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Exploring West Sumba
Three days will be spent exploring the region of West Sumba, the heartland of Marapu belief. While driving around you'll occasionally meet a traditionally dressed Sumba warrior, watching over his herd of small Sumba horses. You will visit a number of traditional villages with odd sounding names as Kodi, Lai Tarug, Pero, Tosi, Anakalang…. They are all well-known for their unmistakably Sumba-styled houses, covered in conical roofs. Some of them have roofs higher than 10 m. Spend a while at the picturesque salt lake of Waikury. Plenty of stone megaliths refer to an animist past, in which the spirits played an important role. Numerous fascinating villages dotted the landscape. Inside the village boundaries , there are lots of houses with characteristic cone-shaped rooftops. Some of them are higher than 10 m. Megalithic graves are scattered in and around villages and little towns. Tarung, located auspiciously on a hill, is the spiritual center of Marapu religion. There are waterfalls and stunning beaches. You will also visit the place where the yearly Pasola takes place, a unique series of fertility rites.