Wolowaru is a market town in the mountains of central Flores, strung out along the Trans-Flores Highway east of Kelimutu, and on market day the road through it fills with trucks, bemos and people in hand-woven sarongs carrying sacks of rice, coffee and vegetables. It is not a place most travellers stop for long, but it is a good one to pause in: a slice of ordinary life on an island where tourism has only touched a few spots.
The villages around Wolowaru are known for ikat weaving, among the finest on Flores. The Lio people, who live in this part of the island, weave cloth with intricate patterns, dyed with natural colours from roots, bark and leaves, and the designs carry meanings tied to clan, status and ceremony. In villages such as Jopu and Nggela, women sit at backstrap looms on the verandas of their houses, and visitors can watch them work and buy cloth directly. Traditional Lio houses, with steep thatched roofs and carved posts, survive in some villages, along with stone megaliths used in ancestral rituals.
The landscape here is steep and volcanic, with deep valleys, forested ridges and terraces of rice and vegetables carved into the slopes. Kelimutu, the volcano with three coloured crater lakes, lies just to the west, and its slopes rise above the town. The soil is fertile, and coffee, cloves, cacao and candlenut grow in the gardens around the villages. The Flores landscape is dramatic everywhere, but in the centre of the island it is at its most rugged.
The Trans-Flores Highway through Wolowaru is the island's main road, running from Labuan Bajo in the west to Larantuka in the east, and it is a rider's road in the truest sense: endless curves, steep climbs and descents, and constantly changing views. The surface varies, from good asphalt to potholes and landslide damage, and the road is narrow, with trucks and buses taking up most of it. Ende, about twenty-three kilometres away on the south coast, is the nearest large town with full services. Wolowaru has small shops and fuel sold from bottles at roadside stalls, but it is best to fill up properly when you can. The rainy season, from November to March, brings landslides and road closures, so the dry season is better.