Sarah and I had breakfast of bread rolls and coffee before walking to the market where we boarded an angguna which departed immediately. The ride took 4h15 like the journey up.
The difference was that it started raining halfway down and the roads turned to mud. I hadn’t even noticed yesterday that they were unsealed.
We got back to the hostel around 1330. As the weather in Dili was still patchy with rain, I stayed in to catch up on writing.
Paolo and Anton got back about 3 hours after us. They made it to the top of Ramelau but the bad weather meant the view was non-existent. The road from Maubisse to Hatambuilico was non-existent and extremely rocky. The ojeks blew a couple of tyres and an engine (requiring a backup bike ordered by mobile phone). So it appears the USD50pp price wasn’t bad at all.
I was pleased with my Maubisse excursion. I hadn’t expected anything special and it was kinda what I had expected. It was (and together with Baucau tomorrow) a glimpse into rural Timor Leste or parts of the country beyond Dili. I didn’t have time to go further afield to places like Jaco island and it while it would have been nice, it was a beach that could be anywhere. And besides I’m already exploring the beaches on the West Timorese side already on Alor.
The trip gave me the opportunity to speak to more locals. The doctor at Maubisse was trained in Cuba (under aid funding). I asked if he was able to study in Spanish due to his background in the Portuguese language, but nope. He wasn’t of the age that spoke Portuguese but Indonesian. He had to learnt Spanish before studying medicine. That’s pretty amazing. I have met Malaysians who study highly technical degrees in countries like Russia as well. Knowing how much knowledge one misses studying even in one’s first language, it is pretty scary to be treated by a doctor who studied in a language that’s new to them!