See Papua New Guinea From a River Boat

TARI, Papua New Guinea — Above this mystical land in the South Pacific, our nine-passenger plane skimmed the jagged mountains of the Southern Highlands. The pilot was searching for a clearing that serves as the airstrip at Tari, a hamlet of the Huli tribe.

Finally, the wheels touched down and we taxied toward a crowd of dark faces watching from behind a wire fence.

“A week ago we couldn’t land here because they were using the field for a battleground,” the pilot said. “There were arrows flying all over the place . . . and all because of a bingo game.”

The bingo caller at a missionary church was announcing numbers that made his friend the winner, and they were accused of cheating. In an ensuing fight, the player was killed. “Pay-back” is a keystone of the Huli social system and the dead man’s family expected compensation--a gift of pigs is always preferred, but cash will do.

Opposing Sides

When the killer refused to pay up, warriors of the opposing family grabbed their bows and arrows and shields of corrugated tin, and took aim at each other across the airstrip. Four men were wounded before the national police arrived and ended the battle by setting fire to homes and threatening to burn down the entire town if there wasn’t a truce.

The pilot’s story heightened our excitement about venturing into this little-known island republic that hugs the Equator just above the northern tip of Australia. Given independence and its present name in 1975, Papua New Guinea remains one of the world’s most intriguing countries.

It’s also one of the least-visited nations, with fewer than 5,000 visitors annually.

Perhaps that’s because New Guinea conjures an image of steaming jungles and mountain valleys where headhunters practice primitive customs straight from the pages of Margaret Mead. Not to mention Michael Rockefeller, who was collecting native art carvings along the Sepik River when he disappeared forever.

Jungle River Boat

We’ve come to Papua New Guinea especially to ride the jungle river boat that takes tourists up the fabled Sepik, the nation’s cradle of art crafts. Our itinerary also includes the Highlands, where men paint their faces and bodies for the colorful, ceremonial sing-sing.

The biggest and best of those cultural extravaganzas is the annual Highland Show at Goroka and Mt. Hagen, but small sing-sings are staged year-round at Tari for guests of the Ambua Lodge.

We headed to the lodge from the airstrip in four-wheel-drive vehicles, bouncing over an unpaved road that twists through mountain terrain as green as the Irish countryside. Greeting us with smiles and waves along the way were children in church-issued clothes.

A couple of older men appeared in the traditional dress of the Huli--a loin cloth and rear skirt of leaves, with necklaces of beads and seashells draped over their chests. They were also wearing fancy headdresses made of human hair that have given the Huli a nickname--”wigmen.”

While the costumes of local tribesmen are still of the Stone Age, accommodations for Tari’s visitors at Ambua Lodge are surprisingly luxurious.

We were led through a flower garden to one of 20 circular cottages at an altitude of 7,000 feet. Each had a hot shower and electric blankets for crisp nights.

Relatively Untouched

Bob Bates, who built Ambua Lodge in 1985 and runs one of two major tour companies with his wife and brother, told how Europeans first explored the area in the 1930s and that it remains relatively untouched, permitting visitors to experience the culture of the Huli people and also observe rare birds and plants.

We joined the lodge’s bird expert, Moses, to search for the bird of paradise, Papua New Guinea’s national symbol.

The Tari basin boasts 10 species of these exotically plumed birds, and we soon spied the long tail feathers of one called the King of Saxony. Later, orchids were our objective on a nature walk with a guide who led us into a rain forest of ferns and palms.

Neither outing, though, surpasses the intimate sing-sing of Huli warriors that we found after a teeth-rattling ride to a family compound several miles from the lodge. Our group left the four-wheel-drives to cross a wide trench dug as a defense against enemies.

We were surrounded by wigmen studying their reflections in hand mirrors. With the precision of women putting on makeup, they were painting their faces in intricate designs of various colors.

Just as striking were the wigs made of their own hair and woven tightly into shapes that resembled oblong hats. The headdresses are adorned with yellow everlasting daisies and the vivid plumage of birds of paradise.

