Blowin' Bubbles Our Story ~ 2011-2019: Tual #2, And On Our Way West...

After getting re-supplied and re-stocked, we decided not to rush off from Tual before getting our first "taste" of Indonesia. First, English is RARELY spoken here and Second, (for the most part) Indonesians are the friendliest people we have encountered on our journey so far.

You can't go anywhere or do anything around her without a wave and a smile followed by a "Hey Mister!" They are not trying to sell us anything, they just seem genuinely happy to see strangers...

Tual is predominantly a Muslim community and mosques are everywhere. The biggest mosque was located in the center of Tual and we could hear prayers over the incredibly LOUD speakers 4 times every day, beginning at 5am...

Notice the HUGE drum on the left side of the picture.

There is food everywhere! From the small family kiosks selling fresh everything, to restaurants with today's menu ACTUALLY in the window....

We had lunch here which consisted of rice, noodles, chicken and iced tea for a total of $7 ($3.50 each!).

We never did find out why they dye the chicks here. Shelley thought it might have been a way to separate the boys and girls... If that is the case, what is going on with the red one???

The same guy who put the electric wires up in Cozumel must have come here too....

Did i mention they like bright colors?

On the other side of a large bridge was the city of Langgur. which is predominantly Christan (mostly Catholic with about 30% Protestant). It was here we were able to purchase a case of beer (you gotta like Christians) and it was here we found a grocery store that was in a small way similar to something we would find in North America.

Our driver and new best friend, Tucan. He drove us everywhere we needed to go and spoke passable English. We paid him $10 per hour which by local standards is quite a windfall. We were both happy.

Just outside Langgur was a Catholic shrine located at the highest point on the whole peninsula. Christians here often make pilgrimages to the top of this hill (mountain?) especially around Easter. As we slogged our way up I couldn't help wonder just how difficult it must have been to get all that concrete up that "hill".

Along the way the whole story of the "Passion of Christ" is depicted in art and statues....

The journey culminates with the resurrected Christ at the top of the hill looking out over the "world"

Shelley decided to climb to the very top of the statue, while I was content to take her picture from below...

At least the trip down was easy... but by this time we were all pretty thirsty... Someone selling cool drinks would make a fortune here!

From Tual we headed southwest. After a boisterous overnight sail we arrived at a small village called Tutumetal. It was here we visited our first school in Indonesia.(Story HERE)

From there we travelled along the south eastern chain of Indonesian islands eventually arriving here at Lewoleba the largest town since Tual where we are anchored so we can re-provision a little before continuing west.

Along the way we have encountered some very small settlements where people pretty much subsistence live. We traded and have given away so many thing we take for granted in our world... Things we had were ball caps, t-shirts, perfume, rice, sugar, school supplies, reading glasses and fishing stuff. What we received were smiles, waves 2 shells and 2 lobsters! We were also offered some taro root and coconuts, which we declined. Did I mention these folks have nothing!

We also saw countless fishing boats who were either harvesting seaweed or fishing.. (We have heard, but not yet seen them use dynamite for the latter... :(

Over the last 4 days we have sailed for 3 days and had to motor the last 24 hours into Lewoleba. Unfortunately, I stupidly forgot to turn off a valve after I had used the watermaker the other day and it backwashed almost all our fresh water off the boat.... So, in the last 24 hour run we were able to make enough water to re-fill the tanks....

We arrived, anchored in the bay and went to town for provisions. Again, we had one of those amazing lunches. This one included soup and was $5 for the two of us!.... At these prices, Shelley may never cook again!