Arlo Village Atauro

Arlo village on Atauro

Arlo is a village on top of the hill you will pass if you are crossing over to the other side of the island.

It is a little bit cooler up there in the mountains and there can be a breeze. There are quite a few trees along the trail once you get up there.

On the way up even the locals will hesitate in the shade and cool down for a few minutes before continuing onwards. Atauro really gets hot!

It was Saturday and I could see the ferry at the pier and made a speedy decent on the way back to Beloi.

I didn’t race too madly because there are also local boats leaving on Monday to Dili, but this would mean staying in Beloi 2 more days.

On Sundays there is very little traffic between the islands.

I was almost hoping that I would miss the boat because Atauro is a place I could spend a few more days. The Atauro Express runs only on Saturdays. The charge is around 3 to 5 dollars.

The Manucoco leaves every other day or so. It is a locally owned boat that supplies one of the kiosks and takes on passengers when they have the room.

A lanky guy from Adare and his friends were resting at the top of the hill when we met up. They were a super friendly crew and a lot of fun to walk the trail with. There are some neat rock formations or caves along the way.

Arlindo managed to knock a few mangoes off some of the trees for us to eat by throwing some rocks into the branches.

When we got into Arlo, Arlindo asked one of his relatives if he could get some of their coconuts. He quickly scaled a tall palm and dropped 8 or 9 coconuts to the ground.

I was afraid to take a picture for fear that I would jinx him and he might fall out of that tree.

No worries though. He climbed up there effortlessly.

We all had a drink and he went up to get a few more coconuts. Then he chopped off the excess off one and left the vine on it so I would have a canteen to drink from on the way back.

These people are really great!

I didn’t miss the boat after all and arrived back in Dili around 7pm.

The seas were flat calm and there were a few small schools of dolphins along the way. The trip back took about 2 1/2 hours and cost 5 dollars.

A visit to Atauro is well worth the effort spent to get there and back.

Atauro Island