"the fabulo ..." a Bougainville Island Travel Page by jorgejuansanchez

I entered in Bougainville Island from the Solomon’s, by motorboat, from the isle of Shortland to Koromira. The journey took me 4 hours.
At the beginning I was not welcome in Bougainville. Some local people in Koromira, with rifles, sent me to Arawa to meet the leader of a revolutionary movement for the independence from Papua New Guinea, called BRA, or Bougainville Revolutionary Army.
In Arawa I met the leader of BRA, Sam Kauona, who, after talking with me for about one hour, decided to let me stay in Bougainville for a few days, but not to continue further to the island of New Guinea, or even to the nearby island of Buka. I had to go back to the Solomon's.
I stayed in a catholic mission in Kieta, the main port, thanks to be invited by the German priest, since there were no hotels in Bougainville when I was there.
Germans controlled Bougainville Island and some of the Solomon’s during part of the XIX and the XX centuries. Then Santa Isabel, Choiseul and Shortland were exchanged to the British for Western Samoa, but they did not give Bougainville, although culturally and ethnically is related to the Solomon, but not to Papua New Guinea. Bougainville was later Australian and when they gave independence to PNG, Bougainville remained within this country, instead of the more logical Solomon Islands.
Today the main richest is the fabulous copper mine of Panguna, which was closed when I was in Bougainville.
After five days I returned from Koromira to Shortland Island by motorboat, then to Gizo, Honiara, etc.

Some Bougainville people practice cargo cultism.

Bougainville is named in honour of the earl Louis Antoine de Bougainville (the first French to circumnavigate our planet, in the XVIII century), who explored the island.