to get the scooter for $6 for a few hours. The one in the morning was an old wreck but they try to make money with everything.
We left around 1pm and started riding in the mountains, it was absolutely beautiful but we wanted more so we veared off at an intersection and took a side road. People as usual were so thirled to see us. Every time they would spot us whether from the fields, their own motorbikes or home and they would yell out, hello mister, hello miss! They have been so curious about us, white people. We never experienced anything like this in any other countries! They kept coming up to us and use their few English words from their vocabulary. Kids try everything to get our attention, so adorable!
So we kept riding and soaking in the stunning views until we spotted the ocean, we got excited, maybe we can get down to a beach? Sure thing the road was leading down to the coast to a muslim fishing village. The setting was stunning, turquoise water, surf pounding on the the big pebbles and fishing boats launched on the white pebbles with the village facing the ocean. Stunning! We rode down and kids as usual ran up to us. The afternoon turned out to be a social event. The villagers were so friendly and so curious. I ended up teaching the kids English and Kenny checked out the hand made cannoes. There was a particular boy we bounded with, he was so eager to learn English. His face was so lit every time I woud call on him. His eyes said everything. We spent several hours there, I even forgot that I didn't eat all day!
In the end I got his mailing address, took about an hour but got it and we bought him an English book in Ende 2 days later and shipped it to him. I know that he neither will ever forget this day. It was so touching!
People live on a copule of dollars a day in shaks but they seem happy. Throughout the trip I felt the apreciation of what we have, it puts everyting in perspective.
