Boattrip to Atauro island!

Yesterday we’ve noticed that there was an island a couple of kilometers away from  Dili.
We decided to look that up this morning when we had breakfast.

In a tourist brochure available at our hotel we saw that this island is 30 kilometers away from Timor.
The island isn’t very big it is only 25 kilometers long and 9 kilometers wide.
You can take a taxiboat to the other side and it takes about two hours to get there.
Our plan of today was to go on a boattrip!

We had to wait for about ten minutes before the taxiboat, that would bring us to Atauro island, arrived.
The sun was shining and we were all looking forward to see what surprises the island has.

It was very early when we were on our way to Ataura island but It’s very pretty to see the nature waking up.
The sun is shining, the water is clear, we got everything to start a good day!
Even though two hours seem to be very long, the boattrip was an experience on its own.
Our boat was surrounded by dolphins, something that we’ve never saw before.

After two hours we finally arrived at the island and it’s even better than the pictures!
Today we wanted to get the most out of our day because we didn’t had a lot of time.
It was possible to hire a guide for 10 dollars and so we started our trip around the island.

I was glad that I’ve put on my walking shoes because there was a lot of climbing before we were at our first stop.
We visited the locals in the town “Pala” and the first thing I noticed is that all the girls were very busy.
I took a closer look and saw that they were weaving.
After watching 5 minutes how they did everything we decided to also try it!
At the beginning it was a bit difficult but we’ve tried and we have a beautiful souvenir.

On our way to the next stop the guide told us that there live about 7500 people at the island.
In the past the island was used as a prison because it is isolated but because it was isolated it was also protected during the Indonesian occupation.

After all our climbing we all wanted to eat and the guide commended Barry’s place.
This was one of the two hotels at the island.
We had a lunch and a drink in the hotel. We’ve tasted some fresh Timor coffee, local fruit, crusty rolls and wild honey stroll.

When we finished lunch we took a little break at the eco-village,  that is made from bamboo.
We talked a bit about the beginning of our adventure with a beautiful view of the bay in the background.

It was very nice to visit the island but it was time to go back to Dili because we had to take the taxiboat again for about 2 hours!

We were all very tired so we all just took a nap on the boat.
After 2 hours we arrived again at Dili and went immediately to our hostel.
After dinner and a little chat everyone went to bed!
Already excited for tomorrow!

Goodnight!

Kimberly
 

Eco-village

Picture of Autora taken at the taxiboat

The view during lunch at barry's place

Sources :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfs_QipaPmY

https://www.timorleste-hotels.com/Barry_s_Place_on_Atauro

https://basboonstoppel.waarbenjij.nu/reisverslag/2997852/are-you-the-dutch