East Indies on a Spice Island Exploration with Coral Specialist

Begin with a pickup from your hotel in Maumere and transfer to the boat, where you meet your crew and fellow passengers. After settling in, you go ashore and travel to the Iwang Gete highlands to visit Watublapi village, where you are welcomed with traditional singing and dancing. You observe local weaving, dyeing, and spinning techniques and can view and purchase handmade textiles, try betel nut, and sample locally produced liquor. After lunch on board, you sail east from Maumere harbor and become familiar with the vessel. Along the way, you stop for a snorkel and swim before continuing into the evening with sunset drinks and dinner while cruising.

After breakfast, you explore Komba volcano by dinghy and snorkel on the surrounding reefs. Late morning, you head south and cruise toward the mainland and Lewaling Bay. In the afternoon, you snorkel again and watch the sunset over Ile Ape, another active volcano. After dinner, you begin an overnight crossing to Alor.

 After breakfast you head to shore and board some local boats to visit with Mawar, a friendly but wild dugong who lives in the seagrass beds of the nearby bay. You also get to meet the “local hero”, Pak One, who ensures that Mawar is well protected.

In the afternoon, you pay a visit to Umapura, a village famed for its weaving and dyeing industry, where you can see how the local women create their intricate ikat cloth. There is every chance to purchase some as a memento. Later, you go for a great snorkel on a nearby reef, before cruising to your next destination to spend the night at anchor.

Today you visit the very traditional village of Takpala up in the hills, of Alor where you are welcomed by the chief and witness a ceremonial war dance in honor of your visit. See their traditional ‘Moko’ war drums and intricately designed ‘Ikat’ fabrics, which have been woven and dyed using age-old techniques, and used in local bridal dowries for centuries.

Around midday, you weigh anchor and cruise east as you enjoy lunch on board, stopping in the late afternoon at a picturesque tropical island to snorkel and swim on a coral reef. You then head east as you continue your journey into the night.

Wake up in a lovely bay on Wetar Island and go ashore to a local fishing village to meet the locals and see their way of life as they dry their catch on the beach.

Spend the day swimming and beaching, snorkelling and exploring, and indulge in a bit of local culture by way of ‘sopi’, a strong alcoholic drink made from a local palm tree. Later in the afternoon, you weigh anchor and continue your journey east.

This morning, you go ashore on a small island and are welcomed into a remote village where the locals will share with you their way of life as farmers and fishermen.

After lunch, you continue cruising, stopping off at another tiny island, this one deserted, to swim, kayak, snorkel over the reef, and relax on the sand.

This evening, the crew will set up for a beach BBQ, and you dance and sing your way into the night before heading off again for an overnight cruise to your next destination.

Today is another day of cruising and exploring in one of the remotest parts of Indonesia. You visit a very simple village where the people’s houses are made using the products of the sago palm, the staple crop in this part of the world. The villagers demonstrate for you how they process the heart of the sago palm into the edible product that sustains them.

After lunch, you cruise around the island and stop off to explore the beaches and reefs, where you snorkel along the way.

Today is e a day at sea where you pass four spectacular volcanic sea mounts, explicit examples of Indonesia’s place along the Ring of Fire.- One of these islands is uninhabited by people, and is home to tens of thousands of sea birds (brown and red-footed boobies, and frigate birds), who likely come out to encircle the boat in great numbers on your approach.

If the tide allows, you go ashore and investigate, and surely have a snorkel. In the late afternoon, you proceed north to the fabled Spice Islands.

By dawn, you should have the Banda Archipelago ‘Spice Islands’ in your sights, original home of the nutmeg and the scene of much bloodshed between the colonial powers of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries over control of the spice trade.

You go ashore and visit Fort Revenge, built by the Dutch, before snorkelling on the local reef. Later, you head across to the main island group and the main town, and anchor in the beautiful enclosed anchorage under the imposing gaze of a 600-metre-high volcano. If you get there in enough time before nightfall, you go ashore and explore the town.

 Today is a day of exploring the history and beauty of the Spice Islands with a visit to the main town of the Spice Islands and its fort overlooking the harbor. You wander through the streets and markets of this bustling town and meet the local people. After lunch on the boat, you take a local boat over to the biggest of the islands, where you walk among the vast nutmeg plantations, visit another Dutch fort, talk with the locals, and visit one of the last ‘perkineers’, the farmers who still run the larger plantations on the island, who tell you about life on the islands.

Later in the afternoon, you can snorkel on a local reef and have a chance to see the rare and multi-hued Mandarin fish, which only come out at dusk to mate. Dinner is served ashore at a local restaurant that offers traditional and delicious local dishes.

This morning, you have time for a final stroll around the town or a last snorkel before we say farewell to the Spice Islands around lunchtime and head north. You have lunch on the way, passing another major seabird island, before settling in for a relaxing afternoon on board as you scour the horizon for migrating whales.

You wake up just south of your final destination, and your last few hours are spent enjoying the majesty of the ocean, and you may very well see more whales along the way.

As you drop anchor in the harbor, you say farewell to your crew and tour leaders and are taken to the airport for your onward journeys, ending a magical 12 days of exploration and adventure.