from los palos, east in east timor

i am LOOOOOVING this country!!

after i left dili i've been traveling on the back of trucks, inside cramped up minibuses with chickens and kilos of tobacco and old ladies sitting on my lap and kids leaning on my back... also walked with my backpack for many kilmeters, got lifts with a few jeeps and jumped to the back of a pick up truck that brought me to los palos, where i wasn't really going to come to but that was where the ride brought me by sunset and because it was to dark to go on to baguia i decided to stay :) happy i did!

at the guesthouse 27 i met joana, a really nice portuguese girl working at the UN mission who is letting me use the internet illegally at the UN facility ;) this is just after we went to the restaurante roberto carlos where i had caldeirada de peixe!!! the best meal i've had in over a month!! so good :):):):):)

but between dili and los palos there have been quite a few amazing things :D

first i got to baucau. i wasn't too impressed with the place and i wanted to avoid an australian who was almost stalking me... so i walked the 5 kilometers down to wataboo beach and i met senhora teresa who invited me to stay at her house :) and to become colegas (friends). she was the local baker, so we had amazing fresh bread in the morning! and at night we watched awful indonesian soap operas with her kids, and it was wonderful! the next day we went together to the market and i helped her sell the bread for a while (having a foreigner at the local market helps the sales!!).

then i went on to com. got to the junction at desa rasa where i met ngo worker koutiti from uganda :) and after a great chat over coffee on the shade of a beautiful tree we found me a ride - a gentleman who was going to com on official work offered to take me at the back of his motorbike ;) the best way to see the amazing coast! COM WAS GREAT :D i stayed at a lovely guesthouse by the sea where agustina cooked octopus with super mie and rice! across the street lived ricardo lopes with whom i had great conversations while helping him with his english and portuguese :) the com had the sweetest kids i've met in timor leste :):):) they started singing to me "indo eu indo eu para a cidade de viseu"...... this is an old portuguese song thet they sang in a bit of a different version from the one we sing in portugal :D then "o meu chapeu tem tres bicos, tem tres bicos o meu chapeu"...... and many other!!! it was so special!! on my second day in com, xanana gusmao was expected there. but he didn't make it by 7pm or so when it got dark and i went to do some yoga and didn't go to the reception where they had the beautiful girls dancing the beautiful traditional dances.

i got up early the next day to start going to tutuala. walked a gorgeous road for 8kms, got a lift with a truck, walked 5 other ks, another lift, waited at a nice couple's house, got on a bemo and sat on a girl's lap, then walked again and got a truck to the town where xanana gusmao was hidden for a long time during the occupation. then i walked some more under the HOT sun and i got a lift from a fancy and fast pajero!! that's how i reached tutuala beach, in front of jaco island :) i got a bungallow right at the beach and that night at an opening party for the new guesthouse i met xanana gusmao :D he was so nice!! first he offered me cake ;) then a beer :) and then he asked me for a dance! i shook his hand and told him how much i admire him ;) but i didn't dance, i was to shy to dance the tete in front of a hundred east timorese ;) that night i also met major neves, an amazing man who joined the guerrilha when he was 7 and at 44 is still with the timorese army.. he has 22 or 23 bullets in his body and a sweet smile, the kind of smile that i've hardly ever came across. loved meeting him and chatting way into the night.

stayed one more day in tutuala and got a ride at the back of a pick up truck to go all the way to los palos :) los palos looks like a town south of the mexican border... just like its name ;) and for me it offered the chance to enter the world of the UN in east timor and to hear first hand comments from people who are part of this mission that is, like they say, "just like being at summer camp"...