south coast sojourn : part 2

Outside of our village or the island’s main town, the majority of locals live a subsistence lifestyle; raising a few pigs and goats, fishing, and tapping nutrient rich juice from the lontar palm.  For those lucky to own land near the wave, the opportunity exists to lease to a bule, or make a small income from tourism and development. In certain geographical conditions, seaweed farming has been recently introduced, and provides the potential for reasonable returns.  The money usually goes toward a mobile phone or scooter, and the traditional home is demolished to make way for exalted concrete brick walls.

The seaweed is grown as a monoculture; tied to ropes and floats, suspended in the clear, warm water.  After 3-4 weeks it is harvested and dried in the sun on simple palm frond racks, then bagged up for sale and shipped to a processing plant in Surabaya.  

With the sun at its zenith, we stop for a dip in one of nature’s finest swimming pools.  Like stepping into a  1980’s menthol cigarette advert; and to think it is just an ordinary Friday...