Carstensz Day 2: Delayed in Timika

We were supposed to be flying early this morning from Timika to Sugapa but got word that our chartered flight is unavailable or the plane is inadequate to carry all 7 passengers and luggage. We never got the real story except “no plane today, will have to wait until tomorrow”. So we got to spend an extra day recovering from all the travel and explore Timika.

While we were treated to a few hours of dryness and sunshine in the morning hours, Scott had the idea of renting motorcycles for a couple of hours and ride around the island. We tried negotiating with some local motorcycle owners but they were not willing to rent them to us foreigners. I guess they did not trust us with their main transports. They did offer to drive us around but that’s not what we wanted.

Negotiating for motorcycles.

Instead of the motorcycles, we took a cab ride to the only nice section of Timika. We treated ourselves to a very nice lunch at the beautifully landscaped “Rimba Papua Hotel” formerly known as the “Sheraton Timika Hotel”.

Joe Ashkar & Scott Woolums at the Rimba Papua Hotel.

We got back to our hotel just in time to watch a massive rain storm. We re-packed and got ready for tomorrow’s flight to Sugapa. We were told to be ready to go at 5:30 AM.

Afternoon rain in Timika.