Khadija and I recently made an unforgettable visit to Papua New Guinea as part of a six-week trip where we circumnavigated the globe. Tribes in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea wear cultural heritage attire for ceremonies and festivals. These elaborate costumes often featured vibrant colors, body paint, headdresses, animal parts & traditional weaponry.

The Enguwal Tribe performs for various events such as marriages, funerals, wars, births, and celebrations of good health. Each costume is distinct, symbolizing different facets of life within the tribe. Materials used in crafting their appearance include feathers and human hair for headdresses; natural dyes, soil, clay, and pig fat for body and face painting; and bamboo, bark cloth, animal skins, and beads for their distinctive clothes. It takes about three hours for them to perfect their appearance.

Before the cultivation of coffee, the ancestors of the Gimmesave tribe had banana plantations which had to be protected from relentless birds and bats that consumed the ripening fruit. In response, they adorned themselves with coats of white mud and black clay, creating a striking contrast that mimicked the feathers of birds. They fashioned headpieces from banana stumps and moss, which they set ablaze. As night fell, the burning headpieces illuminated the darkness, creating a fearsome spectacle that sent the birds and bats fleeing.

The Spirit Birds, as the Giure clan of the Nauro tribe are known, protect the Wii Towai waterfall nestled in an otherworldly setting.

I found when the tribes mixed, it was a gob-smacking sight.

In between sing-sings (festivals), we were able to walk through the villages and meet local folks. Here I am holding the hither-to-unknown-to-me pandanus fruit with Amenda, her mother and little sister.

See the PNG photo gallery for much more.

UPCOMING TRIPS:

We haven’t planned our next international trip, but we are considering many options. Stay tuned!

RECENT POST:

The Samoan Islands are just specks in the vast Pacific Ocean. Yet these tiny volcanic outposts developed a culture that has spread far beyond their shores and is known as the “Cradle of Polynesian Civilization”. Archaeological evidence suggests that the original Polynesian culture originated in Samoa and Tonga around 3,000 years ago.

The Samoan Islands have an added twist; there are two governments only 65 km / 40 mi apart but straddling opposite sides of the International Date Line. American Samoa became a U.S. territory in 1899, while the country of Samoa became independent in 1962. Flying from Samoa to American Samoa, you go back to yesterday; the other way, you go to tomorrow. This “time travel” alone is a good reason to visit both. Be sure to check out the photo gallery.

SUBWAY PHOTOGRAPHY:

My beautifully printed black and white “Station to Station: Exploring the New York City Subway” coffee table book is still available. You can see all photos @nycsubwaybook on Instagram and New York Subway Book on Facebook. Click here or email me for a signed copy, not available anywhere else!

SOCIALS:

My website www.ExploringEd.com with detailed posts on our trips.

FB: @Ed.Hotchkiss.3 and @Exploring Ed Travel | IG: @Exploring.Ed.Travel​

RECENT BOOK​:

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (2023, 352 pages). Another well researched and crisply written book by David Grann, author of The Killers of the Flower Moon. On January 28, 1742, a barely seaworthy and crumbling vessel washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were 30 barely alive men who were survivors of the Wager, a British vessel that had left England two years earlier on a secret mission to attack and raid Spanish ships. The ship and others in a small fleet incredibly made it through the tempestuous Drake Passage, but then wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of current-day Chile. Most of the surviving men, after being marooned for months and nearly starving to death, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three others from the crew including the captain, and they told a different story involving mutiny and Spanish imprisonment.

DONATE:

National Public Radio (NPR) affiliated stations are in danger of closing due to federal funding cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes money to public media. These stations provide local news, organize local events and support community actions. They are irreplaceable and would be a tragic loss in a world of hyper partisan media.

I have just contributed to the following organizations which are trying to survive and stabilize at-risk stations. Please consider also donating to them.

The Public Media Bridge Fund is designed to provide emergency relief to public media stations, especially those in rural and underserved areas.

​NPR helps support member stations across the country that are struggling with funding cuts.

For those of you in the U.S., you can donate to your local station. In the New York City area this includes WNYC, WQXR, WLIW and WFUV.

Happy Traveling 🌏… Exploring Ed