Exploring waterfalls, coffee plantations, and churches in Ermera

Exploring the mountainous municipality of Ermera, home to huge waterfalls, coffee plantations, and beautiful churches.

More information on Ermera - https://exploringtimor.com/ermera/

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Transcript

Jonty: 0:06

Bondi. Welcome to exploring Tim Este, the podcast that talks about Southeast Asia's best kept travel secret. I'm your host Jte, and I'll share firsthand insights, expert interviews and practical travel tips. Whether you're a traveler, a cultural lover, or just curious about places rarely covered in the mainstream. You're in the right place. Let's explore two more. Less day.

0:31

Today's episode is about Amira, which is one of the better known municipalities of Timor-Leste. So it's just to the southwest of Dili and is best known as one of the major. Coffee growing areas of Timor Tte along with a naro. So during the harvest season between May and September, it's a popular time to visit plantations, to see coffee beans being picked and processed. And it's also home to some of the most spectacular scenery in the country. The summit of Mount Ramala is actually in a mirror, although you generally access it via a naro, but in many places around Amira, you get good views of Mount Ramala, and it's also home to the Bandera waterfall, which is the highest in the country and outside of Dili. Amira is the most densely populated part of Timor Este with villages and hamlets scattered around the many hills. So it's quite a interesting cultural place to visit, and the scenery is amazing. So to start with the capital of a mirror, which is Glen O, which is by far the easiest place to get to in the municipality. So generally, the roads in the mirror are some of the worst in Timor Este, which is saying something. They're almost entirely unsealed, almost impassable. During the wet season, you need a decent four wheel drive vehicle and a tolerance for bumps. But it's worth the effort to get to the places.'cause a mirror does have quite a lot to see and do. Glen o though is a sealed road all the way from Dili. It's maybe like an hour's drive. It's pretty straightforward. You just wind your way up into the hills. It gets gradually cooler as you gain altitude. It's about 900 meters above sea level. And Glen o is a relatively bustling town of about 9,000 people. There's big markets there every Thursday, and the main site to see in town is the huge Catholic church, which was built in the last 10 years or so. And I don't know this for sure, but it feels larger than the cathedral in Delhi, especially when you're inside. It's a very cavernous impressive church. Just down the road is the much smaller Protestant church, which has a traditional Timorese roof at the front, and then there's not a huge amount of other sites in Glen o but the stadium is quite colorful and there are a number of murals to Timor's independents heroes painted on the walls. It's where the peace Corps volunteers from the us go and learn the local language tetin in Glen o when they start their assignments, spending a couple of months there. So it's a bit different from Dili and it's relatively easy to get to, and it gives you a bit of a flavor for what a timor's town is like. Now on the way to Glen, you'll pass through the town of ko. That is home to a number of coffee processes. So that's a good place to go if you want to see during harvest season how coffee plantations work and how they process the beans. And there's also some quite nice views and a few walks around from Rako. They heading further into a mirror from Glen O As I say the roads get a bit tricky, but they're worth it to head into letter foho, so that's one of the most cynically located villages in the country. You get fantastic views on the clear day of Mount Ramal and the surrounding landscape. It's home to an interesting church where the steeple is in the shape of clasped hands, which I haven't seen anywhere else in the world. And then further up the hillside behind the church is the statue of crystal lure. Similarly, you've got Christo Ray in Dili, and this is a sort of similar statue of Jesus with his arms outstretched. It's not quite as big as Christo Ray, but the location is even more spectacular. On a clear day, fantastic views from the summit there. And it's an interesting design because the statue of Jesus is standing on a. Forked tongue serpent and the steps to reach the statue. You basically walk up the back of the snake and then you come around the other side and you'd see the mouth of the snake with the forked tongue. And then you come down to complete loop. So this was built in 2019 and it's a real attraction in the area. And a bit further on from letter. Fho is Asbi, which is one of my favorite places I, in Timor-Leste. It's a beautifully situated town. We've got fantastic mountain views all around. It probably has the ideal climate or for, certainly for a malai or a foreigner. It's a lot cooler up here in the mountains and less humid than it is down at the coast. SBI and Tijo are known for being particularly religious places in an already very religious country. And they have a sizable new church in a sabi in front of the old church. The church has a nice grotto shrine to the Virgin Mary, and there's a large statue of a needling work per in front of the church. And even local markets there have some fantastic views. So it's a very relaxed place to go and spend a bit of time up in the mountains. And if you really want to get off the grid. 20 minutes drive west from AAB along a rough road is, and this is not a tourist site, this is just a village, but it's very cynically located, beautiful mountain views very relaxed kind of place. I visited there with work I was doing, sporting local health NGO. And it was just a nice place to spend some time. Now between letter Foho and Asab is the Bandera waterfall, which I mentioned earlier, is the highest in the country. So it's about 200 meters from the top of the waterfall to the bottom. You can hike to it. You'll probably need a local guide. It's not the most obvious place to reach, but it is an impressive waterfall. You wanna allow at least an hour to get there and return from the base of the road. I also mentioned a couple of times the roads in the mirror are not great, but it is a fantastic place for hiking. Again, you probably want to go with a local guide to avoid getting lost, but there is really good hiking terrain in terms of some of the scenery. There's a couple of things I mentioned before. You can hike out to the base of the waterfall. There is hiking around Glen o from ko. There's a really nice half day hike across the river, around the hills and then back across into town. So those things are all worth considering if you're interested in exploring a mirror on foot. Hopefully that's given you a little bit of an overview of the municipality of Amira.

Jonty: 6:06

Thank you so much for listening to exploring Timor Less Day. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a rating or review. It really helps more people discover the show. If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email at exploring Timor lessDay@gmail.com. Until next time, or Bodo ADEs.