The major attraction of visiting the north coast of Papua New Guinea is to go inland a little, to the Sepik river; an apparently mighty waterway, dotted with villages and people who still live as their ancestors. It was expected of Mr. Bias, then, that I visit, and indeed it was my major intention for coming to Wewak. "Let me find you a vehicle into town," he said, in the early morning, "and from there you can get a vehicle to Angoram."

Angoram is the major town along the Sepik, a jumping-off point for excursions along the waterway. A few hours passed, with me splitting my time between relaxing in my room and getting barked at by the dogs. I watched people walk along the dirt road that ran in front of the house; people here would greet each other only with hand gestures, even if they were not deaf. A sign language for people to communicate, instead of their own voices. It was fascinating to watch.






I finally was given the chance to leave, as a pair of men in another Toyota Hilux stopped at the house and offered to drive me into town. They drove along the shoreline, and from there turned left into a small patch of warehouses; "downtown" Wewak. The centre has perhaps two main thoroughfares, both desperately small, as well as a tiny market. There were a few buses headed for Angoram, but every time my driver asked the driver of the bus he would say "it is full".

Eventually, we found a large vehicle headed for Angoram in the afternoon. The vehicle was a massive flatbed truck, with a raised suspension and huge wheels. They were in the process of getting it ready for the journey, at a mechanic's shop. I was dropped off by my driver and waited out the time, chatting with the driver, In between his spitting of betel nut.

Most Papuans chew betel nut, which is to the Papuans as Qat is to Somalis. However, the chewing is a complex process; not only does one need to split the nut out of a hard green casing, but while chewing it one must also dip a mustard plant into lime powder and chew on that as well. Then, one must spit out the red juice that forms in their mouth, a blood-red liquid that dots the concrete sidewalks of Papua New Guinea as if there was a shootout on every corner.

Finally, at about noon, we hopped in the truck and circled town a few times, touting for business. The driver and his friends shipped cargo south to Angoram, as well as people. Crammed to the gills with both human and static cargo, we began rolling through the mountains.

It was a slow, long journey, and we stopped one or two times for 'pee' breaks. "There are seven bridges," the driver said, "between here and Angoram." some of them were in rather poor condition; others had been recently rebuilt, shiny aluminum monuments like monoliths in the jungle. It was dusk by the time we reached Angoram; the ride had been quite interesting - the jungle was spectacular, and as we crested several hills I saw endless tracts of grassland. This stuck in my mind for a long time and it took me a longer time to udnerstand why - none of it was farmland. In fact, Papuans didn't seem to farm at all.

There is really only one hotel in town; and when prompted by the driver, I would have enjoyed wandering around a little, but such was not possible in the dusk of the jungle. I was led by hand to the guesthouse, where another larger woman spoke to me. the cockroaches on the floor were massive.

She asked what I would be doing here, and I said I wanted to travel upriver; it was my intention to travel to the other Sepik town that was accessible via road from Wewak, and head back from there. She said it would be very expensive; fuel here cost USD$4 per gallon, and heading to Pagwe(the name of the town) would cost about 2 drums of fuel. Two 80-gallon drums; that would make about USD$640 in fuel. Holy crap.

I was served a wonderful meal, and retired to my quarters, after observing a beautiful sunset from the dining room of the Angoram hotel. So much grassland; so much potential for this region. And yet, the industry here is next to none. Cockroaches and other insects the size of small rodents were crashing against my door; they have the kind of cockroaches that fly here. As well, there are other flying bugs about three inches long with very large nasty teeth on them. It has been quite awhile since I've seen such large, massive insects in my travels.

Angoram, and the Sepik



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