Flores diving hub — pristine reefs, WWII memorial, and the Wuring fishing village on stilts above the sea
Maumere is the largest city in eastern Flores and the main diving hub for the island's northeastern reefs, which were badly damaged by the 1992 earthquake and tsunami but have substantially recovered — the underwater topography of seamounts, walls, and current-swept points now supports excellent reef diversity with limited dive traffic. The Wuring fishing village just outside town is a Bajau sea nomad settlement built entirely on stilts over the tidal shallows — one of the most atmospheric waterfront communities in eastern Indonesia. Maumere is also the site of a significant WWII story: the J…
Maumere served as an important Dutch colonial port and missionary centre — the Societas Verbi Divini (SVD) Catholic mission established a significant presence here in the late 19th century that remains central to Flores life. During WWII, the Japanese occupying forces used Maumere as a regional administrative and transit point; the military airfield here was used for operations throughout eastern Indonesia. The catastrophic 1992 Flores earthquake (magnitude 7.8) and subsequent tsunami, centred offshore to the north of Maumere, killed approximately 2,500 people and destroyed much of the coasta…