Christmas Vacation in Tropical island of Papua

Where will you go during this Christmas holiday?

Christmas time is coming. Europe, Northern China, Japan and the United States will be in Winter again. Some people have already planned to spend their holidays in the Caribbean islands while others are probably willing to dive in Sinai region of Egypt. Well, I have a better offer to you, the tropical island of Papua. It is the largest tropical island in the world. In the world map, Papua is also called New Guinea. The eastern half of the island is administered by a free independent state of Papua New Guinea whereas the western half - the Republic of Indonesia. Indonesia is located between the continents of Asia and Australia and the Pacific and the Indian Oceans.

Beautiful coastal city
Manokwari is a very beautiful city. It stretches along the Dorey bay that is surrounded by Arfak and Table Mountains. Along the coastal region of the inner side of the bay, tourists can enjoy swimming and snorkeling at Pasir Putih beach, Maruni beach or around the Mansinam, Lemon and Raimuti islands. There are around 4 small and big lakes in the southern area of the city at the foot of Arfak mountains. 

From snorkeling to deer watching and bird watching
There are a lot of ecotourism activities which tourists can choose while traveling to Manokwari. Those who love sun bathing can go to Mansinam island. Those who love surfing can go to Pantura beach where waves from the Pacific Ocean can reach up to 3 meters on certain months from December up to April. If you are somebody who likes taking photographs of nature, Manokwari regency has a lot to offer. From underwater world of coral reef and ornamental fish in Kaki island, to lesser birds of paradise, doves, cockatooes, deers and kuskus in the head water of Kamundan river in District of Senopi, wildlife photographers will  have plenty of objects to shoot while being in tropical nature of this Papua island.

Watching Birds of Paradise in District of Senopi

Senopi is located in Kebar valley, a great savannah between Manokwari city and Sorong city. Here in this district, you can enjoy natural hot spring water that is good to cure various kinds of skin diseases. Or if you are a bird lover, you  can hike through the tropical rainforest to see cockatoo, lory and crown pigeon, or birds of paradise perform courtship dance early in the morning or a few hours before sunset at quiet slopes to seduce their female birds. In the middle of nowhere, you can soak yourself in the fresh water of Kamundan river. You will frequently hear the sounds of deer like horns of big trucks in highway. At night, accompanied by a local Papuan guide, you will have the chance to see some kuskus with their bright red eyes coming out of their hiding places. Read my other article: Birding in Senopi to know more about it.

Learning Herbal Medicine from Kwau village in Arfak Mountains
Suppose that you are a nature lover, and you are interested in studying herbal medicine. If this is one of your dreams then Kwau village is a place that I'd like to recommend to you. I know someone there who is expert in curing many kinds of diseases using herbs that grow inside the tropical rainforest of Arfak Mountains. From the treatment of intestinal worms in children's stomach to the treatment of malaria tropica, Samuel Mandacan - a "herbsman" can teach you the local wisdom of the indigenous people on how they cure diseases and ailments. His knowledge of herbal medicine is an accumulation of hundreds of years of healing tradition which has been preserved and passed down inside his family as natural healers.
Why I promote this eco-tourism destination to you?
I have been promoting eco-tourism for Manokwari regency since last year. The number of foreign tourists coming to Manokwari and its surrounding districts is increasing steadily. I hope that more tourists will come so that we can provide alternative jobs to the indigenous people both in the islands near Manokwari city and in the Arfak and Tambrauw mountains. When these indigenous people get money from providing services and goods to tourists who come to their villages, they will be more appreciative to their environment. This will greatly prevent them from giving up their lands and forest to greedy loggers and palm oil plantation investors who have caused massive environmental destruction in Prafi valley.We know that tropical rainforest absorb great amount of CO2 gases which we emit everyday. Therefore, it is the responsibility of all of us around the world to help preserve this precious environment.
How to get to Manokwari?
Well, it is not difficult to come to this city. Manokwari is the capital of West Papua province. Just check a flight to Jakarta or Denpasar (two important cities) in the Republic of Indonesia. From those cities, you can book a flight to Manokwari. Several domestic airline companies such as Batavia Air, Merpati Airline , Express  Air and Lion Air provide direct flight service from Jakarta and Makassar city to Manokwari. If you plan to spend your holiday in a tropical island this Christmas, then Manokwari city should be in your list of consideration. When you arrive in this city, it is not only one island that you  will get see and enjoy but 5 tropical islands. You can even enjoy many more if you are willing to spend another week of your Christmas holiday in this West Papua province. by Charles Roring

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• https://wildlifeminahasa.blogspot.com

Bird Watching in Aiwatar Hill of District Senopi

If you are somebody who likes bird watching then you have come to a webpage about birding in Manokwari regency of West Papua province. I visited Senopi, a small district, in Tambrauw mountains last August 2010. I went there as a tourist guide who accompanied Wim and Vicky Boyden. They were tourists from Belgium. This was their second visit to the region. We were there for one week. Senopi village is famous for its birding hill called Aiwatar. To reach the hill, we have to wake up early in the morning - when it is still dark and walk for around 4 to 6 hours. Please, read my other article Birding Center in Aiwatar hill of District Senopi - Manokwari regency - West Papua province, the Republic of Indonesia.

