The ferry that left from the island of Ternate to the island of Tidore had to go to the 7 am, Then they told us that it would be 8, And finally it left for the 9 When a guy finally appeared on a motorcycle loaded with bags and boxes to which we see that we expected. All in order. It goes and comes, That is the goal. When is irrelevant, It is not an end.
The sea is a blue sheet. Some islands with their volcanoes emerge as fungi, siempre los volcanes, What make the landscape somewhat diverse. They are not islands, They are mountains that float. I feel a little Juan Sebastián Elcano, or I try to imagine the epic that should have been for those men to get to speciería, The Molucas, The fate of that trip that to flee from death ended up surrounding the globe. “The first interaction of the Castilians with the Molucas Islands took place the 8 November 1521 With the arrival in Tidoe de los Navíos Trinidad and Victoria, belonging to the Magallanes-Elcano expedition ”, Explain the book “An alliance in the Célebes Sea”, written by the Spaniards Juan Carlos Rey and Antonio C. Field, And the Nuchman Iriyanto Indonesian.
The first interaction of the Castilians with the Molucas Islands took place the 8 November 1521
Juan Carlos, my friend, writer and researcher in the history of the Molucas (I already talked about him in the previous article about the island of Ternate) I am telling me some stories in the ship's bow. Meet that island, Like all the environment, Because it has made them a trade. Investigate and squeeze them.
"In those waters, Elcano anchored. I investigated his route and the description of his trip and had to anchor more or there ”, It tells me some time after landing, Already in Tidoe. He points to the sea on the still robust walls of the Spanish fort of Tahula or Santiago de los Caballeros. The castle skeleton, from the beginning of the 17th century, It is almost intact. From there the entire horizon is contemplated. It has not changed much of what those sailors who were going with Elcano observed. That is part of the magic of the Molucas, that the time of the ferry and the time of the story, It is similar: A medium, Not an end.
Tidore is completely different from ternate. As soon as you descend from the ship you understand the difference. Everything is quiet, ordered, There is hardly any dirt anywhere, The facades of the humble houses are clean, The grass of your tickets resembles the military hair, cut, companies, equal. Tidore is very beautiful. It is a small paradise without tourists, No hotels where to spend, With his fishermen boats hoping to come out.
Tidore is very beautiful. It is a small paradise without tourists, No hotels where to spend, With his fishermen boats hoping to come out.
We stop to see a commemorative plaque of Elcano, We visit a museum where Juan Carlos is going to give away explanatory diptychs in several languages ??in history. “I try to fix it, that you know that these strengths are Spanish ", I explained. We go through two warm and ceremony meetings with authorities of the small local museum that after several rodeos are solved quickly when Juan Carlos explains that the brochures are free, He pays them.
Then we climb to the strong tower, A Spanish bastion raised by the Burgos Hernando de la Torre that arrived here in 1528 With the expedition led by García de Loaisa. A wall has collapsed. You need a certain maintenance. Sus defensas miraban al mar, The danger came from there, of the Portuguese and Dutch ships. The Spaniards tried to settle in Tidoe, But the Lusos, After various battles, They ended them at first throwing. "During the first half of the 16th century, The north of Las Molucas became a battlefield of a war between Iberians on the other side of the world, or rather a war between malucos sultanates with their respective Iberian allies. Ternate and Portugal against Tidoe and Castilla. The subtlety of these fighting is difficult to define. End, Fortune favored the former ", It tells the book "An alliance in the Sea of ??Célebes".
There is in any case another previous work of king with other authors, "The strengths of the Molucas Islands, Ternate Y Tidore ", detailing each of the numerous castles that rose in the area. Occasionally, The fights were a few meters as Spaniards, Lusos and Dutch came to lift their castles a short distance to war For spices.
After visiting the market and choping something, We leave for the special island of Mare. This time it also comes with us from, A young history student at the University of Ternate to which Juan Carlos has love, and ojhi, that has made us a driver on all the islands Has family in Tidore and Mare, So it will make us Cicerone.
The Dutch, Some time later, They called the island "Potterbacker" (potters)
We start in a fishing barge. The sky is blue, The sun hits strongly, And the sea is still not rocking. Mare is a special island. The Portuguese arrived there in 1512 y encontraron que las mujeres tenían una tradición alfarera en la que cocían las vasijas de arcilla sin horno. The Dutch, Some time later, They called the island "Potterbacker" (potters).
The journey in boat is a feast. The sky is blue up, The sea is blue down. A mirror we are going through leaving a foam trail behind. In front of us there is a small island, With a small port and a small mountain. “We are lucky, I think women are going to cook the vessels ", announces from.
We go down from the boat and find a dock with a roof to endure the wait of the boats under the sun. It is a small population in which the facades are painted in colors, The streets are narrow and quiet, and The people look at us with the astonishment observed to the unexpected traveler. We approach the place where the women's group, in fact, prepares for cooking a large number of dishes and vessels.
