Part 4

· 23:e augusti

We got picked up at 04:00 in the morning to go and see this volcano, in Kelimutu National park. (Google "Kelimutu" ) This volcano is considered as active, but that does not mean there is asch or lava coming out. The crater of this volcano have tree diffrent small lakes. They are separated by walls of lavamountain. The weather is not the best at the moment. Some rain and a lot of fog is covering the whole mountain. If I earlier in this story have ever said that the roads have been winding, stepp and dangerous, I hereby withdraw that. Now we have this, big time....sometimes the road is gone by rivers from heavy rain, sometimes you do not dare to watch down over the edge and sometimes the curves are so curved that you ram yourself from behind !! The trip took us almost 4 hours before reaching end point of the road. Taufik was here on a visit at 1998 and at that time they had to use winches to reach this plateau. That is how steep it is my friends. There was a few small tentshops at this parkingarea where we bought some coffe and biscuits for a breakfast awaiting the fog to raise. The rain stopped so we decided to start the 2 km walk towards the top. The peak is 1690 meters above sea level. I should mention that the lakes can not be reached since they are deep down in the crater and the walls around them are totally vertical. We are walking on rocks between them and the first lake we arrive to are the red one. It isn´t red at this moment but it turns every now and then. Also the volcano itself makes it change due to activity level. Second lake is light green and very beautiful. It has a smell of sulphur. I had to get closer picktures so I left the trail and walked towards the edge. That payed off. After that I headed for the black lake and at that point you are almost at the peak it self, 1690 meters closer to the blue sky. The whole place here is sacered by locals who believe that their souls will go to one of theese lakes after they die. Which one is depending on how you have lived your life and also determined by your age.
We retuned back down to the car and headed back to the town. I do realise how steep it is now that you are going dowmwards. If you do not hold yourself stuck in the seat you do fall forward. Meetings are not funny, believe me. When the wheels are at the edge you do feel a bit scared, I can tell you. It´s a long way down ! Once back in Maumere we had some lunch and I also got the opportunity to by some local made coffé, named Flores. This coffe is a big part of their export. Later we worked on the LCA and continued for the whole evening aswell. We didnt even care to go out for dinner so we ordered take away!
Fell asleep very easy that night, since we had a very early morning wake up call.

· 24:e augusti

Breakfast at 08:00. Finished of the LCA report. At 13:00 our taxi arrived to take us to the airport. We landed in Kupang and got picked up by WFP. We stopped at the office for some work and at 18:30 and said godbye to every one that we had met and worked with while here in Timor. We continued down to our hotel, checked in and headed for downtown and harbour aren for some dinner and souvenir shoping. Once we felt ready clock had passed 21:00 and all local busses where off. They are not allowed later than this. We had then twoo choices: Walk or go by motorcykel taxi. Walking was not an option due to security reasons and going by mororbike was not recomende by same security resons. So between twoo evil things, we did ride the bikes back to the hotel. A quick shower and fell asleep. There is an early morning wake up call tomorrow.

· 25:e augusti

04:45 wakeup call....Quick shower and packing. Eating breakfast and checking out. 05:00 taxi arriwes. Drove us to the airport. Going back to Jakarta today. This is one day earlier than planned but it is better to be there than here to prepare for final reporting to UN/WFP on Monday and same to LET group on Tuesday. LET is the Logistic Emergency Team. We had a stop in Surabaya on the way to Jakarta. Once arrived and bags claimed we shared a cab to hotel Le Meridien. I droped of and Taufik continued to he´s office for some work. The rest of the team will arrive on varoius hours by tomorrow. Will be nice to meat them all again. To share our stories. Had some lunch downtown and walked back to the hotel for work and reporting. Buffedinner at the hotel. Fell asleep very easily this night.