Welcome to the Jungle - Sort of...

After being in a jungle of tourists in North Sulawesi we decided to head to a real jungle: Lore Lindu National Park. We did not know a whole lot about the place other than there were some rainforest and some opportunities for trekking. We didn't hear about any other tourists who were heading that way so we packed our bags and got moving.

We ended up on a bus that took more than twenty four hours but was suprisingly comfortable. It was quite a windy road since it passes through many mountain ranges but was paved the entire way which we were not expecting. We passed from the much more affluent and Christian Minahasa region where beautiful wooden houses and churches were prevalent into a noticeably poorer area. After driving through the night we were awakened to an area that had been extremely deforested. The mangroves on the coast were only stumps and many of the hills were littered with recently burned trees. It was quite disheartening and a drastic change from what we had seen in the north.

We finally arrived at our destination of Palu which is the largest city in Central Sulawesi and got a good night's rest after the long journey. The next day came the visit to the Lore Lindu Park Office. We discovered that Lore Lindu has one of the largest tracts of forest left in Indonesia and this in addition to a large range in elevation means a great deal of biodiversity. We also found that there is an expansive list of wildlife found within the park boundaries including anao (mini buffalo), babirusa (deer pig) and monkeys to name a few. We knew that we probably would not see many but it was exciting to hear that there was such a great area of forest and we were going to be hiking in it.

We headed on our way the next day and were ready to get some hiking in after spending days on a bus and in a city. Our first plan was to spend some time at the large lake in the center of the park called Danau Lindu (danau = lake in Bahasa Indonesia) where there was an enclave of people within the park. We took a car to the turnoff for the "trail," which was actually the only road to the lake from that particular side of the park. The road is narrow and harrowing and thus can only be traversed by motorcycles. At the beginning of the road, we were greeted by ten people wanting to take us to the lake by motorcycle or at least to carry our bags for us. (In a strange show, one of the porters tried lifting my bag while moaning and groaning about how heavy it was...if he could barely lift it, how was he supposed to carry it for me?)


We opted for walking rather than the motorcycle (we were here to hike weren't we?) and I am sure glad we did. This would have been a pretty scary motorcycle ride and it actually turned out to be a scary hike at times with literally hundreds of motorcycles plying the narrow steep path during our 6 hour hike. They plied the road piled with fish and rice from the lake or cement and other necessary products for the villages by the lake. The trail was the only way in and out of the area and the people used it whole-heartedly.All of the traffic was not exactly what we envisioned when we planned to go hiking in the dark depths of the forest, but it was still a great hike. We saw many massive trees along the way (much bigger than we have seen in the Philippines - they would have surely been cut down there, especially if they were so close to the road). We were also greeted by the racous calling of red knobbed hornbills, which are indigenous to the island. We had already seen these flashy, gorgeous birds in Tangkoko and were not expecting many more but saw about 15 along the way. As for the motorcycles:

After an arduous hike with our heavy packs we arrived in the village of Tamado, which is situated on the lake. We found the local homestay, where we crashed after a delicious dinner. The next day, the owner of the homestay who is also one of two park rangers in the area took us on a monkey hunt. We hiked through dense plantations of cocoa and coffee until we reached the edge of the enclave. Along the way we didn't see any monkeys but there were a few birds and a few very large trees which had been cut down to be used as dug-out canoes but they were mysteriously abandoned before the job was completed. After about 5 hours of wandering through the plantations and the forest we arrived at a little stream where the guide said was a favorite haunting ground of the monkeys. We waited, but alas, it was in vain. As we headed back through the cocoa thicket our guide noticed cocoa pods which had recently been eaten. Apparently, after we left the area the monkeys came to steal a little treat but they didn't stay long enough for us to catch a glimpse because they were frightened by the loud sounds of a chainsaw in the distance.

The next day our guide took us to another spot near the enclave's boundary in order to spot monkeys and we found a small group who swung from trees in the distance. We tried to chase them to get a better view but alas the monkeys escaped again. These creatures were certainly not as tame as the ones in Tangkoko and it is interesting how much their behavior changes due to human influence. The monkeys in this area are certainly not as well liked by the farmers in the area because of the damage they cause to the cocoa and other crops. The monkeys are in turn hunted and run when there is any sign of a human. Once we finished our short hike in the forest, our guide took us to the edge of the lake to get a better look at a monkey. Unfortunately this one was tied up next to a house and served as a pet to one of the locals.

The next day we left this serene little community on the lake which was different than we had expected but left us with a good impression.