Labuhan Bajo

I managed to fly from Yogyakarta to Denpasar and book a flight to Labuhan Bajo within a couple hours. In the airport I met another American, Eric from California. We were seated together, shared a taxi to town, and before we parted ways, we'd booked a two day boat trip to Rinca and Komodo Islands along with a French couple, a Brit and a Spaniard. The boat left early the next morning with the six of us under the care of a three Indonesians, one a pretty darned good cook.

Rinca Island was our first stop. This is where the Komodo National Park begins. Komodo dragons are huge lizard-looking creatures and six feet long would be considered a small one. They are seemingly slow moving, lazy creatures but the truth is, they lie in wait, blending into shadows until something meaty should pass too closely. Then they can move and yes, they eat meat. There is a story they like to tell us that a Swiss tourist was devoured, all but his camera, and his skull was later found a distance away. I can't help but wonder if the dragon spit out his passport, too. We learned that a dragon can have up to 30 babies and they eat each other down to maybe three before they leave the nest. We were shown a few holes and told that one is the nest and the other decoys to fool predators. This island was very dry and I noticed a lot of petrified wood and fossilized coral along the trail.

Komodos hanging around the camp kitchen.

A water buffalo that could actually be the next meal, believe it or not.

The skulls of some hapless victims.

After a good Indonesian lunch of rice, fish, tempeh and soup, we headed for a good place to go snorkeling. By the time we got to the reef, I was getting a little queasy from the sea getting choppy and the wakes of other boats headed for the same spot. I donned my gear with the help of Tony from Barcelona, and paddled off to look for the good stuff. At first I found interesting corals, a little muted, but then the water got shallower and warmer and the view below became magnificent. I have no photos but will try to describe it. There were corals covered in grassy-fingerlike things that waved like hair as the tide moved, while, pinkish, mauve. Then there were big round flat plants, I think, that reminded me of lily pads that weren't split in the middle. They were more olive green in color and their edges curled up a little as the currents moved them. Between clumps of coral were many little round circles of an almost lime green color. This alone was awesome, even without the fish. Oh! the fish:stripes of gold and black, day glow blues...it was like swimming around in a huge aquarium. But then my queasiness got worse so I paddled back to the boat and proceeded to have a miserable evening after losing my lunch off the back of the boat.

We arrived at Komodo Island first thing in the morning and took the usual guided trail. Our guide was very young and it was his first trip alone. He carried a forked walking stick that is supposed to deter an aggressive dragon by poking them in the nose with the forked end. We actually saw more dragons here than on Rinca Island which was unexpected. I couldn't help but notice that the island deer hung out awfully close to those dragons without seeming worried about who would be the next meal.

More snorkling, a fruitless search for manta rays, then back to Labuhan Bajo where we ran out of gas, less than fifty feet from the docks. More on LBJ later.