Blogs from Tana Toraja, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Asia - page 4

See text in English below 2 - 3 diciembre 2009 Después de visitar el mercado de Bolu tomamos un autobús y fuimos hasta un pueblo no muy lejano. Íbamos a dar un paseo durante dos días. De este pueblito, que no sé ni nunca supe cómo se llamaba, andaríamos hasta Batutumonga, arriba en la montaña, y de Batutumonga, el día siguiente, iriamos de vuelta a Rantepao. Tana Toraja es un jardín, nos decía Astro, y nos iba mostrando tan feliz todos los tipos de plantas que encontrábamos. Daba caralemos a los niños que salían a nuestro encuentro y saludaba a todos los paisanos que nos cruzábamos. Con todos algo hablaba, pues es de mala educación, según nos contó, no preguntar por el tiempo, la familia, el trabajo o la salud. Vimos arrozales, bosquecillos de bambú, café, ... read more

It was extremely hard to leave the beauty and sanctity of the Togean Islands. Indeed we could all have stayed there forever, but there was still a lot more of Sulawesi to see. We moved from travelling by sea to travelling in a Kijang (4WD) that had a criminally low amount of tread on it's tyres. Having stopped at a garage we hoped that perhaps a new set of tyres may be on the menu but all they did was put the tyre on the other way around and off we went. We then journeyed in the Kijang all day, arriving in Poso under the cover of darkness as the town experienced a complete power cut. By 10pm we were on a rickety old bus bound for Makassar that was being piled up with ice boxes ... read more

See text in English below 1- 5 diciembre 2009 Visitamos varios lugares, entre mercados, funerales, bodas y paseos. Siempre fuimos con nuestro guía Astro, que nos explicaba, a veces emocionado, lo que significa la muerte para los torajas. Visitamos Lemo, Ke'te' kesu', Suaya y Londa, posiblemente los "monumentos" más famosos de toda Tana Toraja. Lemo fue el primer lugar al que fuimos, justo el día después de llegar a Rantepao. Es un acantilado de basalto agujereado como un queso para llenarlo de ataúdes. Se abren ventanas y balcones en la piedra, desde que se asoman los tau taus, es decir, las efigies de los muertos. Tienen una mano abierta, para así recibir los regalos de los vivos, y la otra mano levantada para llenarlos de bendiciones. Es un lugar histórico, con más de un siglo de ... read more

He was very nervous. Something was different. He'd been led by the nose many times but this time there was a large number of people watching and an overwhelming smell of blood. So, when the man staked the rope to the ground he bucked, reared up and pulled on his leash and tried to get away. But, the man reassured him so he stopped protesting so much. Minutes later there was a sudden flash. A knife slashed across his throat and blood spurted out of the buffalo's throat. He felt weak. He staggered a few steps but his strength collapsed as the blood surged at high pressure from his throat. After a couple of staggers the buffalo collapsed with a thud but he wasn't finished yet and tried to get up again. It was in vain, ... read more

5 hour boat ride from Wakai to Ampana. It was uncomfortable on the wooden boat, not much place to sit so you can have a lie down on a matt in the lower level but the locals already congregated there, so we just hung around wherever there is space. The locals gave us some corn to eat later and as we approached the main island of Sulawesi we saw a curtain of dark ominous clouds ahead of us which we hit in no time and rained heavily, luckily our packs were safe, it was dripping everywhere in the lower level but we stayed dry. At the port it was not raining and Ampana welcomed us warmly, a woman from the tourist office herded us to their office about 100 meters from the boat on the left ... read more