Atauro Island

This will be a relatively quick blog about the 3 day trip which Mailys and I took to Atauro Island. Atauro is part of Timor-Leste and sits to the north of the capital Dili. It takes about 2.5 to 3 hours boat ride to travel there.

There is a boat service that runs a return service between Dili and Beloi (east side of Atauro) every day except Mondays (schedule link here). Atauro people speak Tetun and the population of the island is approximately 1500. Interestingly only 35% of the population are catholic, with the remainder being protestant (completely different from Timor-Leste as a whole, where ~98% of people are catholic). Some photos of the boat ride and arrival in Beloi are below. The boat was comfortable and there were seats inside (although many, including us, preferred outside).

The island is relatively untouched and not developed for tourism (as you can see from the photo, above, as we stepped off the boat into Beloi) . However, it has a few places to stay which cater for divers and snorkelers (mainly visitors from Australia and Europe) who want to experience the untouched coastal corral reefs which Atauro is rich in. The reefs are the most biodiverse in the world!

Mailys and I stayed at a “resort” called “Barry’s Place” which is in Beloi. It’s one of a handful of places catering for foreigner visitors. Owned by Barry (an Australian) and his wife Marselina (Timorese), they run an all inclusive eco-friendly resort with meals included. The price of $60 (US) per person per night was steep (as a volunteer) but it was an absolutely awesome place, with small beachside villas made from bamboo, wood and straw along with an amazing beach with clear blue water. The meals included (see photos below) were really great and we ate VERY well. We met primarily Australian and French tourist divers at the resort. A nice YouTube video giving an overview of Barry’s Place is here.

We were able to hire a small fishing boat to take us to the coral reef (maybe 1 minute away in the boat) and then go snorkeling with lifejackets and flippers. It was truly awesome! So many different types of fish and corral, it was impossible to count! We were not able to get any underwater photographs, but I found one on the Atauro WiKi page which pretty much matches the type of corral we saw.

During one of our coffee breaks at Barry’s Place we met Maun Marcos who is a local craftsman, amongst other things, making sculptures from wood. This is actually an Atauro tradition where the carvings represent the founders of the 3 original “clans” which settled on the island of Atauro (this was before the 1500’s when the Portuguese arrived on Atauro and used the island as a penal colony). Of course, I bought one of his carvings from him 😁. It is a long tall carving with the figure covering it’s ears. I have a number of similar carvings back in California so this one will fit straight in. Below is a photo of Maun Marcos with the carving I bought and I also include some photos of other Atauro carvings I found in the library which Barry has.

On our last morning there I woke up super early, grabbed a coffee and waited to get a photo of the sunrise outside our beach villa. I was not disappointed (see below). Most of the trip we had the pristine beach virtually to ourselves. It was unbelievable that we could visit somewhere so untouched and be swimming in clear waters with fish and coral. Whilst economic development and tourism are needed in Timor-Leste, I hope that Atauro can find a way to keep it’s natural beauty and undeveloped state whilst still attracting tourists.

On the last morning, we took a long walk (2.8mile) south from Beloi to Vila where I was told there was a good Italian Restaurant called Manukoko Rek. The restaurant is part of a guest house complex that have rooms for rent starting at $15 per night (room only). It was nice to see that more affordable options to stay on Atauro were available. The Italian meal we had was pretty good considering the location (and they had parmesan cheese!). We rode a TunTun 3 wheeler with another family back to Beloi to catch the afternoon ferry back to Dili. NOTE: For any future visitors reading this, it does take the restaurant a long time to make their food, so leave plenty of time.

All-in-all, I loved Atauro. The beach and the swimming were amazing and seeing the coral reef was just one of those experiences I will remember for the rest of my life. Staying at Barry’s Place was a luxury and beyond the means of the vast majority of Timorese. I felt a little uneasy about that (to be honest). I do plan to return to Atauro, with my bike, and ride some of the routes around the island (the roads are pretty bad, but I am hoping my gravel bike will handle it 🙏 as it seems to have handled the roughest roads in Timor-Leste so far).

The last photo is of one of the many hermit crabs which congregated around our villa each night. Mailys was brave enough to handle them 💪 (not me 😁). Next blog will be coming in the next few days. Cheers and thanks for reading!!