Halfway the crossing, our boat broke down. The boatman overlooked a floating bamboo stick which destroyed the tiny screw propeller of the boat. It probably happens more often, because he had some spare ones in his boat. Twenty minutes later everything was fixed again. When we approached Foli we immediately realised that we arrived in the ‘middle of nowhere’. Foli has no boat landing which meant that we had to wade the last hundred metres through the delightful warm water. Our arrival was quickly noticed. People from everywhere in the village came to the beach front to observe the arrival of the ‘orang putih’ (white people). It is usual to report yourself at the village head when you arrive in a small and remote Indonesian village. So when we asked for the ‘kepala desa’, an older man came to the fore to accompany us to the house of the village head.

The village head is most of the time also the person in the village who has basic accommodation available for passing travellers. And because Foli is visited by birders on a regular basis, the village head was prepared, despite the fact that we didn’t announce our visit. The family of the village head has some very basic rooms (boxes) in a separate wooden building. The boxes have no lights and they only contain two wooden beds. Fortunately, the village head had some foam mattresses available, which increased the chance of a comfortable night of sleep significantly. There is also a communal area with wooden benches. For the bathroom and shower, you have to use the facilities of the family. The toilet is a separate little building with a squad toilet behind the house. Flushing the toilet is done by scooping water from a bucket into the toilet. The shower is a different little building with a concrete floor, in where a big barrel of water is placed. Again, a plastic beaker is used to scoop the water out of the barrel, and this time over your head to wash yourself. It is important to keep the water in the barrel (called mandi in Indonesian) clean, because it is also used by following users.

The village of Foli is on walking distance from the ‘forests’ where many of the North Moluccan endemics can be found. The original forest is completely chopped, and the area now consists of younger tree and a lot of bushes. But still, many species of birds can be found here. However, trip reports show that is becomes more and more difficult to see certain species. It is known for example that some species are very popular cage birds (like the White Cockatoo and the Chattering Lory), which results in the fact that more than 10% of the population of these birds is caught on a yearly basis. This is of course a destructive catch rate. Later, during our stay in the hotel Losmen Kita in Kota Ternate, we were eyewitness of the sad future for many of these birds. Losmen Kita alone had four White Cockatoos and four Chattering Lories small cages in the courtyard of the hotel. Very sad!

We stay two and a half days in Foli and see the most common species that can be found in the area around Foli, including exotic doves and pigeons, spectacular Lories and Parrots, several species of raptors and the two species of Birds of Paradise that can be found on Halmahera: the Wallace’s Standard wing and the Paradise-Crow. Our visit to Foli was absolutely worthwhile. At the end of our visit to Foli, the village head arranged two places on a public boat back to Daru. However, the public boat wasn’t really a cost saving in comparison to the chartered boat that brought us to Foli. We still had to pay an inflated 100,000 Rupiahs per person, which meant that the village head sucked money out of us till the last moment. A little bit of competition in the village would be a good development. It would mean that prices would become more reasonable and that the money spent by visitors, would be distributed over more than one family.