Ternate, A small island of the northern molucas, in Indonesia, It does not smell like that 26 March 2025. At least, I didn't smell that although I sniffed him to start this text. It smells to the smoke of the motorcycles that pass everywhere and when you leave that urban air environment of the ocean. This is today a poor land in the middle of a rich sea. For some centuries, however, It was an area coveted by all European superportences because of its entrails emanated the oil of the time: Pepper and cinnamon, The nail and nutmeg. I came here for and with my friend Juan Carlos Rey, For his books. Part of an unknown Spain story is there "Soterrada", And I love history and remote sites. And Juan Carlos tells me the passion of the traveler and the precision of the researcher.
We landed very early. I do not find a paradise of a lost island of the Pacific; meeting The chaos of a traffic without standards, The confusion of the old markets, Back trade, plastics and garbage thrown everywhere, A green hillside of a majestic volcano, Clear waters without large ships or fog, mosques, remains of strengths, faces of astonishment of those who see us.
It costs a lot, More in this part of the world, wander through areas not devoured by the marabunta of visitors like me
There is something that I like from the beginning, That attracts me, Because this is not a postcards for travelers. It has its own life away from a tourism that is almost non -existent there. Today it costs a lot, More in this part of the world, wander through areas not devoured by the marabunta of visitors like me.
We stayed in Villa Ma’rasai, Maybe the best guesthouse on the island. Juan Carlos knows her because this is her world. Has recorded a documentary about these islands, “THE ODISEA OF SPECIES”, And he has written several books, some translated into Indonesian about the history of Spain in this place. Latest, The most recent, “An alliance in the Célebes Sea” that signs with Spanish Antonio C. Field and Indonesian Nurachman Iriyanto, I just finished it.
It tells the century in which Spain dominated these islets. Discover a fascinating past, Absolutely unknown to the general public. We come to follow those footprints and come, So he proposed it when we had dinner at Christmas at my house in Bangkok, To try to compose a VAP trip to bring travelers here. Let me reach the end and tell you how that is over.
Elcano, the beginning of everything
The return to the world of Magallanes and Elcano was not a goal but a consequence. The Spanish ships left to find a new route to reach the islands of the spices. It was not sought to surround the globe, It was sought to load the clove wineries and take over their very profitable trade. Portuguese and Dutch pursued the same. “The Spaniards, finally, in 1521, almost three decades after the discovery of America, They arrived at the doors of Asia. The Spanish ships took port in the world -famous species islands, The five small islands located around Ecuador and located north of Molucas ”, The Book of the Sea of ??Célebes tells.
It was specifically andthe 8 November 1521 that the expedition already commanded by Elcano (Magallanes had already died in the current Philippines) RACE IN TIDORE (The island we have in front and which I will talk about in another article). From that moment and to 1677, that the Spaniards are expelled from the fort of Santa Rosa on the island of Siau, There is a very close relationship between the kingdom of Spain and these waters. King's book, Campo and Irinyato, I recommend you, He tells her in detail.
From that moment (1521) and up 1677, that the Spaniards are expelled from the fort of Santa Rosa on the island of Siau, There is a very close relationship between the kingdom of Spain and these waters
We left that morning to contemplate that footprint and travel the small island. From a high viewpoint close to the gueshouse we contemplate the molucas. It's a beautiful stamp, A succession of green volcanoes that float in the ocean. Then, We begin to travel the hustle and bustle of those streets. Juan Carlos is telling me every fort: Irrigate, Toluko, San Pedro and San Pablo and Kalamata. Has studied each castle, read the bibliography of the time, controlled with your drone from the heights the true size you had then ...
We go down in each fortress. I tell me its story, your times. We see Aljibes remains, or of towers and dependencies. In some there are traces of some walls, In others their walls are almost intact after the posterior taking and control of the Dutch, And in others there are up to the miracle of a plaque written in Spanish and Indonesian that remembers the Hispanic past of the place. People like him, and the Spanish Association of Pacific Studies, They rescue that story and placing it in their place. “No, This was not a strong Portuguese, It was Spanish ”or" No, This fortress was not lifted by the Dutch but the Spaniards ", These are some phrases that those days I heard to King when interacting with local guides or in small museums.
We also visit the Sultan Palace. Juan Carlos wants to greet him. Not, He went to Jakarta, But we took the opportunity to contemplate the small residence museum in which the history of the place is told.
Garbage and green
But in addition to the story, Ternate is an island, A strange Muslim tropics, With a volcano covered with green and clouds to climb, And an empty sea to sail. “I come here a lot because I pursued by the globe active volcanoes and the best seabed. And in both things, This is the best part of the world ", me dice Pascal, A very nice Frenchman who lives in Australia, While we both snorkel in Jikomalamo, A little bay surrounded by restaurants. In terms of beauty of seabed and corals, That place is the third division compared to what the environment offers, Juan Carlos tells me, also oceanographer and diver. But, Only there I see more coral and fish than in many renowned places where I have dived before.
Near Jiko Malamo is Batu Angus park, a "rocky" area created with the solidified lava of the volcano and, across, El Lake Torol. It is a volcanic lagoon in which crocodiles inhabit a beautiful view of the island of Hiri.
And all that could be beautiful, And it is and is not, Because it is infected with the same evil that affects a good part of the planet. The garbage, overflowing plastics, hanging pieces of branches, accumulated between rocks, covering the river channels. The human being and his waste that he throws without control, With the laziness of the fool who does not understand that this garbage throws it on himself.
The city also suffers from that problem. They have created a sea walk with some gardens. The sea and volcanoes always surrounding everything in the background. The island wins in beauty in the long and short distance is unable to hide the abuse of its inhabitants. Yet, Despite that, The site has something special, authentic. We go through your careless market day and night, With its smell of dry fish that overlaps that of fruits and spices.
It is not harvest season and there are no mounds with cinnamon and pimineta for sale. It is a humble market, left, where are they sold Palanganas, freshly open meats, nuts, Dry fish and green and red chiles. From time to time it comes to us, yes, The unmistakable smell of Durian, that fruit of salaza flavor and smell of used and humid sock that in Southeast Asia they worship.
All that hustle is over our last night on the island. Ramadan started that day after sunbathing. Many positions close that first week of his sacred party. We have dinner for less than two euros a rice with egg and fried banana in a beach bar in front of the sea. And while we chat, Let's drink a water and communicate by signs with the waitress, I understand that place is an old trip. One of those sites in the globe where the traveler is still a stranger.
"Those men with cat's color", It was like the chronicler Maluco Iman Ridjali de Ambon described the first Europeans
I feel happy in Ternate, a molucas, With the emotion that generates coming to contemplate a past that still remains alive. A place where the locals still see you with feline eyes as they did five centuries ago: "Those men with cat's color", It was like the chronicler Maluco Iman Ridjali de Ambon described the first Europeans who arrived there, Explain the work "An alliance in the Sea of ??Célebes".
That last night I sleep very bad. I get up with the mosques playing outburst. I go out to my terrace when clarify and see the islands of Tidore and Maitara ... Dawn and I see its volcanic green pinnacles high, And the sea still, AND EARTH CLOUDS. And I smell spices. Now. I smell them without smelling absolutely anything because nothing is understood there.