We woke up early but our local birdman was sick so we returned to the guest house again. At around 8 a.m. the local guide came to pick us up. So, we took our bag, digital camera and some food and began our long walk to the hill. We crossed several small rivers, gardens where the local Papuan grow caladium (taro), sweet potatoes and vegetables. Up in the trees, black capped and rainbow lories were singing to welcome the bright morning. We stopped for a while and Vicky took their long lens Canon Eos SLR camera to shoot those birds.

They looked beautiful and didn't seem to be annoyed by our presence. After taking pictures of these birds, we continued walking again. We had been trekking along the bank of Kamundan river for one and a half hours when we suddenly heard the barking sound of a dog. It was barking at a big deer. It was far from us, around 300 meters. Wim took out their camera again trying to shoot them. The deer was moving away. The result was a blurry photograph. On our right was a creek and on our left was the big Kamundan river. It was not long after we saw the deer when suddenly again we heard a group of wild ducks fluttering their wings and flying away. Perhaps they thought that we were hunters who wanted to shoot them.

The footpath between Senopi village and the Aiwatar hill was flat. Endurance was all that we needed to accomplish our long journey. Finally we arrived at a place that was located across from the hill. This time we had to cross the Kamundan river. The surface of the round granite stones was slippery. Maker our local birding guide cut some plants to make them as canes for Wim and Vicky. Maker was not alone. He guided us with his daughter and sister. They held the hands of these two European tourists while they were crossing the river so that they would not fall down tripped by the slippery stones. I decided to walk ahead of them so that I could take some pictures of them. We walked slowly to safely arrive on the other side of the river. While standing in the middle of the river, I took some pictures of the Aiwatar hill. It was amazing. We were in the middle of nowhere far from the coastal region of Papua island but what I saw was a hill that was covered by coastal plants. It's weird, isn't it? Right in the middle of the hill was the drinking ground of various species of birds.

We still had to climb the hill to see the birds. Thirty minutes later we managed to climb the hill. I was tired and took a rest for awhile. While I, Vicky, and Maker's sister and daughter were taking a rest, Maker took Wim Boyden for a small tour near the edge of the hill. Wim managed to shoot some birds there. He showed them to us but we could not identify them. It took one month before I could know the names of the birds. I copied these bird photographs from Wim's laptop and sent them via email to Bert Harris. He has the Birds of New Guinea by Beehler. That afternoon although I was feeling hungry, I was eager to see as many birds as possible. We walked under the trees to avoid from being seen by the birds. And yes, we could see many of them eating fruits. Some other species were taking a rest. During our tour to the hill, we saw slender-billed cuckoo-dove, crown pigeon, pinon imperial pigeon (ducula pinon), fruit dove, and northern fantail (Rhipdura rufiventris). Actually we could see more species there if we spent one night there at the foot of the hill by the bank of Kamundan river and woke up early in the morning to climb the hill again before dawn.
We left Aiwater before 6 and arrived in Senopi village at night. The trip to Aiwatar hill was a tiring journey but it was worth visiting. I heard that a geologist engineer visited the area around Aiwatar hill a few weeks before we arrived. He did some survey for finding gold deposit. I am afraid that this natural wonders of the world will be destroyed by Papuan people themselves because of the "possible" gold deposit that lies beneath hill.

Oh, I forgot something, one the way back to the village we met a group of deers drinking water in a tributary of Kamundan. It's a fleeting moment. The sun had set in the west. We were surprised and they were too. They ran away and we were late in shooting them. by Charles Roring
Also read:
Birdwatching picture from Arfak mountains in Manokwari
Birdwatching picture Collared Kingfisher from Manokwari bay

Palm cockatoo in the rainforest of Senopi village

During my trip to the tropical rainforest of Senopi, I, Wim Boyden and Maker had a chance to see palm cockatoo (probosciger aterrimus). This bird is also called goliath cockatoo. The bird is an endemic species in New Guinea island. Actually, we were chasing a sulphur crested cockatoo that was screaming at in the branches of a tall merbau tree. It was very difficult to see the bird because green leaves, branches and twigs covered our view. When we saw that it was impossible to see the bird, we continued our walk to find other birds. Not long after we left the place where we heard the cockatoo, we heard something above us. We looked up to the branches of a tree and there it was a black colored cockatoo with red face.

Palm Cockatoo

This bird was called palm cockatoo. It had just landed above our head. Its feather was black with red color on his cheek. I was amazed by this bird because it's a rare experience to see the birds in open nature at close distance. Wim took out his long lens digital camera. It was a Canon Eos a nice equipment that birders need for shooting birds.  Another alternative to watch and take pictures of birds is by using a telephoto bridge camera such as the Nikon Coolpix P900 or digiscoping devices. I had to say that it was really a fleeting moment. Wim could only take a few picture of this wonderful bird because it stayed there less then one minute. And then it flew away immediately. Tropical rainforest of West Papua is a very important ecosystem that we need to preserve. It reduces global warming by absorbing millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide that we emit every day through our daily activities.

