Yesterday we went to the river that is located in the military base here. You travel up a lovely road lined with lovely well-groomed trees until you reach a guard post. There you must check in and leave a piece of ID. We always leave my MAF Canada ID - I'm Ground Crew (imagine my chest puffing out...). Then we travel up the road, which is now a pot-holed mess. The living quarters for military families are also nothing to get excited about. Some live in converted quonset huts left over from WW2...
Then we park and hike down about 15-20 minutes through the jungle where there are quite a few cocoa trees. As we've had a lot of rain lately so the water level was quite high and the water was flowing rather quickly. We went with our friends the Lewis' and took along Rode and Awi as well. They all had a great time jumping off the rocks and exploring around.
Before we left to go to the river, I made a trip to the market to get some chicken. The only chicken you can buy at the grocery store is whole frozen ones that have come on a boat from Surabaya. Everyday they thaw some and cut them up but of course you can't refreeze that meat... So off to the market I went. I was struck again by how many people touch the raw meat and don't wash their hands (of course there is no place to wash your hands there... at least nowhere where there is clean water...). On my way to the market there was a bit of a traffic jam. I was very thankful to be on my motorbike and not in a car. It's election time you see. Yesterday there were dump truck loads of people and taxis (like little vans) full of people and others were walking alongside the road; all campaigning for their favorite political party. I passed a group of men dressed up like women dancing to some Javanese music.... hmmm.... Thankfully, election time here is a relatively peaceful time. Lots of money is handed out so people are generally happy....
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