With the adventurous feeling with us, we took a flight from Bali to Maumere and started our overland trip of 6 days to Labuan Bajo with Stef, our driver. At Sikka regency we will discover a fishermen village called Wuring, a church built by the Portuguese at 1989th and we will have late lunch at the incredible Koka beach.
Maumere
Maumere is the capital of Sikka Regency, and the biggest town in Flores. We arrived there by plane and Stef was waiting for us at the airport. As we had a busy schedule, we couldn't stay long in the city, we walked around with the car and headed to our next stop. However, as far as we could see, it is a nice city, maybe the people and the houses there seem richer than the rest of the country.
Wuring village
A few minutes by car from the capital, there is a fishermen village called Wuring. Apparently, it is a Muslim village that came from Sulawesi and settled there many years ago. The houses are built with wood pillars that holds them over the sea. There are bamboo logs connecting them and the street where people can walk over.
When we were there, we saw a lot of people standing on the reef. It seems that this is one of their ways of fishing, as not everybody has a boat to make it easier. After collecting all the fish, the citizens go to the market of the closest cities and try to sell them. Stef explained to us, that they leave the fish that they couldn't sell to dry under the sun. A few days after, the fishermen try to sell again their fish as a dry and salted fish.
Old Sikka Church
Not so far from the road that goes from Maumere to Ende, we took a detour to see the Sikka town. This road pass close to a very beautiful black-sand beach where no one is swimming in. At the end of this lovely scenary, you can find the town where there is a magnificent old church built by the Portuguese on the 1899th.
Koka beach
Following the main road, a little bit more to the west you will find an awesome white-sand beach with two bays called Koka beach. To find it, you will have to get in a nice small path in the middle of the forest, it's very cool! Like you are getting in the jungle. At the end of it, there are some houses, a small guesthouse and a simple restaurant just in front of the beach. The people who live there will make you pay 5.000rp each to get in and 5.000rp each to cross a small mound located between the two bays, from where here are the stunning views.
We figured out that Flores people don't use to spend much time at the beaches, as usually, we were all alone, enjoying them. Only if you go at weekends you may find some people, but far away from the crowded beaches we are used to.
We decided to eat a fish barbacue at the small but nice restaurant, we even get the chance to choose our fish! We enjoyed a lot our time there, the table was just in the middle of the sand! Better than the most expensive restaurants here. It was not until the sun started to go down that we accepted to leave to our next destination.
If you want to continue reading the trip click to Ende regency. To know a little bit more about Flores and the accommodations we stayed at click at Flores the exotic island.
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