Early this morning we set out on an Mangrove Tour adventure!
We boarding a shuttle about 720am and had a 15 minute drive to the dock.
We passed all kinds of animal landmarks and even got to see a little tourist spot called Pas Oleh-Oleh.
It had some shops and restaurants.
We got to the man-made dock we climbed aboard a little boat with a motor, a tour guide, a captain (who did not speak English) and ourselves and set off down the Sebung River.
Beginning of our ride we were looking at all the nature.
They boys did fabulous wearing their life jackets and looking around.
This is a kiln that the they used for making coal.
Coal was one of their biggest exports.
The kilns are not used anymore and make very good homes for snakes.. aka this is as close as we got. ;)
Mangrove trees.
They are beautiful!
Logan a little nervous on the trip.
In some of the areas we could not put our hand in the water, but this was a place of fresh clean water we could.
No worries we just let him touch it once and then wiped his hand off.
J man enjoying the sights.
First thing we saw was a big monitor swimming in the river.
These were some of the boats they used on the river to export the coal.
We passed by a village and these are some of their fishing boats. Down the river a ways you cannot use motors on boats plus all these boats were made by the villagers. Our guide told us that the people will live in a village for approx. 3 months and then move to a different place. Especially if something bad has happened, the bad karma draws them away.
This village is made up of 20 families. We could not go into the village because of dogs.
Headed down the smaller part of the river.
Down this part we saw Mangrove snakes.
Luckily during the day the snakes are asleep because the sunlight hurts their eyes.
During the night time tours cannot go down this way because the snakes are poisonous and can jump from tree limb to tree limb.
Umm... glad someone didn't tell me this before I took this tour.
All the roots of trees coming out of the water.
We saw a few more Mangrove snakes as well.
Cannot remember the name of this root.
If I remember I will have to come back and put the name in.
The palm branch in the background.. with my great facial expression... produces fruit and juice for the villagers.
The fruit.
Kingfisher
Beautiful!
One of the monitor lizards we saw.
Also some crabs... or as they call them Monkey food.
The boy focusing on everything.
Another monitor.
He was sitting right next to the water.
How Jackson sat for most of the trip.
He is really getting into photography and videoing ;)
Might need to teach him some basics though, such as how to hold the camera right side up ;)
This was a pier and stands where people come and fish from.
We did stop at a little village where the tour guides work from.
They have a little shop there, there was nothing in the shop however because they owners had not been paid in a month so they did not have any produce.
This little man in the picture's name was Fernando ________ couldn't pronounce the rest if I tried.
He lived in this village and the first time we passed by in the boat he was fishing with his older brother and father with a cast net in a little boat.
He SO badly wanted to play with the boys and eat their crackers. We did share one (as we left the rest on the boat) but he just followed us around.
Riding back.
Our tour guide was Adar
He lived in a village that we could see from where we first got on the boat.
He has a little girl who is 4.
He is from the Philippines and has been in Indonesia for 15 years.
He had tried to get a scholarship to go to US, but as we told him there were other plans for him.
He was very kind and really looked out for the boys on the boat.
More fishing stands.
Adar's village.
Back to the dock.
Adar, the boys, and I
Family picture.
Logan ready to get back on the shuttle bus.
The dot on his back is a mosquito repellent patch.
We thoroughly enjoyed this tour and loved getting to see this part of the island!
We did miss out on seeing some monkeys, but thankfully we saw them on our way in the first day!
