Over night we had covered a bit more than 250 nautical miles, finally hitting the mainland of Papua New-Guinea.

Today at Tufi a cultural experience program was waiting for us. We had a morning landing and an afternoon landing. In my case, both landings went to the cultural experience – in the morning this was right at the beach (with an option for a ride in the local canoes in – well – a cargo configuration); in the afternoon we went to a nearby village – and the local canoe ride now had turned into a need, as the village was out of reach for the zodiacs during low tide.

The program in both spots not only covered the usual singing and dancing performance, but also demonstrations of local crafts: processing of sago (from sago palm to starchy side dish), traditional leaf weaving, fire making, production of jewellery, clothing or dug-out canoe; there was also a (mimicked) showcase of traditional tattooing (traditionally a female initiation rite). To me the program felt more whole as in previous stops – really turning from a cultural performance into an experience.