Manatuto Pousada Traditional Cache
Shamcock: Currently unable to maintain
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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East Timor is dotted with old Portuguese colonial architecture. Almost everywhere you go you came across an old Portuguese residence or ‘Pousada’ where, in colonial times, the Portuguese administrator lived.
One of the most magnificent pousadas is set atop a hill overlooking the river and the coastal plain at Manatuto, 49 kilometers along the northern coast road east of the nation’s capital, Dili.
Our cache is inside.
Manatuto Pousada
East Timor is dotted with old Portuguese colonial architecture. Almost everywhere you go you came across an old Portuguese residence or ‘Pousada’ where, in colonial times, the Portuguese administrator lived.
Some are still lived in, some are maintained as small hotels, but many display the evidence of Timor’s recent and violent history.
One of the most magnificent pousadas is set atop a hill overlooking the river and the coastal plain at Manatuto, 49 kilometers along the northern coast road east of the nation’s capital, Dili.
The view here is stunning, out to sea and also back inland to the mountainous interior of the island.
The road up to the Pousada is still maintained as the town is supplied by a new water tank on top of the hill beside the Pousada and a telecommunications tower also stands close by.
This building clearly survived well into the period of Indonesian rule as the internal facilities, bathrooms and the like, are clearly quite modern. However it did not last through the upheavals of independence and it is now a roofless shell, a shadow of its former self.
The sweeping roadway, now much overgrown leads to a broad flight of steps leading up to the imposing front verandah. It does not take much imagination to cast your eyes back to coffee and fine breakfasts served on the verandah overlooking the coast, or to evening entertainments and dining in this magnificent setting. Even the side steps are impressive with their own lamp standards still in place beneath an impressive series of arched windows above.
Walk up the front steps and wander around the skeleton of the place….well appointed guest bedrooms with en-suite facilities, kitchens and outhouses and what looks like a fishpond in the internal garden, now alas, totally strewn with the debris of the building’s destruction.
Once in Manatuto the Pousada is clearly visible set atop the hill overlooked by the water tank and the telecommunications mast.
Coming from Dili, cross the river bridge and drive straight on towards the sea. Soon you’ll pass the side road that leads up to the Pousada :
S 8° 30’ 44.36”
E 126° 00’ 38.98”
It is rough but passable with care and park in the flat area between the telecom tower and the Pousada.
Our cache is inside in one of the old bathrooms inside an Indonesian style ‘Mandi’.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
8 cnprf jrfg sebz gur gbc bs gur sebag fgrcf.
Va na ‘NDHN’ obggyr uvqqra orarngu fbzr oebxra ebbs gvyrf.
Treasures
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