Deforestation of rainforest
On 19 August 2010, we returned to Manokwari. We passed by a place where huge areas of rainforest had been cleared to make way for for palm oil plantation. The company that runs logging businesses and sawit palm plantation is PT. Medco Papua Hijau Selaras (meaning Medco Papua Green Harmony Corporation). Around 6000 hectares of high biodiversity of the tropical rainforest are being replaced by a monoculture sawit plantation. Please, read my article entitled The Leasing of Papuan Tropical Rainforest Too Low for Compensation Too Stupid of Conversion.
The first phase of seedling planting was conducted in January 2010. I took some pictures of the palm seedlings with a sad look. The magnificent thousands of years old tropical forest has been replaced by the palm oil plantation that will only be productive for 35 years. I wonder if the beautiful palm cockatoo birds will like to eat the fruits of these sawit trees. I don't think they will. Why? Because the sawit plant (Elaeis guineensis) is not an endemic species of New Guinea island. The previous sawit plantation run by PT Perkebunan II Medan in Prafi was a big failure. Everybody in the area knows about it. Yet the officials in the Plantation Agency and Department of Forestry of Manokwari regency just do not care about it.

It is not only Manokwari regency that is facing deforestation, most of the rainforests throughout Papua or New Guinea island experience the same problem. We need to stop this. My ecotourism campaign is one of the alternative solutions that I offer to Papuan people. Papuan should know that their forest is a precious treasure that they need to preserve for future Papuan generation. NO FOREST NO FUTURE. by Charles Roring
Also read:

• Watching Birds of Paradise;  
• Birding Center in Aiwatar Hill of Senopi Village

Birding Site in Aiwatar Hill of Senopi village

Bird lovers might not know the existence of a place called Aiwatar. It is located some 4 hours walk from Senopi village in the Tambrauw Mountains of Manokwari regency. Manokwari is also the name of a city which is the capital of West Papua province. I, Wim and Vicky Boyden went to Aiwatar on 18 August 2010. We began walking in the morning at around 7 and arrived there at around 11.30 a.m. Wim and Vicky Boyden brought their EOS long lens Canon digital camera to shoot the birds that were singing in the branches of the trees along our walk to the Aiwatar - the Bird Center.

For bird watching, birders have abundant birds to shoot with their long lens camera while hiking around the tropical rainforest of Senopi village. But it is nothing compared to a place called Aiwatar. So, although we had been very tired, we were very determined to reach the area. We were informed by the villagers that there are a lot of birds with a large variety of colors and species. Walking in the tropical rainforest of District Senopi was a hard work but was also a fascinating experience.
The sounds of ornate lorikeet, cockatoo and hornbill and various other birds fill the atmosphere of that clear morning sky combined with the sound of the flow of water from the tributaries of Kamundan river. The feather of lorries that we saw in the trees near the Senopi village looked like rainbow. I liked hearing the music of the nature during that morning walk.

We had to cross the Kamundan river to reach the Aiwatar. When we were about to enter the river, from a distance around three hundred meters from us, we saw a dog barking on big deer that was trying to cross the river. According to our local Papuan field guide, the dog belonged to a hunter but he was not sure whether the hunter was with the dog or not. Wim took his long lens camera trying to take the picture of the barking dog and the nervous deer which were too far from us. The result was a blurry picture.
We still had some two hours walking before we arrived in Aiwatar - the place which the villagers  in the District of Senopi call "Pusat Burung" or the bird center. According to Maker - our local birdman, very few tourists have visited Aiwatar. Even though I was very tired at the time, when I saw birds flying around the trees, I suddenly felt relieved. Arriving at the foot of Aiwatar hill located on the other bank of Kamundan river, I soaked my whole body in the flowing water. It was very refreshing. Our lunch of that day was cassava which was cooked inside bamboos. Our drink was unboiled, but clear and fresh water taken from the river. I don't know the names of the birds that were shot by Wim Boyden through his long lens camera but there are various other birds which we did not shoot. I also brought a Sony Super SteadyShot DSC-W80 digital camera but it was not equipped with long lens. Below is a photograph of Aiwatar which I took while standing in the middle of the Kamundan river (one of the largest rivers in the Bird's head or Vogelkop region of West Papua). 

Well, what is bird center? It is a place in the remote mountainous region of Tambraw mountains inside the territory of District Senopi. Here, salty warm water comes out of the ground in several places around a hill called Aiwatar. Another amazing thing is that although Aiwatar is located very very far from the beach, most of the plants that grow in the area are the same as the plants that usually grow along the coastal region. The ground surface is covered with sharp corals that is normally seen in the coastal area. Every morning thousands of birds come to this place to drink the water until they get drunk.

I am not a birder but when I was in Aiwatar I became a bird lover. I hope that one day I could buy a long lens camera to shoot a lot of beautiful photographs of birds that live in the tropical rainforest of West Papua, both along the coastal and mountainous regions. by Charles Roring - If after reading this post and you are interested in visiting West Papua province of Indonesia and want me as your guide, please contact me via this email: peace4wp@gmail.com or by whatsapp to: +6281332245180.