Indonesia's 'paradise lost' opens up to intrepid tourists
by Jerome Rivet SENTANI, July 1, 2011 (AFP) - For decades, the only foreign visitors to venture into Papua were gold-diggers, anthropologists, missionaries and soldiers fighting imperial wars. But the vast, western half of New Guinea island is slowly opening its doors to tourists as a "hidden paradise", a land of ancient tribal cultures, glittering reefs, soaring glaciers and teeming wildlife. Recreational travellers are still few, at most a few thousand a year; people like Sarah Gabel, a 29-year-old American who says she is "captivated by people who live in harmony with nature". That's what she found in the Baliem valley, the long-isolated home of the Dani tribe high in the Papuan central highlands, outside the town of Wamena. pic by cheps