After the trip from Waerebo Village; Doris, Angel and I planned another visit to Bajawa. We started the trip from Cancar, where Angel’s parents live. In this trip, we’ve been super-duper lucky since we got so many hands from Angel’s families in Labuan Bajo, Repi and Cancar. Nothing can replaces their kindness and support. Million Thanks to Angel's Families. And Again, for this trip, we got car from Angel’s aunty, how lucky!
We passed Ruteng, the city of Manggarai. We bought KOMPIANG; the famous bread which has to be listed in your culinary agenda while visiting Ruteng. Ruteng is my hometown. I was born and raised there, until 2005, I moved to Bali. The weather in Ruteng is quite cold among other cities in Flores. In my childhood, we experienced rain with ice pellets. Anyway, let’s continue to the journey.
30 minutes from Ruteng, we stopped at the very famous lake in Manggarai called Rana Mese Lake. To enter enter the lake, visitors need to buy entry tickets. The rate between domestic and international tourist are different which is managed by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry. The retribution will be allocated for the conservation and maintenance of Rana Mese lake itself.
On local language, Rana is Lake and Mese is Big, so in a nutshell, Rana Mese means Big Lake. This Lake attracted our attention by the crystal green color. The peaceful situation of this lake made it as one of the best place for retreat. Trekking around the lake becomes the most popular activity to do. Beside tourism, Rana Mese supports the irrigation system of the agriculture and farming life of the local.
It's too pity we didn't have much time to spent there and also we missed the opportunity to trekking in the jungle surrounding the lake. We still had long way to go before reaching Bajawa. But in the end, taking pictures and enjoyed the traquil beauty of Ranamese lake was worth it!