Skip to main content

Wae Rebo, trekking to the Mbaru Niang houses

Wae Rebo is a village in Satar Lenda Village, Rana Mese Subdistrict, East Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia, where residents cling to ancient traditions and remain in cone-shaped palm roof houses called Mbaru Niang.

Wae Rebo or often referred to as the country in the cloud is located on a plateau on the island of Flores and is reached from Labuan Bajo, then travels overland to Denge for 3-4 hours.

Dlium Wae Rebo, trekking to the Mbaru Niang houses

Denge is the closest village to Wae Rebo which is located in a valley between mountains with 4 hours trekking. Tracks include rocky roads, uphill dirt roads to rivers with bamboo bridges.

Wae Rebo is the home of the Modo tribe and UNESCO awarded Mbaru Niang a form of cultural heritage conservation. The Wae Rebo community still maintains their traditional traditions and culture from generation to generation.

This village is one of the natural and cultural tourist destinations in Flores. Wae Rebo is in mountain valleys and plateaus, but residents prepare sleeping mats, clean thick blankets and dinners for visitors.

Dlium.com Wae Rebo, trekking to the Mbaru Niang houses

Wae Rebo trekking starts from Denge for 4 hours but along this hard journey you will get beautiful views on the right and left of the road. Travelers must hire a local guide from Manggarai as a guide and also as a porter.

The track towards Wae Rebo 8-9 kilometers which is very draining and makes the entire thigh and calf muscles burn. This village has a library and visitors can donate books.



Each visitor sounds "kentongan" or a bamboo bell placed in a bamboo building as a sign of arrival. Residents and tribal leaders then carry out a welcoming ritual, but visitors are not allowed to take pictures and videos.

The Waelu ceremony is a kind of welcome for visitors where the chieftain will deliver a speech and pray for visitors for safety, security and avoiding danger in life.

Popular Posts

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake

NEWS - Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) create bubble net tools while foraging, consisting of internal tangential rings, and actively control the number of rings, their size, depth and horizontal spacing between the surrounding bubbles. These structural elements of the net increase prey intake sevenfold. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble nets” for hunting, but the new report shows that the animals also manipulate them in a variety of ways to maximize catches. The behavior places humpbacks among the rare animals that make and use their own tools. “Many animals use tools to help them find food, but very few actually make or modify these tools themselves,” said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP), University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpback whales in southeast Alaska create elaborate bubble nets to catch krill. They skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form a web with internal rings. They actively control details such ...

Broad sword fern (Nephrolepis biserrata)

Broad sword fern ( Nephrolepis biserrata ) is a species of fern in the Nephrolepidaceae, epiphytic and terrestrial, with grayish-brown stems, brown hairs, and 10–130 cm long. The leaf blades are green, 7 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, and hairy brown on the underside. The sori are attached to the underside of the leaf blade, with about 60 sori along the edge and are brown in color. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Class: Polypodiopsida Subclass: Polypodiidae Order: Polypodiales Suborder: Polypodiineae Family: Nephrolepidaceae Genus: Nephrolepis Schott in Gen. Fil. (Vindob.): t. 3 (1834) Species: Nephrolepis biserrata (Sw.) Schott in Gen. Fil. (Vindob.): t. 3 (1834) Homotypic Synonyms Aspidium biserratum Sw. in J. Bot. (Schrader) 1800(2): 32 (1801) Hypopeltis biserrata (Sw.) Bory in C.P.Bélanger, Voy. Indes Or., Bot. 2(1): 65 (1833) Lepidoneuron biserratum (Sw.) Fée in Mém. Foug., 5. Gen. Filic.: 301 (1852) Nephrodium biserratum (Sw.) C.Presl in Reliq. Haenk. 1: 31 (1825) Nephrolepis bise...

Whipple’s Cryptantha (Cryptantha whippleae), serpentine-adapted species endemic to northern California

NEWS - Whipple’s Cryptantha ( Cryptantha whippleae ) is described as a new species from a meandering barren area in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Siskiyou County, California, with one outlier population in a meandering area possibly in Lake County, California. Cryptantha is a genus of perennial herbs in the Boraginaceae (Amsinckiinae) and has been non-monophyletic in several molecular phylogenetic studies. It is currently recognized with 109 species and 124 minimum-ranked taxa, of which 63 are in North America and 47 are in South America, with one taxon found on both continents. Serpentine soils, particularly in northern California, are formed from ultramafic (meta-igneous) rocks that formed millions of years ago on the seafloor. These soils are very high in heavy metals (e.g., nickel, iron, and magnesium) and low in calcium and potassium. Serpentine soils are unsuitable for plants that have not evolved to tolerate the harsh conditions. Species that adapt to serpentines have h...