5 Martin H. - 5 years ago
After a long thought, we decided to plan our West Papua trip with Jefalgi Papua Tours. The e-mail contact with Athan was always very fast and reliable. The whole organization of the trip was perfect. At the airport in Jayapura, Athan was already approaching us because he had recognized us by the photos, and immediately sent us to the plane to take us to Dekai. Arrived there, were immediately received by our guide Olfied. Olfied then accompanied us on our trip to the Korowai and to the Baliem Valley. Olfied is a very sympathetic guide. We always felt safe in his company and he took care of us so well that we felt like guest of honour. Olfied speaks very good English, he knows a lot, has patiently answered our many questions and told interesting stories. He has also fulfilled every special wish. Olfied is also an excellent cook. Through him we got to know a lot of exotic fruits and vegetables, which are not available at our home country. Even in the deep jungle he provided us with the best. Our drivers and, above all, the boat driver Sam, who had to concentrate on the many flotsam in the river for hours, had very high reliability. In the jungle village of Mabul, we were greeted by the locals friendly and received much visitors in our accommodation. In the house of Acer - our local guide - we spent a night on the way to and back from the jungle. Acer is a Korowai and he knows where the Korowai are. He protected us from poisonous serpents and brought us safely over rivers and through waterholes.
Our trip to the Korowai was very exhausting because of the high temperatures and the high humidity, the many mosquitoes and the unusual physical exertion. But after our arrival at the Korowai, we were rewarded with an unforgettable experience from which we will live in the past. Previously in Mabul, Olfied had organized 7 very nice porters, who accompanied us into the jungle. We were welcomed very warmly by the Korowai and were able to see how these people master their daily life in the jungle in the coming days. We stayed overnight in the tent and thanks to Olfied and our porters, we were able to eat here as well. The Korowai showed us how they fell a sago-palm and produced Sago. We could look how they do the small handwork and they showed us how to make baskets for fishing from palm trees. We visited one of the smaller tree houses, in the highest (about 25 m) we did not dare. The farewell to these dear people was then very difficult for us.
Afterwards we visited the Baliem Valley and the Dani people. We were shown how the battles went on and a traditional pig cooking festival was held for us. In another Dani village we could see a mummy and then it we hat to say goodbye to Olfied, who has grown to our heart. We have made many journeys around the world, but Olfied was the best guide we ever had.
He took us to the airport in Wamena and waited for hours until our plane had actually taken off. In Jayapura we were again reliably picked up by our guide Edward and our driver Ridwan and could spend a last nice day in Sentani and Jayapura. If anyone is planning a trip to West Papua, we can highly recommend Jefalgi Papua Tours. Everything has worked perfectly and there is really nothing negative to report. We plan to travel again to Indonesia and we will definitely plan the trip again with Jefalgi Papua Tours and ask for Olfied.
