Making our way back

On the final of our 3 days at Tanjung Puting National Park (Indonesia) visiting orangutans, it rained during the evening and a bit again in the morning. As we now made our way downriver, we were fortunate to see a rare species of Kingfisher, the ones with bright colours, and only seen in this area. We also saw several hornbill birds with long down-curved bills. Between Joel, Jordan, and I, we had spotting of the avian kind that included eagles, parakeets, parrots, hornbills, kingfishers, and more.

A couple of hornbills

On our return, we stopped yet again at the 2nd feeding station but this time I stayed on the klotok riverboat as I was not better yet. Joel and Jordan saw the large dominant male named Dayuk that wasn't present the 1st time. We had a photo of him in National Geographic sitting on the same bench that we sat on as we watched all of the orangutans!

Back off dude

Further along down the river on our way back, we stopped at a small resettlement village (Sungai Sekonyer) and I joined Joel and Jordan for a stroll where we were caught in a warm downpour.

Meager homes

We watched as a couple of naked kids joyously played ball in the pouring rain and then visited with a couple of others who had chosen to be sheltered instead from the downpour. As usual, everyone waved and greeted us.

We're dry!

Once back at the riverboat, our guide Hunsi showed off a talent of his and made each of us a woven ring that we proudly wore. Thanks Hunsi!

Back at Kumai and Sea Turtle, we and our guest Joel spent the evening digesting the extraordinary experience of visiting our distant (actually, not so distant at all) relatives of the last 3 days. What made the experience poignant was knowing that these majestic and endangered "people of the forest" are losing their habitat and lives through deforestation of which much is done illegally.

The next day, we said our goodbyes to Joel.