In Bukapiting Village, northeast Alor, the locals have a legend about a two young lovers who met a tragic end. Being from different villages, the relationship was not approved of. When the pair were caught having a secret tryst in a cave, the villagers blocked the entrance so they couldn’t escape. When they eventually died from suffocation, their bodies exploded, creating two springs of hot and cold water.
Presumably, the booming and hissing that accompanies the geyser-like expulsions of boiling water from the rocky, sulphur crusted creek bed are the ill-fated lovers expressing their anger. Interestingly, the Tuti Hot Springs or ‘Air Mancur’ as some locals call them, exude a high level of iodised salt which is well known to prevent iodine deficiency and associated diseases. People from around the island often bring eggs, bananas and edible tubers to the hot springs to cook and eat; others collect the salt to take home with them.
Tuti Hot Springs can be found just outside Bukapiting village, on the mid-northcoast of Alor about 35km east of Kalahabi. The trip takes 1-1.5hrs by by car or ojek, a little longer using public transport.
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