Papua New Guinea is the ultimate diving destination! Discover this pelagic playground, then go ashore to encounter Papua New Guinea`s primitive and fascinating cultures. Hang out in the highlands with the Huli Wigmen; visit with the Mudmen of the Waghi Valley; canoe on the Sepik River to ancient spirit houses; sea kayak among friendly fishing islands and more. Join a two week trip to take in the colorful annual Mt. Hagen Cultural Show staying in luxury lodges and cruising on the Sepik to remote Blackwater and Chambri Lakes for the definitive Papua New Guinea experience.

Papua New Guinea is unlike any place on earth. Known as the Land of a Thousand Cultures, it is not surprising that there are well over eight hundred distinct languages spoken throughout the country. Towering mountain peaks have kept remote villages isolated and kept their customs and languages intact. This is a country of wild beauty, breathtaking fertile valleys, golden beaches and coral islands, all with fascinating flora and fauna. It is a place of drama, solitude and sophistication, recognized internationally as one of the premier dive locations in the world.

There is more life around the reefs of Papua New Guinea than anywhere else on the planet. Home to over 2,000 species of fish it is truly a diver`s dream come true. You will find whatever you are looking for in the waters of Papua New Guinea. The colors are vivid, the schools of thousands of pelagics overwhelming, the reef fish prolific and the water crystal clear. There are walls, slopes, cracks, crevices, shoals, swim-through holes, arches - you name it, Papua New Guinea has it.

Papua New Guinea lies barely south of the Equator just north of the Australian continent, across the Torres Straits. It covers a total of 178,260 square miles which makes it slightly larger than California, and it has a population of four million. The capital of Papua New Guinea is Port Moresby, with a population of 193,000. The tribes peoples in this diverse country are comprised of Papuans (in the south and interior), Melanesian (north and east) with pygmies, minorities of Chinese, Australians and Polynesians making up the balance. The official language is English but most people (especially tribes people) speak Pidgin English in addition to their own language(s).

Apart from the mainland, the country comprises a remarkable collection of islands, atolls and coral reefs scattered around its coastline. The mainland is divided by the Owen Stanley Range, a rugged central spine with peaks over 12,000 feet high. Great rivers begin their journeys to the sea from these mountains, among them the mighty Sepik and Fly waterways. Below the mountain chain, fertile coastal plains, flooded delta regions and mangrove swamps exist alongside broad sandy beaches, colorful sheltered bays and dense rainforest.

The climate is tropical, warm to hot in the coastal areas and cooler in the highlands. The coastal regions are very humid ranging from 75ºF-95ºF whereas the highlands require a sweatshirt and long pants as it is a temperate rainforest area reaching up to 85ºF daytime, but getting often very cold at night. Weather patterns vary greatly because of mountain and valley configurations influencing prevailing air streams. While many regions attract heavy annual rainfalls, Port Moresby, the capital, is comparatively dry with an average rainfall of 120mm per year. Water temperatures stay a fairly constant 82ºF-86ºF all year. Papua New Guinea is a year around destination with varying seasons in different parts of the archipelago. The currency is Kina and roughly exchanges 1 Kina to US$1.00.

Papua New Guinea is an anthropologist`s dream. The Highlanders were probably the first agriculturists in the world, and developed a complex and dramatic culture using the plants, flowers and bird plumage from the rainforest to enhance their images during the elaborate ceremonies and Sing Sings performed by clan groups to celebrate war, death, fertility and other rites of passage. Cut off from each other by rugged mountain terrain, the villages of the interior are culturally distinct and fascinating to behold. The people in the lowland regions, particularly the Sepik River and its tributaries, were food gatherers and developed complex rituals and beliefs in ancestral spirits, and expressed these beliefs in elaborate wood carvings.

The wildlife and natural beauty of Papua New Guinea is as diverse as its cultures. The rolling green canopy of tropical rainforest boasts an astounding 1,200 species of trees in the lowlands alone, 20,000 species of flowering plants which include rhododendrons and exquisite orchids. There are beetles of all shapes and sizes with many species being the most beautiful of iridescent colors, and over 6,000 species of moths and butterflies including the alexandra birdwing butterfly and the hercules moth, both the world´s largest in their respective categories.

Papua New Guinea´s fauna is predominantly marsupials, and along with Australia, it is one of the only two countries which have representatives of all three kinds of mammals - the primitive egg-laying monotremes, the marsupials, and the placental mammals. Primates and carnivores failed to reach Papua New Guinea and the area instead evolved its own unique tree-dwelling marsupial mammals, including the striped and feather-tailed possums, ringtails, cuscuses and tree kangaroos.

Papua New Guinea is a birder´s delight and the birds are undoubtedly the most outstanding group of animals here, not only because of their beauty but also because of their great diversity and abundance. Most famous are the magnificently plumaged and colored birds of paradise which number 38 species, 36 of which are endemic, the other two being shared with tropical Australia. These birds have highly specialized forms of courtship behavior and plumage display and the variety in plumage is certainly unique in avifauna. There are many more remarkable and beautiful birds which rival the magnificence of the birds of paradise such as the bower birds, emperor wrens, a variety of pigeons including the Victoria crowned pigeon, kingfishers, lorikeets, parrots and cockatoos, larger birds such as the hornbill and the flightless cassowary.