As our minibus works its way down the 44 hairpin bends, more and more is being revealed of the wonderful volcanic lake, surrounded by high cliffs. The crater walls are covered by dense rainforest, and the shores are dotted with palm trees, roofs, and mosques. The lake has plenty of fishfarms and jetties; this is how most people make a living here. Fortunately, our guesthouse has a clear view of the lake. The bungalow we get is just a few steps away from the waterfront, so Atti takes the chance to having a swim right after we arrive. The water is calm and warm thanks to some underwater springs. We feel as if we arrived at the most beautiful lake we've ever seen. Although we're tired and feeling dizzy after the long bus trip from Toba, Évi wants to go to the waterfalls and so we do go. The sun is scorching and the air is humid after rain; it eases only when we start walking up the hillside through cacao gardens and coconut palms. The gardens turn to jungle soon, we follow a small stream and on the way notice a centipede.
More fauna appears with huge ants, lizards and beautiful butterflies. You really feel like you're in the jungle after a 20-minute walk from town. The sound of the waterfall gets louder as we climb some rocks to finally arrive there. It's well hidden away; lianas hang in front of the pool, creating a living curtain.
On the way back Atti realises that there's blood in his slippers: he finds and then removes a small leech but soon after it turns out that another one is sucking blood from his other foot. Neni, the owner of the guesthouse has a good solution to stop the bleeding: Atti sits at the bungalow with his legs up, with good quality coffee covering the wounds. It really helps.
A road curls all around the lake; obviously we can’t resist going next morning to rent bikes. We ask at three different places but no luck (the bike is broken, they say - there's actually nobody here to fix them). Finally at the market there's a guy offering 2 bikes. Both are a bit rusty and not all the gears are working, so we bargain a bit and can take the two for RP 45,000 (EUR 3) instead of the initial RP 70,000. The scenery is beautiful, fishponds and rice fields lay all over with palm trees in between. People are harvesting rice, carrying heavy bags, others sit by the road at their stalls, selling dried fish crackers stored in big baskets. Candlenuts, cloves and cinnamon are being dried along the roadside.
We reach the opposite side of the crater which is steeper; there are no fields here but small fruit gardens on the lakeside and dense jungle on the other. The road turns to a narrower path with trees bending over it. There's virtually no traffic; we only hear the birds singing as we pedal on.
We have to stop soon at a small shop because it starts to rain. The owner, a lady invites us inside, serving freshly cooked corn and sweet potato. They try to make a conversation but due to our very basic Indonesian language skills it's rather they are talking about themselves while we are trying to catch words and figure out the story. Going on, we see old wooden houses, some are built in Minangkabau style and also one made out of cigarette boxes.
Rain comes again, it means another stop for us but after there is a magnificent view over the lake with clouds covering the whole crater.
We hang around in Maninjau village for one more day. Besides swimming in the lake we're lucky enough to catch the busy weekly market in the morning. Lontong (below) is our breakfast, then a delicious martabak accompanies the coffee.
Lontong is a typical street food breakfast you can get almost everywhere in West Sumatra. Generally people buy it at warungs as it’s a long process to make it. It consists of compressed rice, jackfruit boiled in spicy coconut milk, topped with krupuk. Different variations include long beans, noodles, boiled egg and even peanut sauce.
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