TRIBAL PAPUA NEW GUINEA: THE MUSIC VIDEO

A Karawari River tribeswoman at a sing-sing (performance) in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, May 2012. Image copyright www.amandacastleman.com.

Fellow traveler Hal Amen – a Matador editor – made a sweet music video about our Papua New Guinea trip this spring. The Karawari Bamboo Band soundtrack kicks things up a notch in his action-packed film, which ranges from a Dawadawa River dugout to the smoking volcano crater of Tavurvur and a waterfall near a Hihiyaola-area skull cave.

SCENE-STEALER: Sarah Sekula flashed some serious subaquatic jazz hands – aka "spirit fingers" – just before her first cave dive.

THE STAR OF THE SEQUEL: Undoubtedly should be the live python that the Baining tribe kept swinging like a Double Dutch jump rope, as they danced around and also on the bonfire.

STILL LAUGHING: Riding on the bow seemed like such an ace idea – until the storm hit on Milne Bay. And yet Hal, Laura and I were still laughing. Such is the awesome of Papua New Guinea...