The Mysteries of Papua New Guinea

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Papua New Guinea twice now, a feat few people can claim (or might want to). It remains an exotic, tribal land, with over 600 dialects of language, and at least up in the highlands a very traditional way of life. Port Moresby is the capital, whose natural beauty is only somewhat dimmed by the industrial feel. The city is nestled between verdant rolling hills, a glimmering jewel-green harbor and a cerulean sky with cotton candy clouds. The harbor is continuously filled with immense shipping containers and other industrial vessels that dot the black vastness at night. While beautiful to view and contemplate from the balcony on the 15^th floor of our hotel with a glass of wine and good conversation, the city is unfortunately very dangerous for foreigners. Walking three blocks to a nearby restaurant was done with a security escort.

Over the long weekend, our host took us to see the sights and sounds of Port Moresby, which included a nature park, dance club, and musuem. The Nature Park is a modest animal sanctuary recently renovated by an Australian couple who are engaging local businesses to invest in the park and establishing outreach with the community. It contains flora and fauna unique to Papua New Guinea, as well as interesting cultural displays like baskets on sticks used for ritual tribal dancing and a Yam House. A Yam House is exactly what it sounds like – a house for yams. Apparently in the villages a large one is quite the status symbol.

The park had Cassowaries strutting about beneath our feet, which are large, flightless and practically prehistoric birds. Supposedly they’re the closest living relatives to raptors and are believed to navigate with sonar noises that reflect off the concave crest on their head. They’re territorial, aggressive and not hard to find roaming freely in the highlands (Eeek!).

The park also had an extensive collection of wallabies – who knew there where so many? Fun fact, there is no biological difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo, it’s just an arbitrary attribution made according to size. Wallabies are small, kangaroos are large. Many of the ones kept in the park are either rescues, surrendered by people keeping them as pets, or part of a breeding program.

In the evening, our work folks took us to a (the?) Port Moresby dance club called Cosmopolitan. The entertaining evening confirmed several stereotypes, such as white people really can’t dance and developing countries haven't completely embraced deodorant.

Early the next morning, we went on all-day dive trip out into the open waters of the South Pacific. It was gloriously sunny and blue, with a pod of dolphins swimming alongside us, jumping in and out of the water, taking turns in the wake at the front of the boat. Diving was like swimming in a tropical aquarium, neon colored fish flitted around rainbow coral and even a sunken ship, covered in more corals, algae, and anemones.

And completing our city tour was the worn but interesting National Museum of Papua New Guinea. It could use a little revitalization (and dusting), but had fascinating tribal artifacts on display - large totems, masks, drums, boats, clothes and so on. The fantasticaly imposing entrance way is a great example of traditional tribal painting.