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The village
The rawness of the Solomons, and the way people here actually live.
Included in your stay
A village tour and dance
We do our best to ensure all guests experience a village tour and dance — to see the rawness of the Solomons and the way the locals live. Visit the school, the church, and see the traditional haus and cook haus.
It's a 30-minute boat trip to Kolopakisa Village, a walk around the village, and plenty of time to chat with the locals and the kids. For those who want to experience more village life, extra trips can be arranged from Papatura.
Why it matters
Tourism instead of logging
Everyone who visits Papatura is doing their bit for the local villages — we pay them to use their waterways for recreational purposes. We're proud to introduce tourism to this part of the world because it's low impact and sustainable, unlike commercial fishing or logging.
The locals benefit in a lot of ways: direct employment, sub-contracting on building and materials, and supplying fresh fruit, vegetables, lobster and mud crab. We encourage them to create their own micro-businesses — guests now visit Kolopakisa Village once during their stay for a traditional village tour and to see the school, which was built with the help of Stewie and Brett, repeat guests at the retreat.
We also sponsor the grade 6 students from Baolo School. There are many more opportunities for those willing to be involved — turtle watching, bush foods and traditional garden tours, night-time crocodile spotting, and the list goes on. We plan to start village stays up and down the east coast of Isabel, all based out of Papatura Island Retreat.
Guests who've pitched in
Things that have come from this
School libraries
We're proud to have supplied Sisiga, Baolo and Kia schools with books for their libraries, and donated soccer uniforms to some of the schools.
The medical clinic
The nurses of MV Dragonfly, with the Papatura team, ran a medical clinic and donated eight boxes of medical supplies to help cure local children of pinworm infections.
Clothing donations
A big thanks to Tracey, Karyn and the Australian Federal Police group, who donated clothes made from used first-responder uniforms to the medical clinic and Baolo Village.
Come and meet them
The village trip is included in every package. It's the part guests talk about longest.