Category: Oceania

The next stop on our cruise is Ali Island. It seems that every island is keen to show off, and the people of Ali Island are certainly no exception. As is the practice, we are ferried to shore in our workhorse zodiac and we are greeted by the locals dressed in their finest costumes. All the guests that want to go ashore do, and when we are all there the program starts. There are five villages on Ali Island and they are all certain to try to outdo each other in their singing and dancing. 

Each group does a performance and then the next tries to one-up them. All ages, and I do mean ALL, are involved, and it is interesting to see the older women teaching the young ones where to put their feet, how to use their hands and it is so interesting to see the small children all eager to learn. The six and seven and eight year old boys have tiny drums and are emulating their older brothers and uncles and fathers. The tiny little girls are trying their best to follow the intricate footsteps of their sisters and aunts and mothers. The grandmothers keep everyone in line, in step, in their place, and the program continues apace. 

After all the groups have had a couple of turns, because they all do several dances, there is time for a village tour. When I said there were five villages, it is not readily apparent where one starts and the next ends. Maybe it is the solar powered streetlight that separates them. Maybe it is just that large tree that marks the village boundary, but you need to be a local to know which is which. The overriding impression is of a clean, neat, well-ordered home for these friendly people. There is a Catholic Church, rectory and graveyard near the dead-centre of the settlement and the tour formally ended there. Individually the people from the Silver Explorer wandered around or went for a swim or snorkel until it was time to go back to the ship for lunch.

I went for a swim, as did about half of the tourists. And EVERY SINGLE CHILD on the island. There were kids everywhere. Every one of them swam like fishes, and for every one of us there seemed to be a half a dozen kids. Apparently I looked like a diving platform as about five young lads decided to climb on top of me and see how far they could jump off. I helped and about 3 or 4 turns in, kids were getting launched into low trajectory orbit from me and a couple of the other bigger men.

There is an on board newspaper of sorts that outlines the coming events and has a few other tidbits in it. One of those is the weather report. Tuesday 13 September Partly cloudy with some rain in the afternoon. High 82 F/27 C. Low  79F/25 C.

That sounds survivable.

We are in Cenderawasih Bay Indonesia. Cenderawasih Bay is Indonesian for Bird of Paradise. The island of New Guinea looks like a big bird, and we are in the neck part just below the head.  The Auri Islands are part of a maritime park that encompasses about 30 square miles and has some of the most pristine coral reefs in Indonesia. And we get to swim on them!!!!

To disembark everyone from the ships we are broken out into groups and loaded on the zodiacs in regular intervals. Apparently it’s “FAIR” to rotate everyone so I’m not always first. We are transported to the beach and we get the opportunity to get right out to the reef. It is about 100 meter swim out to where there is a drop off and the coral is alive with a huge abundance of every kind of fish you can think of and many you have never seen before. The water temperature is about 27 C so you definitely get tired before you get cold. An hour and a half of snorkeling and enjoying ourselves and we were kicked out of the water to catch one of the last boats back to the ship.

That was the morning swim and it got better on the next island, the next reef. The coral was better. The fish were better. There were fewer people around so even the limited competition we had in the morning was better. And finally we got to swim from a snorkel platform so we didn’t have to “waste time” getting to the good stuff. Slip into the water and WOW! The snorkel platforms were set up about 300 meters apart and against a mild current took about 45 minutes to swim to the opposite one. Photos, stopping to watch fish and look at coral meant it was not an arduous swim at all. The trip back took about a half hour and again we were on one of the last boats to go to the ship.

Enjoy every adventure you can and get your money’s worth it is so much fun.