17 Feb 2023 - Wewak (Papua New Guinea)

It rained early this morning. The first rain since we started the journey. We have been incredibly lucky so far, as the entire region had recently been hit by a heavy monsoon rain, from New Zealand to Indonesia. I had been following the weather forecast at home before the trip and had only seen rain there.


So, this morning there was water on the terrace at the La Terrazza restaurant. After breakfast, we took the tender ashore to join a city tour. When we arrived at the pier, it was still raining lightly and then it stopped.


As in Alotau and Madang, we observed people and houses - there is really no difference from the places we visited before. Except that now everything was wet, there were puddles everywhere. But it didn't seem to bother anyone, they still sat on the ground.

From a viewpoint, we enjoyed the view of the sea.

Then we went to the local market, where we encountered a similar scene as at the market in Alotau. It is always amazing that people are selling anything at all. Many of the stalls offer the same things: fish and vegetables, peanuts and bananas.

In Madang, we bought candies at the supermarket, which we distributed to the children now. You wouldn't believe how the children's faces brightened up!

Another stop was at the Christ The King Cathedral. For local standards, the church is a magnificent building. Unfortunately, it was closed. Just as we were about to leave, the door opened. So we could still take a quick look inside and were surprised by its clear, simple beauty. I didn't expect that.

Finally, we made another stop at an arts and crafts market, where we were delighted by a dance group again. Yes, this is made for tourists, but still interesting to watch and listen to. We noticed that more civilization has taken hold here than in Alotau or Madang - the women were no longer topless. But the faces, the headdress, and the body paint are more interesting anyway.

We decided not to take a self-guided city tour, partly because of the heat, but also because there was nothing else to see. Shortly after 1:00 PM, we took the tender back to the ship. Some outrigger boats had gathered around the ship, but I'm not sure what they wanted. They couldn't sell anything since we couldn't reach them. But judging by their facial expressions and waving, they simply wanted to look and be photographed.

Because of the wetness, it was especially humid today. So we took a shower first before going for lunch.

We spent the afternoon on board comfortably with coffee, writing, and sorting pictures. The ship left at 6:00 PM - now we have four days at sea ahead of us.

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Weather: raining in the morning, then dry. 25°, feels like 35°, very humid. Very calm sea.