Day 159 Maumere, Flores to Makassar, Sulawesi

The Tide was in and our canoe wasn't there so with one of the staff we walked back to the restaurant. A track went through some scrub & unused land out to the road. It took a bit longer than the paddle and was definitely not as nice. When we arrived the owner had just sent the canoe to collect us. We hired a Bemo to drop us to the airport in Maumere 45 mins away. On arrival the main building was stripped while 50 odd construction workers banged away we were directed round the back where we found a samll building and a dozen staff who were handling the 3 flights today. Ours was the first leaving at 11.30am. The flight was fine and was 1.5hrs to Makassar. We were even served a package with water bread and a rice sweet. Makassar airport was a decent size, new and overrun with staff which was all a bit of a shock after seeing very few people anywhere on Flores.A guy at the information desk booked us seats on a bus to Rantepao tomorrow but also tried to sell us accommodation, tours and everything else. We got a taxi into town which dropped us at the hotel version of the hostel we wanted but at the 225,000 special rate since it was brand new we splurged. We had A/C, Hot Water! and Wifi in the room so were able to make some calls including a skype home to watch the all blacks give Ireland a hiding live! Even though its warm out a hot shower is a nice luxury. We went out for a short walkabout and caught the last of a nice sunset and had a look at the hundreds of small seafood restaurants stalls on the waterfront.