They, For centuries, They are the ones that mold the clay and cook it. Men are only going to look for the materials to the nearby mountain. “Are they Japanese?”, explains that several women ask him. The Japanese are evil, The memory of very deep scars of World War II. Japanese troops behaved wildly in China, Korea, Southeast Asia ... And some of those older ladies lived it. The foreigner generates distrust, Japanese we can all. "The Japanese were very hard here. My aunt married her with 9 años porque los japoneses sólo se llevaban a las vírgenes”, He tells me from.
The Japanese were very hard here. My aunt married her with 9 years because the Japanese only took the virgins
We observe the scene. They put a bed of dry palm leaves, Coconut and wood peels. In the middle they throw their clay vessels, and cover everything again. They put some gasoline and set fire. “Potterbacker”, I think. Gasoline is the only new, The rest is a centenary tradition that remains in a world not contaminated from tourism and technology.
We go out again with the boat. This time we headed surrounding the island to a coral islet with a shaman in the middle that Juan Carlos knows. Water is glass, The entrails are seen. Es un mar espectacular de nácar. We approach a strange wooden door with a platform and a roof. "Anyone can come here and enjoy this", explains to us.
We go down to an island made of corals. We generally abuse the chronicles of the word paradise. That is another. An empty site, human lifeless, and with an overwhelming marine life under the still waves. “This is one of the best places to dive in the world ", Juan Carlos explains me. And I miss not having brought my skers and be able to immerse myself in those waters.
We are heading again to Tidore. On the way we see two other coral islets. In one a bush or palm tree has grown. We return to the island of calm, of the Time Truce. To Molucas and its spices. Back to ternate the mosques sing. The Ebulle port. The night arrives and life comes on in your market, In their taverns.
The next morning we go in Barca, after 45 minutes, to the island of Halmahera. Is the greatest of all. Immense. We take a guide to which we explain that we are not tourists, that we come to recognize the terrain to perhaps create a trip. And the guy, as it happens so many times, Hey without listening and is limited to seeing two tourists who milked the wallet. Everything we propose to him is very far. Assures that Google Maps lies, that everything will take much longer than it says there. (Then I will know for Pascal, A Frenchman I already talked about in the previous Ternate post that came from traveling Halmahera, that he who lied was our guide).
It gives us a foolish ride on an absurd rural road, We see the remains of two Spanish strong shattered, takes us to a mangrove that the beach calls without special charm or conditions to do any activity, and places us in front of a poster that commemorates the stay there of Alfred R. Wallace.
And the guy, as it happens so many times, Hey without listening and is limited to seeing two tourists who milked the wallet
The English naturalist and geographer lived in Las Molucas and his work has the importance of Charles Darwin and his theory of species origin. Both investigated the same, And they say that Darwin upon learning of Wallace's jobs hastened to publish his studies.
The famous Wallace line was born in part of his studies in Las Molucas and surroundings. In Ternate we also saw a commemorative mural next to what was his house. The British scientist discovered that fauna and flora was different, Despite its geographical proximity, for the growth of the sea that incommunicated both areas. “The line passes between the islands of Bali and Lombok, East Java; Continue between Borneo, that leaves the west, and the famous (Through the Macasar Strait) And it passes south of the Philippines. To the northwest of the line La Fauna is the characteristic of Southeast Asia; To the southeast is the Australásica, that extends about New Guinea, Australia and many Southwestern Pacific archipelagos ", Wikipedia says.
But a Wallace poster, A mangrove and a path between shrubs does not seem enough to us. Our guide, however, It tells us that the route is over after two hours. We have paid for the full day. We discussed, We cut the expense and return to ternate with the feeling of having wasting time in a gross scam.
That afternoon the Ramadan begins. The city goes out. The next morning the silence has eaten everything. We go to the airport to fly to Jakarta. Airbatik has canceled the flight without notice (The company has not returned the cost of the tickets of a flight that did not exist). Molucas y el tiempo, You know. Miraculously we managed to get on the only other flight that goes to the capital.
We take off and meditate if this can be a trip with tourists. We came to investigate that. In VAP we do not make industrial trips, We offer crafts, Like Mare's potters. There are many agencies that sell factory trips. They are made by others and they only put their surcharge. We come here, We touched the terrain, We decided if we can contribute something, If it is viable. Juan Carlos is the key, His knowledge is a luxury, But perhaps it is not enough to offer something profitable for us, Well for you.
For now we suspend the route in Molucas and Sulawesi. It does not seem that there are conditions to bring people to this lost world. Maybe even better so, Maybe Molucas needs to forget the world to keep, Not to be Bali. Maybe Molucas survived the fever of his spices and now, restless, All they have left is hiding to preserve themselves from globalism that sweeps everything and that began just Elcan.
