Go Gorontalo: A young province stirs for change
Go Gorontalo: A young province stirs for change
Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Gorontalo City
In the parched central square of Gorontalo City, where colonial resistance fighter Nani Wartabone is immortalized in a towering granite statue, only the occasional drone of a bentor (motorized pedicab) breaks the early afternoon silence.
With many of the city's 148,000 residents napping away the afternoon out of the sweltering heat, offices and businesses follow suit by shutting up shop until 3 p.m. or 4 p.m.
"This is probably the only place in Indonesia where we have a proper siesta," said Alex Velberg, the owner of Melati Hotel.
The laid-back small town atmosphere is only to be expected in a regency town transformed overnight to a provincial capital when Gorontalo separated from North Sulawesi three years ago.
But there is also no escaping the impression that Gorontaloans are trying their best to move out of the shadow of their neighbor to the north.
Gorontalo province is a place where corn is king -- like the siesta, it's a legacy of 17th century Spanish travelers, and is one of the few crops able to endure the arid climate that marks much of the province, except the relatively fertile Marisa regency.
Its spiraling minarets tell of its majority Muslim population; while Aceh is known as "Serambi Mecca" (Mecca's threshold), Gorontaloans call their province "Serambi Medina".
Gorontalo gets few travelers (the tales of double takes and shouted hellos at every turn for Western visitors are true), with most using it as a stopover before heading to the secluded beaches of the nearby Togian islands. In 2001, just over 1,000 foreign tourists visited Gorontalo, but the province's tourism and culture office estimates that perhaps 500 visited last year, in the wake of the Bali bombings.
Still striving to improve the welfare of its population, the Gorontalo government lists improvement of human resources, agriculture and development of a maritime economy as three "superior" programs in its mission and vision statement, although "culture" is included among its 10 general objectives.
Yet its rickety infrastructure is slowly inching toward change for the better for travelers. Along Jl. A. Yani, the closest thing to a main street in Gorontalo, a Quality Inn is under construction, set to be the first "starred" hotel in the province.
Celebes Air also began linking Gorontalo to major cities in Java in mid-August, bringing to three the carriers serving the Jakarta-Gorontalo route.
Granted, it could be a sleepy town anywhere in eastern Indonesia, and it's definitely no Manado (which a friend quipped is "heaven's gate" in comparison). Yet its clean streets and several interesting attractions are a refreshing world away from the traffic jams, malls and fast-food emporiums of Jakarta for those with a sense of adventure.
A first trip can be to Benteng Otanaha, a complex of three 16th century forts overlooking Lake Limboto about 10 kilometers from the city. Take a bentor (about Rp 10,000, and it's advised to have the driver wait) to the first set of steps leading to Fort Ulupahu, Fort Otahiya and Fort Otanaha, which is a breathtaking 353 steps up.
Alternately, for lazier lugs, have the bentor drive you the back way to Otanaha, which has several tidy gazebos with views over Lake Limboto. It may have been something a few years ago, but now the lake is a rather pitiful sight, with most of it being eaten up by fish farms (the dire prediction is that it will dry up completely in 10 years from silt and reclamation).
You will be able to get a close-up look at one of Otanaha's turrets, now covered, which is said to have been made from crushed eggshells of the maleo bird. Unfortunately, while it's very clean, there was no guide around or printed information available on site
There is a hot water public swimming pool at Lombongo (bentor, Rp 30,000 round-trip), a pleasant 15-kilometer drive through neatly kept kampongs and leafy countryside.
The swimming pool itself does not have much to offer -- the water is hot, true, but it's none too clean, although a new artificial pool for water rides is under construction.
More interesting for the adventurous is a stop at the park ranger's office a few hundred meters down the road. There you can find out about visiting three waterfalls a little inside the 300,000-hectare Dumoga Bone National Park, as well as other excursions to see flora and fauna (the day I visited, the small wooden Gorontalo-style house was closed as the ranger was taking a couple of tourists to see a maleo nest).
If you are looking for more of a vacation experience, there is the new Pentadio resort (about Rp 15,000 by bentor). Opened in January, it overlooks what is left of Lake Limboto, with swimming pools, sauna, a water games pool, wooden villas and fishing. Villas start at Rp 200,000 a night, but the resort still has an unfinished look to it, with unpaved roads and its otherwise idle employees glad to see anybody come by.
But it's the diving opportunities off Gorontalo's rugged coastline that probably hold the greatest tourist potential.
"Our guests have used phrases like 'pristine reefs', 'diving in a virgin area' and 'no trash to be seen,'" said Rantje Allen, an American working with Miguel's Diving, which is owned and operated by Manado-based Pola diving (www.miguelsdiving.com).
At present, with few other visitors, divers have the waters pretty much to themselves. Because of the strong currents, Rantje said the best time to dive was from November to April.
"The diving here is quite special, with spectacular coral and new and undescribed species, plus endemic ones. In addition to kilometers of dramatic walls, we also have shallow coral gardens, a mini-mount, a multiple pinnacle dive, muck diving and two wrecks, including a 1942 Japanese wreck."