So, let’s skip the obvious for a second. Let’s talk about the other side of the island, the one that doesn’t always show up on Google.
The land. The people.
Because places aren’t made by palm trees and sunsets, they’re made by the people who live there.
The same people who drive the boat when you go diving. The same ones who bring you coffee before your first dive, who put flowers on your bed when you stumble in after a long-haul flight.
Walk inland, past the beaches, and you’ll find Lihunu, a small fishing village with narrow dusty streets and painted houses, windows full of flowers, and a church with yes a giant tuna on the bell tower.
Life here moves at its own pace.
Women scrub clothes in the creek, men chase fish at sea, kids double Wheelbarrows as race cars.
But hold on, don’t picture some postcard-perfect, tech-free utopia. You’ll see teenagers filming TikToks with serious choreography. You’ll see moms in Hello Kitty pajamas (it’s a whole thing in Indonesia) scrolling Facebook on the porch.
Lihunu is not a museum. It’s real.
It’s boats and fishing nets, plastic waste problems, loud music and dusty roads, but it’s the community of people who call it home. The same people who built Coral Eye by hand, brick by brick, and today make up a large part of our team. Lihunu is worth the walk inland and the wave hello, pinky swear!
See you in Lihunu!
