YOLO in Selayer, Indonesia Sep 2013

When we finally tore ourselves away from Benteng, we headed south but couldn't clear the island before dark.  We headed into a bay and passed this 'hole in the rock' formation on the way in.

 

 We moved on to Pulasi, just south of Selayer off of Sulawesi, Indonesia.  This island was pretty and we took the dinghy in to snorkel near shore.  That's me in my big woven palm hat, keeping the sun off me as much as possible.  I snorkel in a t-shirt to keep from getting fried in the water.  The socks take up the slack in the fins that are sized to fit Jason.  Mine got crunched and broken and I don't have a spare pair.

 Looking further down the beach on Pulasi.  This outcrop stopped the beach.

 Another view of the beach at Pulasi from under that overhang in the picture above.

 The guys who showed up with coconuts, wanting to trade for benzene (gasoline/petrol).  We didn't have enough to spare but we ended up with six of those coconuts on YOLO anyway.  I gave them some t-shirts and they got their fuel from OOB II.

Jason and Lyn off Out of the Blue II on Jailamu Island, our next stop after Pulasi.  This is as close to Taka Bonerate as we got, and it was gorgeous!  You can see YOLO on the left in the background beyond the reef. 

 Jason and Karen in a glamour shot on Jailamu.  We'd been snorkeling and wading to shore, so we are all wet.

 Chris from Out of the Blue II joined us for another glamour shot on Jailamu.

 Karen and Lyn sitting on a driftwood tree on Jailamu in southern Indonesia.

 When we were leaving, the tide was coming in and the local boats could get into the deep pool just off the shore inside the reef.  Made for deep wading back to the dinghy but such is life.

Jason and Chris took a tour without the women one day and these were their guides.  They are in the mosque in Benteng in Indonesia.

 Another view from the Regent's villa just south of Benteng, where we had dinner two nights in a row.  A beautiful spot that he is building a tourist hotel on so he can have paying guests one day.

 Karen at the bottom of the stairs to the sea at the Regent's villa.  The water was nice and clear and you could swim under the rocky overhangs into small cave-like spaces.  Very nice.....

 Lyn enjoying the private beach at low tide at the Regent's villa before we had dinner with his daughter and her children.

 Sunset from the villa.

 A knife fighting ceremony to welcome us to Turtle Village.

 The kids providing drum music at our welcome.  They don't look so thrilled to see us, but we found out later they had been waiting for hours for us.

 The drummer boy in his traditional dress.

 Jason stirring the palm sugar in a hut where they process the palm sap into sugar to sell.

 Some old ladies watching us wander through their village.  Aren't the faces great?  And I love the woven palm hat on the lady on the left. 

 At Tangkeno, the eco village up in the highlands, this was the tray of stuff used to bless a representative yachtie couple.  Some leaves, some tobacco and a cigarette, the green betel nuts and some other things we didn't recognize. We didn't understand the significance of the items, but there is a ceremonial use for them all.

 The school children with their bamboo instruments welcomed us at Tangkeno with some musical numbers and then marched along with us to the luncheon site.

 Ladies at lunch in Tangkeno.  Ladies are supposed to put their legs off to the sides, while men sit cross-legged.  It's considered rude to point your feet at anyone so we had to sit in uncomfortable positions a lot.  We just aren't used to sitting this way.  That's me in the green t-shirt and Lyn next to me.  We are in a raised ceremonial house with a big open floor where we all sat and had a great lunch.

 A closeup view of the cloves drying on the tarps at the dock.  They turn from pinkish red to yellow and then brown as they dry, usually over six days.  Then they are bagged and sold to mix with tobacco to make cigarettes. Lots of men smoke here still and the clove cigarettes are the most popular.

 Lunch our first day in Benteng, Selayer, Indonesia.  I'm sitting next to Sam, our Sail Indonesia rep in the lower right.  Food just kept coming and we paid only for what we actually ate--a serving method called 'makam padang'.

 Jackfruit growing on a tree.  Inside are creamy yellow sections that each have a large seed in them.  You nibble the flesh off the seeds inside. 

 Locals on a fishing boat that stayed anchored near us in Benteng.  It would be aground when the tide went out and it would lean over.  We know it floated as it changed direction with the tides.