After the trekking, we went straight on a “speedboat “(banana boat with an engine) to a small tiny island. There are no permanent inhabitants, but a very few local may be around gathering coconuts. We went with 2 guys from the Mentawai family next to Surfaid and stayed in a very basic bamboo hut they had there. Probably we were the only bules there in lots of years. The beauty of the place is difficult to describe, an unspoiled tropical paradise we had for ourselves. We spent our time fishing, cooking, eating, swimming, practicing Indonesian… Everything perfect there but the fucking mosquitoes and sandflies. Despite using repellent, I got hundreds of bites. Mosquitoes level God, even for tropical standards. And that is a risk, being the Mentawai a malaria hotspot and dengue not uncommon.
Once back, sadly we left the amazing Mentawai, no doubt a highlight of this trip and a place I would love to go back for further exploration.
Again difficult to choose pics for this post so here all Mentawai pics.
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