The last full day. The last expedition. Our first introduction to and only stop in Papua New Guinea. The last time looking back at the ship from the zodiac as we motored to shore.
The river was wide and brown with silt, twisted with oxbows. The ship did not enter the river because there’s a shallow sand bar at the delta where it meets the sea.
The plants floating in the water are water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, which are native to South America, but at this point have greatly expanded their territory as an invasive weed. You find them all over the world now, choking waterways and interfering with native vegetation. It absorbs heavy metals and then sinks and rots, concentrating the heavy metals, polluting water supplies. And it is a very manual, labor-intensive process to get rid of it. Water hyacinth is right up there with cockroaches as to who’s going to survive the climate apocalypse we’ve got coming.
We were there to drop into a village, see the dances, buy the handicrafts (they’re known for their wood carving) and we were greeted very warmly. The children are always the first ones to rush out and stare at the foreigners.
And as far as dancing, this was the most elaborate staging we’d seen this trip. First a mixed group of men, women, and children came out, drumming and singing. I did spy a gentleman wearing Calvin Kline boxers under his grass skirt.
Then they came out with what looked like a dragon dance to me, but could have been a serpent.
And then we had a group of older women out there twerking. The pictures don’t do justice to it, but there was a tremendous display of flexibility going on here. And the best part was when they flipped their skirts up to show their bare ass, one cheek was painted with the word “yes” and one cheek was painted with the word “no”. I enjoy a woman that is prepared for all eventualities.
And you would think this be the grand finale, but it was not. They then did a skit, a pantomimed story, about 2 blind sisters who were hungry, so one of them went out hunting for emu in the forest. What she brought back was a man. But they were hungry, so they decided to cook him anyway. So, they called their brothers to help get him in the pot, but he didn’t want to go. Which all devolved into a Benny Hill style chase scene with lot of singing and shouting and crowd laughing uproariously.
The highlight for the natives, many in fact that come from much further up the river, was the opportunity to sell their carving and weaving. I did end up buying a painted wood carved mask, stressing out about how was I going to get wood through US customs.