FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 14th Port – Komodo Island, Indonesia – Day 33

March 4, 2016 by · Comments Off on FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 14th Port – Komodo Island, Indonesia – Day 33 

Saturday, February 27th 

  • Two guides (one with an official park ranger shirt that I desperately wanted) led us on a one mile trek through a thick forest of tropical trees and plants. While basically flat, our winding pebbly path turned out to be broken pieces of dead coral mixed with some sea shells. The tall tree canopy protected us from the rain that was spitting from the sky. Relief from the stifling heat and humidity came ever so briefly when the occasional slight breeze blew through.

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  • Holy shmoly! This is Jurassic Park with pre-historic lizards, and jumbo ones at that! How on earth could they have survived when everything else became extinct? Well it appears they pretty much had the run of the island. And run they can – as fast as a dog! And not only that – they can swim and climb trees! For hundreds of thousands of years they apparently have roamed freely since nobody even knew they existed until 1910.

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Komodo dragon FUN-facts – They average 7 to 10 feet in length and weigh anywhere from 150 to 300 pounds. They eat 80% of their body weight in one feeding and are both carnivores and cannibals. Their strong jaw can bite a goat in half. And they don’t even need to actually kill their prey. Their saliva contains 50 strains of bacteria, guaranteeing a slow death by blood poisoning within 24 hours.

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  • After hearing that the dragons had been sufficiently fed before our arrival we felt assured no one would be under attack. However, that wasn’t the case when we got trapped at the end and had to run the gauntlet of souvenir selling children begging us to buy. Oh well, this is just the prerequisite for India!

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FUN-cocktail – Summer Spirit – Apricot Brandy, Limoncello, Chambord, fresh lemon sour, & hand extracted lime juice.