Second visit to Semidang Bukit Kanu–Hunting Forest. This week Regen is still with me, but Ferry is replaced by Risdan. Back to interview the people living illegally on government protected land. We packed up the bikes and went into the forest.

Did not take long for a forest leech to find me for a quick meal.

In 2010, the rangers tore down the villagers’ houses and sent them out of the forest. Of course, eventually they came back. When farmers returned, the rangers told them they could stay but they could not live in a village. Their homes are away from each other and on their farm. Meaning getting from house to house took some time. The people are afraid of the rangers so many of them hide when they see us coming. This made collecting data difficult. The people are poor. Some are escaping because they are criminals. A few like the lifestyle. Most are here to make money because they say they cannot find jobs outside the forest.

The house this week was abandoned. It was nice. Had a beautiful backdoor view of the rainforest.

I could hear the monkeys howling in the morning and evening. I recorded them if you are interested in hearing the morning sounds of the rainforest. Like a CBS Sunday Morning Moment of Nature without the video.

Another lesson on coffee. Wet hulling, or Giling Basah, is a process of taking the hull off coffee. This process is unique to Indonesia and most often used in Sulawesi and Sumatra. The coffee husk needs to be removed. They put the coffee through this hand cranked machine. Once before it dries and again after it dries. I told them it reminded me of a hand cranked machine I used as a kid to remove dried corn from its cob. In the morning, they flowers of the coffee smell amazing! Like jasmine/honeysuckle. Beautiful flowers.

Morning is time to get their coffee bean baskets ready for the day. They fix holes and make sure the material they wear around their neck is well attached. Do not want to chance picking up the beans off the ground.

Yes. Real cork does come from a tree! This one is dead, but you can still see the cork. This is really cool!!!

Regen said this is potting material for planting orchids. He said if the people who live here knew how much they could get for this in the city there would be none left.