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No part of this trip was short.
We flew back from Rabaul to Port Moresby and had a day lay over. We kicked
back by the pool and set about stowing 150 pounds of scuba, photo and
video gear for our trip into the southern highlands. This was about
an hour and a half trip to the town of Tari. Tari consists of a
gravel airstrip surrounded by barbed wire, an Air Niugini ticket office
and the Rainbo Stoa, which is Tok Pidgin for Rainbow Store....get it?
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| This was the sign that greeted us at
the airport. Our Huli guide, Peter, escorted us over the baggage carousel
(a pile of bags under the sign depicted at the left). We proceeded
onto Ambua Lodge....a 15
mile, 2 hour trek over the world's worst roads in the world's most poorly
maintained bus.
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The weather was warm during the day with downpours every afternoon. The temperature was on the 80s during the day and in the low 50s at night. Electric blankets made the bures more comfortable since they didn't have heat. They did have flush toilet and electricity, made by Ambua's hydroelectric plant. |
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| We spent 3 full days touring the villages of the Huli wigmen. We saw them growing the hair for wigs, how the wigs are made for daily use ("everyday wig") or for sing-sings and other occasions ("ceremonial wigs"). The hair of a man is grown for 1-2 years, cut off and a wig is made out of his own hair , sometimes using natural pigments. We learned that there are approximately 2200 languages spoken on Earth and over 750 are unique to PNG. We observed the Huli women on day 2 in mourning for loss of their husbands and saw how they lived (in a separate house with the pigs. We also did some trekking into the bush to see beautiful waterfalls and get a glimpse twice of the Ribbon-tailed Astrapia (Astrapia mayeri) and the King of Saxony Bird of Paradise (Pteridophora albertisii). Beautiful, but couldn't do it all day like the pros. Click on any thumbnail below for a full-size image. | ||
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