On Mar 13, 2024 we anchored in the harbor of Ternate, Indonesia, which is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku. It was the capital of the Sultanate of Ternate in the 15th and 16th centuries, and continues to have a Sultan that oversees social, cultural and religious aspects of the region. Governmental, economic and foreign affairs are handled by the civilian government in Jakarta (formerly known as Batavia). The current Sultan is the 46th Sultan since the founding of the Sultinate.

From our ship we could see the core of volcanic Mt. Gamalama which dominates the skyline at more than 5,600 feet in height. The island was the single biggest producer of cloves in the pre-colonial days and clove orchards still ring the mountain.

We began our excursion for the day by going to the Sultan’s Palace where we were met by dancers who gave us a formal welcome, and then performed a local dance.

After that we went to a museum on the Sultan’s Palace grounds that contained local artifacts and much information on the history of the Sultinate. It also contained a picture of the current Sultan.

We left the area of the Sultan’s Palace and drove to a park area that is filled with large lava rocks. These large rocks were harvested from lava flows of Mt. Gamalama and used as foundation rocks in the past. Now they just reside at the park and provide nice scenery on a path to the sea.

On the way out of the park we past someone who had a local clove and later past an area with cloves that had been gathered and packed.

We then headed out to see the remains of Fort Oranje, which the first home of the Dutch East India Company in 1607. The fort was built high on a hill overlooking the harbor to provide defense from the Portuguese and British, and for storage of the valuable cloves.

We then headed back to the port and tendered back to our ship.