When we arrived the women were cooking sago palm. The gluey starch is hard to stir and tasteless in flavor. Leaf vegetables and the protein larvae of the Capricorn beetle, better known as grubs, provide some variety to the diet. The grub worm grows in the decaying sago palm and is considered a tasty treat. A large gable mask hangs at the entrance, which overlooks the beautiful rainforest valley.
Birds are abundant, along with geckos and colorful insects.
The rooms at the lodge were thatched-roof huts, beds were covered with mosquito netting. After crawling out of our mosquito netting before daybreak, we learned by radio message that our chartered plane to Mount Hagen had been grounded by fog. Women sold bilums displayed on the barbed wire fence of the Mount Hagen airport. Once woven from palm bark, many bilums are now made from colorful Hong Kong yarn. They are knotted on top of women's head and used to carry children and other burden.