On Valentine's Day we left our guesthouse in Jakarta at about 7 am and drove to the airport for our departure to Yogyakarta (Jogja). After a 2 hours delay, we took off and landed in Jogja at about noon. We were met at the airport by Apikri, drove to the Hotel Pyrenees near Malioboro Street and enjoyed a great lunch with our Apikri hosts.
After lunch we visited the Apikri office in Jogja, reviewed our schedule and learned a little bit about Apikri. Amir Panzuri, Apikri Director, introduced us to some of their staff people including: Yanti, Marketing, Sri Rejeki, Sales, and Inung, Customer Service. We'll return to the Apikri office in a couple of days to learn more and to do some shopping in their retail store.
Pak Cip's becak (bicyle rickshaw, driver in back, passengers up front). Pak Cip is one of the original artisan members of Apikri. He was a becak driver making a very modest living. He learned leather work, joined Apikri and has improved his income and family situation a lot. His becak is on display in the Apikri office as an example of how artisans have been able to improve their lot in life through Apikri.
After our Apikri office visit we got back into our vans and drove down to Cemara Beach, about one hour south of Jogja, where we were entertained by a local music and dance troupe. Some of our tour people joined in the dancing and helped to pound the big log drum. Great fun!
Dancers showing us how to move with the music.
Alicia managed to fit right in.
Women pounding the big cut-out log drum. It produced an amazing amount of deep, booming noise.
Just before the sun went down, we walked down to the black sand beach to see the sunset and wade in the surf a little bit. The black sand is ground down lava stone. We will see volcanos, including Mt. Merapi which last erupted just a few years ago, in the next couple of days near Jogja.
Sunset at Cemara Beach.
Amy getting her feet wet in the Indian Ocean at Cemara Beach. You can't see it from here, but, the next stop south is Antarctica.
When we got back to our hotel in Jogja, we walked down the stree to a local restaurant called Blodok and enjoyed a nice dinner of rice, noodles, veggies and banana pancake desert (crepes).
Tomorrow, Feb 15 we will go on our first artisan visits with Apikri.
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