Travel to Indonesia

With more than 17,500 islands, Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world. Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), and Papua (Indonesian New Guinea) account for about 90 percent of Indonesia’s land. Indonesia has more coral reefs than any country in the world. The islands rise from the deepest points of the oceans to the snowy heights of the Jayawijaya mountain range on Papua, which towers more than fifteen thousand feet above sea level.

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Papua New Guinea Mask

Papua (Western New Guinea)

New Guinea is the second-largest island in the world, and it stretches from warm equatorial sands to icy glacial peaks. Indonesia shares the island with the country of Papua New Guinea, which controls the eastern half of the island. Papua (PAH-poo-AH) features abundant natural resources, including the second-largest tract of rainforest in the world.

About 75 percent of Papua is covered by forests, which contain more than 2,500 species of orchids and 600 species of birds. Papua is also rich in culture, with as many as eight hundred different languages spoken among the various tribes and ethnic groups. Papua also is famous for its various art forms and its unusual flora and fauna.

Tangled swamps and rugged mountains blocked access to most of the island until the 1950s, when Christian missionaries began hiking and flying into the interior. Michael Rockefeller lost his life in the area in 1961, while conducting research and collecting art. Crocodiles or headhunters likely took his life.

The island of New Guinea is like a lost world, where Stone Age tribes still live remotely and where unique forms of plant life thrive like nowhere else on earth. It has a very old civilization, with carbon dating suggesting human inhabitation for the last 25,000 years.

The population of Papua is estimated at approximately 1.8 million people. An estimated 800,000 migrants now live in the province. Most are landless Javanese who were encouraged to move to Papua under the government’s transmigration program. Under

this resettlement program, Papua is now the largest destination for migrants from other islands such as Java, Bali, and Sulawesi. The diversity of vegetation in Papua includes an estimated sixteen thousand species. It is considered to hold the richest concentration of plant life in the world. Many unique plants are of special interest such as the beautiful flame of Irian, a winding vine with large red flowers. Papua also has carnivorous pitcher plants.

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Komodo Fish

Flores (FLOHR-rehs) is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It is located east of Komodo, south of Sulawesi. This island is home to hundreds of different ethnic groups who speak scores of languages. It seems to be a transition point between the Malay and Papuan races. The west coast of Flores is one of the few places, aside from the island of Komodo itself, where the Komodo dragon is found in the wild.

The island is known for its mountainous terrain, but Flores also has good snorkeling and diving locations along the west and north coasts, especially near Komodo National Park and on the northern coast near Maumere and Riung. Scuba diving within the park is excellent.

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