The first time in a few days that I’ve had an Internet connection, however poor and unreliable. This is in the finely named town of Waikabubak, in the best room in the best hotel which is patronised by all the best government officials. Thus it is air conditioned and spacious, with hot water and a shower instead of a bucket. Moreover it is illuminated by a single bare white light which brings out the grime in the standard issue furniture, and is staffed by a grim, gloomy man who greeted us with a gush of air freshener and a demand for our passports.
The first few days were spent at a beach resort owned in name by a German architect and his wife from Flores, but in reality by millions of wood lice and the German had died a few months earlier. It was pleasant enough and the widow was clearly not one to stay unmarried very long, also the banana pancakes were delicious and the sea shells exceptional. But it was staying still on a very interesting island for far longer than I really like.
Today our guide collected us and took us around some remarkable villages that had clearly not changed in the past centuries, with tall thatched roofs and monumental tombs overlooking a broad estuary with crashing waves on the seaward side and crocodiles on the freshwater side. A delightful place to swim (largely to get bowled over by waves). I received my birthday present from the GF, a fine machete with a scabbard carved from wood and buffalo horn. I am extremely pleased with it and learned to peel a mango with it. Apparently men on Sumba must present a similar machete to prospective fathers-in-law.
Another stop was at an impossibly beautiful lagoon with green water surrounded by lush green climbing up cliffs. On the other side of the cliffs was a violent sea channelled through an underwater gap into the lagoon. Here GF stepped on a sea urchin but happily a shaman rocked up. He chewed a reddish resinous concoction, spat several times on the affected toe and then pummelled it. Once satisfied he told the patient to bathe it in sea water and wait a few days. This alarming treatment appears to have worked.