Detour

Hitting the Wall The shifting of continental plates that created the Indonesian archipelago also gave Selayar Island its unique geographythe western side of the island slopes gently into the sea, but the eastern side's verdant hills plunge directly into the roiling surf, as if they were hacked in half with a machete. Thirty meters from shore, this geographic slicing is repeated underwater. The island mass stops abruptly in a vertical fall to the ocean floor, some 1,000 meters below. Unlike the dynamite-ravaged reefs that surround much of Selayar, the sheer rock face remains untouched and teems with varieties of fish, crustaceans...