ALOTAU, PAPUA, NEW GUINEA

ALOTAU, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

 

The island of Papua New Guinea became independent in 1975.  It has 6,064,515 people and 178,704 square miles. At one time the people were cannibals. They pick and grind beetle nuts and eat them which makes a red stain around their mouth which does not come off. Also, some of them blacken their teeth for beauty.

 

Alotau, Milne Bay, is a shipping port which has a history in World War II. It was vital to the course of the Pacific War and was fought between the Australian Army units and Japanese invading forces from August 25 to September 7, 1942. The battle resulted in the first defeat of the Japanese land forces in the Pacific War.

 

The people of the island seem to be the poorest of any of the islands we have visited. There was no evidence of hotels or tourism. This is the first time a Holland American ship had docked here. The people were friendly and curious about us. It is very warm here and the people seem to just sit around under the trees and we didn’t see much activity.

Newspaper man sold Tom a newspaper. He had red mouth.

Tom at the Shopping Center.

Tom at the war memorial with our ship in background.

WWII War Memorial