travelling around Papua New Guinea
I've been putting off writing this post ... because my trip to Papua New Guinea was so utterly amazing that I really don't know how to describe it, or what to say about it. It was the Mount Hagen festival that attracted me to the country, and I shall write about that separately, but I was blown away by the encounters with various tribal groups in different parts of the country. We started in the north-west part of the country, in the Sepik region (an internal flight, longish drive and then a few hours along a river in dugout canoes), where we stayed for a couple of nights in basic accommodation in a small village of the Sepik people. They are also known as the 'crocodile men', as they believe that in ancient times crocodiles rose up from the Sepik River and evolved into human form on land. Their reptilian lineage is commemorated through a scarification process marking the transition to manhood, when cuts are made into the skin of the chest, upper arms, back and buttoc...