Mount Inerie
A cone behind the village.
Josep M. Gracia — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Josep M. Gracia — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fakhri Anindita — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Josep M. Gracia — CC BY-SA 4.0
A traditional stone village of the Ngada people at the foot of the towering cone of the Inerie volcano south of Bajawa, counted among Indonesia's loveliest and oldest traditional villages. It is made of two facing rows of wooden houses with tall thatched roofs on stone terraces climbing the hill, with ancestral shrines and old megaliths in the square between them. The village's emblems are the ngadhu, a carved wooden post with a parasol-like thatched roof representing the clan's male ancestor, and the bhaga, a miniature house representing the female ancestor. Women sit before their houses weaving traditional ikat, and the top of the village looks over the valley and the distant sea. An entry fee or donation goes to the village and you sign the visitors' book; traditional cloth is lent to cover clothing out of respect. It is lived in, so ask before taking photos. The village is about five hours from Ende or Labuan Bajo, so make it part of a journey across Flores with a night in Bajawa.
A cone behind the village.
Ancestral emblems.
Before the houses.
Jerebuu, about 20 km south of Bajawa, at the foot of Mount Inerie
Some houses host guests simply, but most visitors stay in nearby Bajawa and visit by day.