JAYAPURA, PAPUA – Papua’s provincial administration and a foreign party named Papua-Explorer are jointly building a guesthouse dubbed Carstensz Shelter on snow-covered Mount Carstensz in Indonesia’s most-eastern province

Papua-Explorer leader Dr.Werner F.Weiglein told here Thursday (Oct. 15) about the project on the sidelines of preparations by 18 journalists and Papua administration officials to visit the location where the Carstensz Shelter is being built. The group is expected to remain at the location on October 21 through 25, 2009.

The Carstensz Shelter was being constructed to attract more foreign and domestic tourists who would then be able to enjoy  beautiful natural panoramas from Mount Carstensz’s peak.

“The Papua administration is working with Papua-Explorer to build a guesthouse on Mount Carstensz. Construction work started last week,” Werner said.

He explained the Mount Carstensz peak offered beautiful natural panoramas just like other snow-covered mountains in the world. Thousands of foreign tourists had made expeditions to the Carstensz’s peak and admitted that it afforded views as beautiful as those from mountain peaks elsewhere in the world.

In fact, Carstensz’s peak was one of The Seven Summits in the world with the six others being Mount Everest (Asia), Concagua (America), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Elvurus (Europe), McKinley (North Pole) and Mount Vincent (Antartica).

According to existing plans, the Carstensz Shelter would be finished within about 100 days and was expected to be officially opened in early 2010.

The guesthouse would be 45 meters long and 10 meters high with the capacity of accommodating 30 men and 20 women. Its walls would be made of aluminum.

The budget for building the Carstensz Shelter totaled more than Rp2 billion.

Werner said the Papua administration, through an institution called Papua Holding, would entrust the guesthouse’s management to Papua-Explorer. It was predicted that the guesthouse would generate  a profit of at least US$40,000 within one year from 200 tourists visiting the snow-capped peak.

“There have been thousands of foreign tourists who wanted enthusiastically to climb up to Mount Carstensz’s peak but because there was no infrastructure, especially a guesthouse, they canceled their plans to go there,” Werner said.

Carstensz’s top is 4,884 meters above sea level while the  Carstensz Shelter is being built at an altitude of 4,430 meters above sea level. The highest temperature in the guesthouse would be  15 centigrades and the lowest 10 centigrades.

In 1565, a Dutch sailor named Carstensz sailed along the southern coast of Papua island. He was a captain of the ship. In the Aru Sea, he saw a very high mountain peak covered by snow and after he had returned in Holland, he published his journal and said that he had seen a snowed-capped mountain in an equatorial part of the world.

Finally, after his story was proven to be true, the snow-capped mountain Carstensz had spotted was officially named after him.

In the beginning, people in that era did not believe his story, but in 1690, an Austrian named Harrek did the first expedition to the mountain’s peak through Ilaga village which is now part of sPuncak district.
(wol22/ann) source waspada-online

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