::: Sulawesi, The Destination Area :::

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Sulawesi is the world's eleventh-largest island, covering an area of 174,600 km².The island is surrounded by Borneo to the west, by the Philippines to the north, by Maluku to the east, and by Flores and Timor to the south.

It has a distinctive shape, dominated by four large peninsulas: the Semenanjung Minahasa; the East Peninsula; the South Peninsula; and the South-east Peninsula. The central part of the island is ruggedly mountainous, such that the island's peninsulas have traditionally been remote from each other, with better connections by sea than by road.

The island is subdivided into six provinces: Gorontalo, West Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, and North Sulawesi. West Sulawesi is a new province, created in 2004 from part of South Sulawesi. The largest cities on the island are Makassar, on the southwestern coast of the island, and Manado, on the northern tip. Sulawesi straddles Wallace's Line meaning that it has a mix of both Asian and Austronesian species. However, the majority of Sulawesi's wildlife belongs to the Australasia region. 2,290 km² of the island is devoted to Lore Lindu National Park.

There are 127 known mammalian species in Sulawesi. A large percentage of these mammals, 62% (79 species) are endemic, meaning that they are found nowhere else in Indonesia or the world. The largest native mammal in Sulawesi is the dwarf buffalo, locally known as the anoa. By contrast, because many birds can fly between islands, Sulawesian bird species tend to be found on other nearby islands as well, such as Borneo; only 34% of Sulawesi's birds are found nowhere else. The most important among these last is the maleo, a bird that spends most of its time on the ground. It has undergone an observed very rapid decline.

Sulawesi also has several endemic species of freshwater fish, such as those in the genus Nomorhamphus, a species flock of livebearing freshwater halfbeaks containing at least 19 distinct species, most of which are only found on Sulawesi.

Once called Celebes, Sulawesi was born of a violent collision between two islands three million years ago. As a result, much of it was thrust above 500 meters where, today, 17 active volcanoes still growl. The island's extraordinary shape gives the forested 227,000 square kilometer land mass a massive 6,000-kilometer coastline. On top of that, it also boasts coastlines of more than 110 reefringed offshore islands.

So remote is Sulawesi that its wonders have been largely ignored by the 20th century.

Sulawesi offers excellent tours & trekking, bird-watching, white water rafting, cruises & sailing, eco tourism and scuba diving.

 

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