Day 279: Another School Visit – Island Hopping on Insanely Gorgeous Beaches
Marino met us at 8 am this morning on the beach in front of our hotel. Today’s adventure: Snorkeling and island hopping around the Flores Sea!
But first: A stop 30 minutes away across the bay at a village and school to once again do the whole school supplies delivery thing. James was braver this time and did some of the passing out and hand shaking. Don’t need to get into my feelings on white savior charity again. We did our thing and carried on.
The walk from the school to the village was memorable.
The school is on a small island north of Flores. The village is on an even smaller island, attached to the school island by a long rocky jetty. Really removed.
As we walked along the jetty, some elementary students from the school we’d just visited walked along with us on their way home. They were singing and laughing and bounding along on the rocks. Loved that moment.
The village itself was simple and poor like the stilt village from the day before yesterday — but there was one massive difference: This village was pristine. No trash. None. Not only that, but each dirt stoop was swept and each house had flower boxes or trees planted out front. There was a real pride of home here.
(We passed the “trash man’s” house — it was a hoarder-looking situation with plastic and clothes literally bursting out from every door and window — but it was contained to that one place.)
We asked Marino why this village would be different from the other one, and he told us that the village chief here was really strict about cleanliness.
Leadership!
The village even had a colorful sign at the entrance listing its values (from what I could figure out from Google translate): Safe, Orderly, Clean, Beautiful, Friendly.
There were actually happy kids running through the streets flying trash kites and hitting old tires with sticks — old timey games out of some “simpler time” cliche.
This isn’t a show for tourism — there aren’t tourists here except people Marino brings by, which aren’t many. It’s for the health of the community. Nice job, chief!
On that note, we piled back in the boat and rode another 30 minutes to a spot for snorkeling.
Wow, is it insanely gorgeous out here. Bright turquoise water that’s so clear you can see straight down 12 feet to coral below.
I feel like I’ve done the Indonesian snorkeling thing — I’ve checked the box — so I simply swam. Ignorance is bliss, if you ask me.
Meanwhile Teddy snorkeled and the kids had their best snorkeling outing of the year. That’s because they had life jackets their size for once AND they simply floated on top of life preservers while being tugged along by guys from the boat. Used their own goggles and put their face in the water when they wanted to. No worries about swimming, clinging to daddy, big waves or being too submerged. It was great.
Teddy swam way out with our captain while the crew brought the boat over to them and picked them up 15 minutes later.
Eventually we pulled the boat up to a white sand stretch of deserted beach straight out of a postcard. No buildings, no other people, not even a shack selling coconut water. Nothing.
We ate a picnic lunch with Marino of grilled fish and rice and sliced mango under a tree. Sounds like a joke.
Spent the next two hours frolicking, taking pictures, wading out to a sandbar, looking for shells, laughing at all the tiny hermit crabs, pinching ourselves.
Indonesia saved the best for last…
Where was everyone? Marino said if people come to this part of Flores it’s just to see the crater lakes and Komodo island and then leave again, because that’s what the guidebooks tell them to see. Those things were amazing, but this was incredible too.
Here’s to having local guides who know what’s up.
We didn’t want to leave, but eventually peeled ourselves away for another snorkeling jaunt nearby on the boat (Teddy said it was the best yet).
James and Willa opted to stay on board, ate fruit and Willa read “Dog Man” comics to James (she’s read them all but for some reason is taking a break from Harry Potter to deign to re-read them to her little brother for hours on end. Heaven for parents).
I always want to remember bobbing on the waves, the sound of Willa quietly reading aloud while the crew laughed and joked together in Indonesian. Nowhere to be.
Then we rode the 1.5 hours back in the setting sun to our hotel while the kids dozed.
Back at home we re-racked our Chi Cha Lounge setup — beers, peanuts, the last of the cut mango and endless Rat a Tat Cat on our porch. Can we bottle this moment please??? When will Thursday afternoons ever get better than this???
For dinner, we did the same program. Indonesian food from the kitchen out at the “beach bar” restaurant. Another lovely, chill night.
I was asleep by 8:30 pm.
MISC:
I think this is the tannest I’ve been since I worked the desk at Casa Del Sol tanning salon in DC in 1997 (crriiiiiiiinge – I know, I know). Even Irish Teddy is bronzed. It’s bad. I will miss tropical living, but I think it’s time for us to get out of the sun. We leave for Australia on Sunday.
This pristine beach was only trash-free because the current was blowing everything to another section. It was all there, just out of sight from where we were. Uggggggggh.
