A Dili Redux

I wasn't thrilled about returning to Dili for a second time in four months, thinking absurdly that a week in a place (some places) is enough to see everything you’d want to see. I don’t think that’s true anywhere, no matter how small.

Waking up early to see the Sunrise

Eager to get out of the “city” over the long holiday weekend, I escaped Robinson Crusoe-style to an Eco-lodge on nearby Atauro Island. The island is beautiful. Because it's the wet season, the entire mountainous island was covered, every possible inch (except for the sandy beaches) in shades of green I didn't even know existed. From the water, it looked like God himself had thrown a living quilt of green over the island.

Atauro Island, off the north coast of Timor-Leste

The accommodations were an "experience." I stayed in a hut on the beach with no air-conditioning, mosquito bedding, solar charged lights, and a hammock on the front stoop. The bathrooms were shared "VIP Composting Latrines", which I was relieved to find did not stink. Some sort of fancy design keeps air circulating, and flies and odor out. The "fresh water showers" were exactly that – cold, fresh water available to pour over yourself with a large ladle. I can't say I walked away a converted fan of cold water bathing, but hey, it's a tropical island, I guess it's really not asking too much. I just made a lot of noise.

Hutches on the Beach

Reading in a hammock is the best way to read

The meals were included in the stay ($45/night) and the food was good. Very simple but fresh and well prepared – a lot of vegetables, potatoes and fish. Meals were served family-style at appointed times, so everyone staying at the lodge ate together. The sort of people that end up in a random Eco-lodge on an island off an island that half the world hasn't heard of have interesting stories to tell. There was a photojournalist from the Netherlands who writes and takes pictures for a travel magazine, spending the winters traveling and the summer back in Amsterdam. (And I thought my job was cool…) A sweet and kind older Filipino gentleman who works in pharmaceuticals in San Francisco and has traveled literally at least half the world... An eccentric, middle-aged, deeply tanned German, searching the world for lost pieces of his soul, who came to Timor-Leste because of a dream. His dreams previously led him to consult a shaman in Egypt, study hippie yoga classes in California, and skype with mind readers to discover his former life as a Native American in the Lakota tribe... Three fresh-faced, young Australian girls volunteering with an orphanage in Dili... A spirited and beautiful Balinese dive master who made something that's already fun ten times more so with her energy and magnetism...

Lunch time at Barry's with an eclectic group of people

I felt like a collector of stories, a collector of souls, after this weekend. It was humbling for me, having traveled a bit of the world and done some pretty cool things, meeting these people and hearing their stories. The world is very big place, indeed.

Hiking with the soul-searching German

I alternated all weekend between eating, diving, snorkeling, hiking, talking, reading in my hammock, and sleeping. It was a recharge for the soul.

The island has soul