ITINERARY:
After arrival in Makassar you will be picked up by a driver and in about 30-45 minutes driven to your hotel in the center of the city. If you arrive on time, you can make a stop at the colourful harbor of Paotere and Fort Rotterdam. The rest of the day is free for you to spend (no car available).
In about an hour you drive together with a guide to the starting point of the Maros trip. You walk through rice fields, lime stone landscapes and small villages to a cave with some prehistorical drawings. On the way you visit a local family where you will be served a delicious lunch. Afterwards you board a small canoe (you don’t need to peddle yourself) and sail through a unique kars landscape back to the car. From here it takes about 2 -3 more hours to reach Malino.
Malino is located at a height of 1100 meters at a distance of 80 km from Makassar. It is a very fertile area with some of Sulawesi’s moest beautiful rice fields. You sleep comfortably in a bungalow amidst the rice fields.
Today you make together with a guide a nice walk through the surroundings of Malino for about 4-5 hours. You will be following a hilly path going uphill and downhill. Views are amazing. A simple lunch is served at a local home.
Today you drive north towards Sengkang, passing beautiful scenery along the way. The drive takes about 6 hours, there are no specific stops included.
In the morning you will go to a small local pier were you board a traditional colorful motorized canoe together with your guide from Sengkang. The canoe trip will take you through the small Walennea River to the Tempe Lake, a lake that covers an area of at least 1.000 ha in the dry season and expands to around 35.000 ha during the wet season when all surrounding areas are flooded. On the lake you can observe the local fishermen catch fish in different ways using nets, fishing roads and bamboo fences. More than 20 species of water birds can be seen at this lake. Some of the fishermen live in floating houses near the edge of the lake. If the tide allows, you can visit one of these houses. From Sengkang you continue towards Toraja, a drive of around 4-5 hours with the last 2 hours following a beautiful mountainous road.
During two days you will visit several Toraja villages by car and with a guide to get a good picture of the culture of past and present Toraja. These picturesque villages are located in an amazing mountainous landscape dominated by rice terraces and bamboo forests. You will see the different ways the Toraja bury their death, like hanging graves as it was done in the old days and the well known stone graves guarded by puppets, tau-tau, high up a rock. Also the baby graves in the trunk of big trees as well as huge richly carved traditional houses with their rice barns will be on the program. Most funeral ceremonies are held in the beginning of the week. The buffalo market is held every Tuesday and Saturday.
A second day with your guide and car to discover the beautiful area of Toraja. If there is a ceremony planned, which the guide will know, you can adjust the program to this. Today you will enjoy a Torajan lunch served in traditional house in a small kampung on a short distance of Toraja. Most famous is the pa’piong manuk: chicken with grated banana stem cooked in a bamboo tube. Cooked young fern and red rice are the perfect match for this chicken dish.
In the morning you leave Toraja and drive south to Makassar, in total a drive of about 8-9 hours. You will be following the same route as on your way back. You arrive in the late afternoon in Makassar.
Today you will be driven to the airport in about 30-45 minutes to check in for your flight to Manado. Upon arrival in Manado, you will be driven to Tomohon in about 1,5-2 hours. Along the way you can make a few stops in the Minahasa Highlands, including the hot springs at the foot of the active Soputan volcano where you can bathe in natural pools. In the afternoon you arrive Tomohon, an area at an altitude of 800 meters and known for the many flowers.
In the morning you will visit the large market of Tomohon notorious for the Manado delicacies sold there like bat, rats and dogs. Afterwards you drive up closely to the top of the Mahawu volcano. Following a staircase you reach the summit and the crater Lake where you have magnificent views on clear days. You will walk halfway around the crater and descend on the other side of the volcano (partly stairs, partly unpaved paths). Just before you reach the road you stop by a small wooden hut in the forest where you get offered a special lunch in this unique place. Banana leaves are laid on the wooden table and the food is served on this. So no plate, you eat like the local Minahasa people eat! The chicken dish is prepared in a bamboo tube.
Note: during rainy season it is possible that the path leading down from the Mahawu is not accessible, you then return via the same path back. After lunch, you drive further to Tangkoko, to the eastern tip of the Minahasa area, the Tangkoko Batuangus reserve. The forest reserve is relatively young where many fruit trees can be found. Many fruit trees mean there are quite a lot of fruit-eating animals, including monkeys and hornbills. It is one of the few forests in Indonesia where you can observe animals very well. In the afternoon / evening, guided by a ranger, you walk through the forest (up to 3 hours) where you will look for tarsiers, monkeys half the size of an adult human hand. These animals abandon their sleeping trees in the twilight to look for insects, and return back early morning.
Today you will visit the forest in the early morning. During this walk, you go looking for monkeys, hornbills, marsupials etc. This walk takes about 4 hours (if you want longer walks, you need to pay extra). After breakfast you will be driven to the harbour of Manado in around 2-2,5 hours where you board the speed boat to Bunaken island. Boat is a join in trip and leaves in the afternoon. Bunaken Island is world famous for the drop offs, it is located in the National Marine Park of Bunaken. The beach is yellowish and there are plenty of mangroves. At high tide you can snorkel off the beach. The sea gardens of the Bunaken National Park are among the finest in the world. The park consists of a group of five small islands off the coast of Manado and the Arakan reef, which lies south of the city. The five islands include Bunaken, Manado Tua, Siladen, Mante Hage and Nain. The Bunaken marine reserve is a paradise for snorkelers, as the most colorful underwater life takes place between 5 and 15m below sea level.
Today and tomorrow you are free to enjoy the sun, the beach and coral reefs around Bunaken. The coral reefs run along the entire southern coast and around the eastern and western point of Bunaken. The coral stretches over a distance of 600 m into the sea. The snorkeling and diving around the islands of Bunaken marine reserve are breathtaking experiences. So far there are more than 58 species of hard coral counted in the national park Bunaken-Manado Tua, almost three times as many compared to locations in the Caribbean. There are more than 2000 species of fish in the park.
Today you will be taken to Manado by shuttle boat and car, time depending on your flight.
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Sanctuary Ananda – 3 Nights 
