This went off to the nearby island of Pulau Molana. Which isn’t inhabited but has some old buildings. We went for a very short walk but there wasn’t much to see apart from a couple of tied up coconut crabs, which the locals were presumably planning to eat later. I went for a snorkel while Lynn read. Again the water was warm and the visibility was very good. The coral was patchier than the last couple of days, but there were definitely more fish, sometimes in quite large schools.
By mid morning we were on the tender headed back to the ship. Every snorkelling trip then involves a fair deal of washing, rinsing and trying to dry clothes, so our cabin is adorned with layers of clothing at varying degrees of dampness.
After lunch it’s a short ride to the town of Saparua. We are now used to the crowd of locals all sitting about to watch us arrive, some recording us on phones. We walk the short distance to the soccer pitch where there are first some dancers and singers accompanied by ukeleles (which sounds much like Polynesian singing) and then young men with spears. It was extremely hot until we got back near the shore, when a sea breeze made it much more bearable. There were really two things to see, another dutch fort (Fort or Benteng Duurstede) and the local museum. The fort has recently been repaired and whitewashed so it was quite smart. The museum was entirely dioramas showing scenes from history, mostly about rebelling against the Europeans and later independence.
Then the usual resting, talk where we’re told about the next day, and dinner which requires polite conversation and we have a choice of two entrees (one of them soup), three main courses (seafood, meat, vegetarian) and one dessert.
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