At deserted Sorake Beach on Indonesia’s earthquake-devastated island of Nias, a few local surfers paddle out at sea, looking back at a bay blighted by desolate, half-ruined buildings.
After an 8,7-magnitude quake shook the island a year ago, killing more than 850 people and flattening thousands of buildings, they are the only sign that Lagundri Bay was once a thriving destination for international surfers.
“We did not have a [surfing] competition last year because of the quake, and people are still afraid to come here because of fears that another earthquake may strike,” complains 19-year-old local surfer Sutono.
But survivors are keenly hoping that the “waxheads” — and the tourists — will return.
“We are all anxiously waiting to see whether surfers will come when the season arrives in April, but I hope that they do come,” says another local surfer, 30-year-old Bagera Eran.
“If they don’t, I’ll have to return to working in the fields again,” he says, adding that fear of another quake has kept many guesthouse owners here reluctant to repair their buildings.
The occasional foreign-aid worker taking a break from the daily grind of reconstruction on Nias, an island about the same size as popular Bali, also plunges into the surf here, which was reportedly improved by the quake which altered the topography of the area.
The Sumatra Surfing website says that the force unleashed by the quake jolted the offshore reef at legendary Sorake higher by one metre. “The general opinion has [been] that the wave is breaking better,” it says.
A decade ago, hopes were high that palm-fringed Nias would be the next addition to Indonesia’s tourist trail, with its magnificent surf beaches and an intriguing ancient culture.
Lagundri Bay’s Sorake was in 2003 named one of the top 10 beaches of the Indian Ocean by Tony Wheeler, founder of the Lonely Planet travel guides, and the turquoise waters of the bay played regular host to international surfing events.
The catastrophic 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami, however, lashed Nias’s shores, killing 140 people, followed by the massive March 28 quake, which hit Nias badly, killing about another 850 and injuring more than 6Â 000.
A gleaming, smooth new road snaking down the island from its capital Gunung Sitoli to Teluk Dalam, the main town in the island’s south, is one sign for survivors that their future might not be all bleak.
The 130km road has halved the travel time it took before the quake to just three hours and is one of the first major reconstruction projects here to be completed.
While survivors complain that little else has been rebuilt — 13Â 000 new homes are needed but less than 1Â 500 have been completed — optimism in what’s left of the tourism industry has risen as millions of dollars in aid money begin to flow.
“We have high hopes that with the better roads and infrastructure, more tourists will come,” says Meifati Fanaetu, general manager of the posh but desolate Sorake Beach Resort Hotel, a collection of 36 bungalows.
Her smart hairdo, red jacket and matching silk shoes contrast sharply with the dirty armchairs in the dilapidated lobby.
The Accor hotel group ended its association with the hotel about six years ago, as tourism slumped in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, but it reopened about a year ago, after the tsunami but before the quake.
“We hope that with the reconstruction programmes, this area will get necessary infrastructure — something that the local government would not be able to pay for,” she adds.
At the nearby traditional village of Bawomataluo, where a stone-cobbled central avenue is lined by more than 100 steep-roofed wooden houses on stilts, built in a style unique to Nias, it’s as quiet as the beaches.
A decade ago, about 25 foreigners a day wandered through.
“Now, we are lucky if we see one in a month,” says farmer Kharasi Wau, who used to supplement his meagre income with tips from tourists for performing a famous ritual stone jump.
In the mid 1990s, Nias had between 11Â 000 and 12Â 000 foreign visitors a year. Arrivals slumped to just 1Â 100 in 1999 after the financial crisis, but by 2004, with improving air and sea links, the level had returned to about 7Â 000.
The tourists used to gather to see Nias’s ancient traditions based on animistic beliefs, which despite the introduction of Islam and Christianity, are still reflected in huge stone monuments and tribal dances across the island.
Solistis Dachi, who heads South Nias’s culture and tourism office, says tourism is people’s main hope for earning a decent income, with most of the island’s 710Â 000 people relying on agriculture and fishing to get by.
“One of the positive effects of the earthquake is that better infrastructure may help revive tourism here,” he says, a little wistfully. — AFP