April 29, 2025
Welcome Commitee
Today we stopped at Alotau, PNG. Everyone took a bus tour. The bus we rode was the prison bus, they used every bus on the Island, literally. We learned that 90% of the people of PNG are unemployed. Looking around, you would not ever guess that. The city was clean, the housing was modest. Our guide said that everyone was a gardener, fisherman, hunter or gatherer of fruits. That is what everyone lives on.
Even the children danced in their costumes
After some time at the local market, we went to a village where we were treated to ceremonial dances, clay pot cooking, coconut husking and shredding.
This gut even started a fire with 2 sticks. I tried that a lot when I was a kid, but he actually made it look easy, way better than they do on Survivor.
A young family, both Mom and Dad had red teeth. I noticed that several of the dancers had red teeth, and our guide told us about Betel Nuts. Betel nut, also known as areca nut, is the seed of the areca palm tree. It’s a common ingredient in betel quid, a stimulant chewed in many parts of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. However, betel nut chewing is associated with significant health risks, including increased cancer rates and cardiovascular diseases.
Kim tried to sneek this little guy out in her back pack.
Okay, so we took too many pictures of the children…..
Over all, it was an enjoyable day, but very hot and humid.
The following day we were at Conflict Island, so named by the discoverer while on a ship name the Conflict. We are now in what is called The Coral triangle. T is called this because thr best snorkeling and diving in the world is right under us.
Kim went snorkeling in the morning and saw Nemo! She also saw the giant clams that you probably thought were only found in cartoons.
She came back to the ship for lunch, then we both went back to the Island to do some swimming, yep, that’s me. Another beautiful day.
As I said, this crowd is more lively, and again, all I was doing is listening. We were docked at Alotau and when it was time to leave, we had to back out. As I mentioned, it’s a poor country. I kind of assume a lot of sewage gets dumped straight into the Ocean in places like this. I was up on deck 9 watching the sail away and there were 3 women in a hot tub close to me. As the ship churned up the water, there was the unmistakable smell of sewage, well at least I thought it was (unmistakable, that is). One of the women asked what that smell was and her friend said “oh that, it’s the exhaust from the ship burning fuel. It will go away once we turn around and start going forward”. Well, to my amazement, she was absolutely correct, once we were out of the port and going forward, the smell went away. Wow!
And then, while sitting at the pool, a couple walk out and he says to her “tonight, the sun will go down over here.” I look, get my phone out pull up the compass app and sure enough he just pointed to the East. “We are in the Southern Hemisphere now, everything is opposite”, he told her. It reminded me of the time we were in Key West, standing at the southerly most point of land waiting with about a hundred others to see the sunset. A guy says “this is the only place in America that you can see the sun set in the Ocean”. Wow, didn’t I tell you that these trips were educational?
Now, we have 3 straight days at sea, so I will be listening for more wise educators.
More later
Hi Steve, You are going to get extra credit for all that listening. I look forward to your next blog post!