This third and last part of the Sulawesi road trip will start in Gorontalo, you can read up about how I got there on this post.
One of the things to do in Gorontalo, is to swim with shark whales, this might sound “romantic” but it’s really a controversial activity.
I had done a similar activity in Cebu, Philippines before and it was a real shitshow.
So I went to the location and looked at the conditions and decided to do it. It’s far from ideal, as the sharks are fed by humans, then do look kinda free but probably used to just stay around humans for easy meals.
Anyway it is what it is, you have to decide what’s your threshold for this kind of activity, for me this was probably my second and last time doing this. If I ever swim with shark whales again, it will be a random occurrence in the wild.
Well, here are some photos I took with the GoPro.
A beautiful animal.
The next stop was a few hours away, a small beach “resort” called Chimoki Beach, it’s a very basic place, but it’s the only place to stay if you want to visit Patokan Beach, which was my objective.
This is the resort, it’s quite cool to sleep there but the toilets, rooms and food options are very limited, and you can only access it by boat from the nearby village of Jiko.
I asked the captain who brought me to the resort to bring me to the beach after I “checked-in”.
Very cool secluded beach, avoid going there on weekends.
I am not sure if it’s a natural place because of the way it looks.
Back at the resort for sunset.
After this short but fun stop I kept going north, next destination, Tomohon.
But there were a few stops along the way.
This is somewhere along the road, what a view.
From the sky.
Just a random fisherman village with amazing beauty.
The next place I stopped along the way is called Ranolewo, I wasn’t expecting much, but it was quite the nice surprise, actually.
Two emerald colored lakes in the middle of rice fields, I never saw anything like this. These are hot water sulfur lakes from what I understood.
There is a lot of volcanic activity in the area of Tomohon. It’s not easy to see but there was smoke coming off the water on this lake.
This one was not as warm.
I then arrived in Tomohon, where I stayed a few days, the first place I visited is the local market.
Tomohon is a mostly Christian area, and they do consume dog meat, on top of snake, rats, bats and maybe other stuff. The market is known for selling those meats, even tho it’s illegal to sell dog meat in Indonesia, it is still happening, shamelessly in the open at this market. I do mention it’s a Christian area because for Muslims dogs are not usually an animal they keep around and really are now allowed to consume.
If you are curious, you can click here to see what it looks like. 1 2 3
The guy selling the meat was open about it, I asked him some questions, and he had no problem being on camera.
So yeah.
The snake for sale.
And few bats.
And other products 😉
After this I visited a church, a church with quite the view.
Outdoor auditorium on church grounds.
When I said there’s lots of volcanic activity around Tomohon, here you can see some of it.
The area also has a lot of waterfalls. This is Air Terjun Tapahan Telu.
The path to this one was abandoned, it was a fun walk through the jungle. Air Terjun Kanderawatu.
There was also a lot of trash just to the left of this photo.
The next spot I visited in the Tomohon area is near Danau Linow, Danau Linow has a few things to see other than the Danau (Lake) itself.
Again, there’s a lot of sulfur activity in the area and Mah’watu is proof of that. Mah’watu is a coffee shop/chilling spot, but when you walk down the hill you’ll reach a sulfur “lake” and river that looks very nice.
And then if you get close to the lake and follow the directions to this point. You’ll see even more volcanic sulfur activity.
Danau Linow itself.
Another waterfall, Air Terjun Tumimperas.
The next day I walked up Mount Lokon. A “small” active volcano, you can reach the crater in less than an hour from the trail head. Cool place to visit.
Another crater I saw with the drone.
The next stop is a few hours away, the Tangkoko National Park area.
You can sleep in one of the basic homestays near the entrance of the park there and visit the park, with a guide, to see lots of animals.
This bird, a type of kingfisher.
The most common and popular animal in this national park is the “Celebes crested macaque (Yaki)” or “crested black macaque”
In between all these monkeys we had the opportunity to see a big bird, the knobbed hornbill.
This guy wasn’t impressed.
Here you can “see” a bear cuscus. That took me a while to spot even with the guide pointing it out.
You an also do a night tour to see the local tarsier.
These little primates sleep all day and eat all night, after sunset the guide will bring you to a tree and start playing some tarsier sounds on a Bluetooth speaker to attract them to come out of their hiding.
Freaky little primates.
You can see owls and some little spiders on that tour too.
It’s a pretty cool national park and has a nice variety of animals.
After this, I rode a bit more north to check out Pantai Paal.
Another beautiful beach of Sulawesi, but it’s not too far from Manado, a big city, on the weekend I wouldn’t come here, there’s lots of little shops and restaurants that will make this place way too busy.
After a few days in the city of Manado, the last stop for me on this long trip across Sulawesi was Bunaken. Bunaken is famous for diving, snorkeling and dolphin watching.
The local spearfishermen.
Sometimes I wonder why I spend time in the ocean…
Sunset
Sunrise from the boat, trying to find dolphins.
The dolphin mission was about to be aborted, after 2 hours looking for them on a boat.
But on the way back to the island, they showed up.
Always a pleasure to look at these animals.
Small island with a big church.
That’s it, after this I flew back to Makassar, then I flew to KL and back to Bangkok before the next destination.
Sulawesi was amazing, sometimes complicated and slow to get places, but in the end it was all 100% worth it.
The diversity on this island is very impressive and entertaining.
See you on the next one.