Gleno, Ermera

My first trip out of Dili, other than hiking on Atauro Island, took me to one of Timor-Leste’s two landlocked municipalities, up into the beautiful hills of Ermera. I spent two nights in Gleno, the largest town in the municipality, home to around 9,000 people. It certainly had a different atmosphere to Dili, and a pleasantly cooler climate.

This really isn’t a tourist town. I was there volunteering with HAMNASA, a local NGO, who were running a number of community education sessions in remote villages in Ermera. Gleno made a good base to travel from, and thankfully I had a couple of hours after one of the sessions to explore the town.

The most impressive sight was Igreja Nossa Senhora Da Graca Gleno, a huge church sitting above the main town, which felt larger than Dili Cathedral. Apparently during mass on Sundays the whole building is full, and people overflow outside…

From what I can tell online (Timor-Leste is not well served by the internet) this is a relatively new church, built post 2016, although buildings age fast in the humid climate.

There were a few things of interest around the church.

The main attraction was the beautiful interior.

From the first floor balcony there were good views of the surrounding landscape.

On the walk from town to the church there were some appropriate murals surrounding the former (temporary presumably) Catholic church.

Just down the road Igreja Protestante Gleno was quite a contrast, demonstrating the relative strength of the Catholic and Protestant churches in Timor-Leste.

Gleno Stadium is surprisingly large, and playfully colourful.

On its wall are murals of key people in Timor-Leste’s history.

Every Thursday there is an extensive market.

This huge 50c coin marking the entry to the town was interesting, and fronted a nicely maintained walkway, although you could only enter / exit it from each end.

I was disappointed that the Ice Cream Cafe wasn’t open, but found a satisfying alternative in one of the shops on the main strip.

As in Dili, rubbish collection appears to be an issue here.

I stayed at the reasonable Biamali Guest House, the highlight of which was the colourful bedding!

As along the Coromo River in Dili, I saw men shoveling gravel by hand into the back of trucks, and using wire mesh to silt finer gravel for use in construction.