August 12, 2023
Wow, what a day. I’ll start with the highlight…
I’d never even heard of a tarsier before coming to Sulawesi and now I’m in love with them. We went to Tangkoko Nature Reserve in the evening and stayed until after dark to see these little critters. Here’s a map showing D’Lagoon where Legacy is anchored, the wonderful city of Menado and the nature reserve.
It didn’t take long before there were five or six sticking their heads out of the hole…
Our amazing guide told us that at 6:00 PM, they’d start jumping out of their tree to nearby branches. They did just that, almost to the minute.
Cyndi and I had our own guide who was incredible, with eyes that would make an eagle jealous. There were several other guides with groups ranging from two to about 12. Here’s what the tarsier viewing looked like…
While the tarsiers where the highlight of the evening, they weren’t the only special critters. On the way to see the tarsiers, our guide stopped suddenly and motioned for us to do the same. Just above us where cuscus bears.
Cuscus bears are actually marsupials, not bears at all. They eat leaves. What strange and cute animals!
Not quite so cute (at least not to us) were the other tree critters our guide spotted…
The crowd gathered around just two meters from this tarantula where not impressed with my sense of humor when I said that they are known to jump 10 meters or more.
To get to the reserve, the resort we’re anchored near, D’Lagoon, ran us across the straight in a fast boat to Bitung where they’d arranged a driver for us. Our day started at about 9am and after about an hour drive to the wonderful city of Manado, we were in shopping and dining paradise. This was by far the nicest city we’ve visited since arriving in Indonesia about four months ago. Here are some pics. Click to enlarge.
In order: Boat Ride to Bitung, Freshmart Grocery Shopping, Megamall, Heaven, Me enjoying Heaven.
We also had a great lunch after grocery shopping – grilled fish, rice and two different kinds of sambal (read “mouth on fire”). And oh yeah, Bintang beer too. What a day!
-Rich
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