March 15th
Yesterday’s ship was boringly tedious. The six-hour journey reminded of Syrian refugee movement across the sea in boats to Europe, the difference maybe was the density of persons per square meter, which was much smaller than for the refugees. Therefore bearable. In Ampana the repaired car awaits us. We start the journey to Tentena. Night trip and at 1:00am we are already in the our known hotel Victoria. Again, the Internet and communication opportunities and cheap beer. Next happiness is the lux rooms with both a western style toilet, shower and an embroidered heart-shape at head of the bed.
For breakfast, the traditional pancake with bananas. And we are ready for the road. This time take a different road. First the Saluopa waterfall. To it through a beautiful tropical garden leads a walkway. Coffee bushes, durians, cocoa trees and something like pawpaw fruit. Next shaded trail runs along a creek, which is formed from the water of the waterfall. Then comes the stage of the waterfall itself where the water is forming beautiful patterns, creeks on the rock wall. And finally the last stage of the waterfall which has a pool at the the bottom, where a water column falls in. So there we are swimming and having a massage. It was refreshing and great.
At the entrance we buy durians. In the car they give off not too pleasant scent. After a while we become accustomed to it. However, we do not know how to eat these wonderfruit. Ilgonis gets in contact with the locals who cut one with a large knife and show what is edible there. Large stones and a little flesh. It is then for eating. Durian doesn’t delight us too much, so that durian pleasure goes to the locals.
We go through the local villages. In one village at every home there are Indian-hindu formations. Looks like this village represents Hindu supporters. On the other hand, Christians are already preparing for Easter. Preparing celebration space, bring palm tree branches for the celebration. In some villages there are crosses near the houses. Elsewhere the whole street is scattered with crosses. Again the narrow roads. It looks like the region is the rice granary. Rice in different stages of maturity. Planted in one place, in another already being harvested. The road runs along the Lake Poso. We stop at a place where there should be orchids. But nothing, they are not there. However, there is a lake and a naked bathing.
We continue the journey and whoops. A bar in front of the road. Roadworks. Need to stay bored for 3 hours. It is expected that only at 17:00 the road will open. The road builders do not want to work and, therefore, the road gets opened sooner. The mountain road turns into a flat coastal highway. It starts to rain. The gray car has a problem again. The oncoming car breaks the mirror of the gray one. What to do, how to live on? The car has an insurance. We are going to find the police to confirm the accident. The policeman doesn’t want to do anything, only a photo taken together with white people. The lease owner gets called, who says it is an ordinary case in these latitudes, and no report is required. We are looking for a hotel. The hotel was the worst of our entire trip. Settled for the night we are looking for where to eat. Some fish and beer. And have a good night.
Agnese’s notes:
The road on the west side of the lake Poso is good enough albeit narrow. The sights are definitely better on this side and since there were roadworks on the other side, it might be that this road is also faster.
As it turned out later, the car owner wasn’t saying that all is ok and that no report and even no mirror fixing is required, even though that is exactly what the policeman told us after calling the owner. Don’t trust them with the first time, ask to confirm again and again…
There were 3 rooms with air condition in the Wisma Surya guesthouse of Palopo town, but they were not very clean. However, it was possible to arrange normal food for the breakfast instead of bread with jam only.