Papua New Guinea, at last

I spent 12 days in beautiful Papua New Guinea (PNG), which is the eastern half of an island shared with Indonesia. 

I had wanted to visit PNG for many years and knew about the adventure trips led by Greg Stathakis of PNG Travel (Santa Barbara, CA; 800/676-1241, www.pngtravel.com) from articles I’d read in ITN and at TripAdvisor.com. Greg has escorted small groups to PNG for 38 years and has advertised in ITN for many of those years.

For the trip I took with Greg, May 7-22, 2017, I paid about $13,000, which included round-trip air from Los Angeles and five charter flights within PNG. This trip is expensive because the areas are remote and not many people travel there.

Our group was composed of 12 very well-traveled adventurers from various parts of the United States. Traveling by bush plane and also by boat on the Sepik River, we visited several areas, including Mount Hagen and the Highlands region.

The people smiled and welcomed us as we visited their villages, even though communication was difficult. (Over 800 different languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea!)

The climax of our visit was the Tumbuna Sing-Sing, where 13 tribes attired in body paint, leaves and feathers entertained us with music and dance.

I heartily recommend that you visit Papua New Guinea. You will not be disappointed!! 

ARLENE HAMANN
Laguna Beach, CA