Papau New Guinea-Madang

 

Wow!!!  To start with, our ship was a major town event.  There were hundreds of people on the dock to greet us and the ship.  A 65% unemployment rate fueled the adult onlookers.  Madang has no tourist infrastructure.  Our tour guides knowledgeable and were recruited from the local college.  They were charming and reflected the happiness of the peoples.  We found Papau New Guinea to be an absolutely lush land.  If the politics could remain stable the future for tourism would be greatly enhanced.  

                                    School bus from the outer islands

We had opportunities to visit a World War II site where the Allied Forces fended off the Japanese invaders.  Also, we visited two villages.

The children of the villages were excited and fascinated to see the “white” visitors.  The kids captured our hearts.  The villages shared their culture with us in a number of ways, mostly by song and dance.  We found the people to be outgoing and happy. 

 

 

The children ran out to bus to greet us.  They loved to see their picture in the camera view finder.

After spending considerable time in Polynesia and Melanesia, we are now sailing out of the Bismark Sea northward to the island of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia.  We will there arrive after two full days at sea.

This has been such a wonderful voyage of exploration as we have traveled approximately 14,000 miles at sea so far.   

See more pictures in part II of this post.  Warning: It is National Geographic rated!