Art Treasures

By contrast, tribes living in the tropical Sepik River region are drab in appearance, although not in tradition. The serpent-like Sepik (pronounced sea-pick) winds for 700 miles to isolated villages in the jungle, where locals carve statues, masks and other spiritual images that are treasured by art collectors and anthropological museums.

Searching for art work, we boarded the Melanesian Explorer, which makes one of the most adventurous river journeys in the world. Its two dozen passengers, mostly Americans, carried malaria pills, insect repellent and rolls of color film.

The vessel has been in service since 1980. A new 42-passenger luxury catamaran is taking over as the main expeditionary vessel on the river.

Excursions on the Sepik are run by the Peter Barter family, which operates Melanesian Tourist Services and owns the Madang Resort on the Bismarck Sea. We sailed from there with Peter’s wife, Jan, a recognized expert on the river.

The Sepik’s entrance is brown and wide, but soon the river narrows and comes alive with egrets, cormorants, herons and other bird life.

Children Reach Out

Children along the river reached out to us as we walked along paths beside the river.

We were invited into sacred spirit houses which, not long ago, were the repositories for the human skulls required of male members of the tribe. Although headhunting has been outlawed since the nation’s independence in 1975, tribal initiation ceremonies for both sexes continue.

Traditional ways of life thrive along the Sepik River. Women fish from dugout canoes and gather firewood for cooking, while the men create the masks and other carvings that are prized souvenirs. Some villages are known for a particular art or craft, such as painted story boards, ceremonial spears, string baskets, walking sticks, pottery in the shape of faces and necklaces made of wild pig tusks.

Wherever we went ashore, masks and other crafts were displayed while their owners waited quietly for someone to ask the price. Once the amount is announced, you’re expected to ask for the “second price,” and that ends any bargaining. To simplify the sale, some items are already tagged with both prices.

After exploring the Sepik for four days, a few of us took small, flat-bottomed boats with outboards up a tributary called the Karawari River. Our destination was the area’s unequaled accommodation, the Karawari Lodge, which Rene Lecler included in his book, “The 300 Best Hotels in the World.”

Although seemingly lost in the jungle, the lodge manages unexpected hospitality, such as the cooling wet towels handed us upon arrival in 96-degree heat.

Crocodile Appetizer

But other things--like mosquito netting over the bed and crocodile tail served for an appetizer at dinner--remind visitors that this place is out of this world.

After dinner we listened to a bamboo band, whose musicians play by beating the open ends of bamboo stems with rubber thongs. Other music rose from the night--the sounds of crickets, frogs and geckos.

In the morning we watched dawn break over the jungle while enjoying a cup of tea and home-baked cinnamon rolls delivered to our veranda. It was a civilized introduction to another day in a country that’s still finding its way into the 20th Century.

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Two companies--Melanesian Tourist Services and Trans Niugini Tours--provide virtually all travel itineraries in Papua New Guinea. Offering transportation and helping promote tourism is the national airline, Air Niugini. Its jumbo jets fly from Australia to Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, and connect with smaller aircraft for internal flights.

Since November, Continental Airlines has been flying to Port Moresby from Guam, with connections to Hawaii and the U.S. mainland. To reach remote airstrips within Papua New Guinea, tour companies often charter the small planes of Talair.

Air fare is extra, but the price of most tour packages includes all accommodations, meals and excursions. As an example, a five-day trip on the Sepik River aboard the Melanesian Explorer costs $1,150 per person from the port city of Madang.

For more information about visiting Papua New Guinea, contact:

--Air Niugini, 5000 Birch St., Suite 3000, Newport Beach 92660; (714) 752-5440.

--Melanesian Tourist Services, 850 Colorado Blvd., Suite 105, Los Angeles 90041; (213) 256-1991.

--Trans Niugini Tours, 408 E. Islay, Santa Barbara 93101; (805) 569-0558.