Just a quick invitation, while you’re probably waiting for someone to announce location plans for next January: some Hacker Beach regulars will be pitching a tent at the Dutch hacker camp SHA2017 in early August. SHA2017 is this year’s edition of the Dutch counterpart to the German Chaos Communication Camp, traditionally breaking each other’s 4-year pauses into less depressing 2-year waits.

If you’re attending, and you’re interested in tropical hacker gatherings without the “digital nomad” crowd, but with plenty of open-source software hackers and associated lifeforms, we’ll gladly tell you all about the past 5 years and places. And we’ll likely also be researching and discussing next January’s location during the camp.

If you haven’t planned on attending yet, there’s still time! The camp sold out last week, but the organizers added an additional 500 tickets, of which, at the time of writing, ~420 are still available.

As always, the easiest way to get in touch is the #hackerbeach channel on Freenode. You can also subscribe to our blog‘s RSS feed, and follow us on the fediverse, or on Twitter.

See you at the camp!

With most people staying until the end onf the month, there’s still time to book a flight and join us on what locals call “FBI” – Flores Beautiful Island. Here’s what it looks like:

Amazing sunsets

I have a feeling there’ll be lots of these sunset pics. #nofilter #sunset #flores #labuabajo #indonesia #hackerbeach

A photo posted by Nick Jennings (@hurphendale) on Jan 8, 2017 at 8:04pm PST

Sun setting over #hackerbeach on Flores

A photo posted by Râu Cao (@raucao) on Jan 10, 2017 at 8:02am PST

nightfall @hackerbeach pic.twitter.com/RWpUq3VqTc

— Laurian Gridinoc (@gridinoc)

January 7, 2017

Hacker Bay

Most of us ended up getting a room at Waecicu Beach Inn, a bit north of Labuan Bajo. It’s located in its own bay, with its own beach and a small island you can swim to. Let us know if you want us to reserve another room! We were able to talk them down on the price a bit, so it’s just under 30 USD/night.

#hackerbeach

A photo posted by Râu Cao (@raucao) on Jan 7, 2017 at 9:42pm PST

The Tropical Shire

The peninsula north of Labuan Bajo, which Waecicu is situated on, is absolutely gorgeous. It consists of grass-covered volcanic hills, sprinkled with a few palm trees. As soon as you come out here, the panoramic views in all directions are just stunning, all the way up to the North end of the island (a 2-hour hike).

@HackerBeach 2017 is here. pic.twitter.com/kwUFU8aTpS

— bkero (@bkero)

January 6, 2017

More posts coming up soon, containing some details about the Internet situation. Also check out hashtag #hackerbeach on the Web, if you’re interested.

In case you missed it on Twitter, we recently announced the location for Hacker Beach #5 in January 2017, and you’re all invited to join:

Good news, everyone: we’re going to Flores! https://t.co/Pao152fxXs

— Hacker Beach (@hackerbeach)

November 9, 2016

Flores is one of the larger islands in South-East Indonesia. The official Hacker Beach central will be Labuan Bajo, a small town on the far Western end of the island, and a launchpad for hundreds of adventures around the neighboring Komodo archipegalo as well as the interior of Flores itself.

In regards to aquatic activities, contrary to last year’s 10-mile surf break, next Hacker Beach will be all about underwater exploration! The Komodo islands and national park feature some of the richest marine biodiversity on earth, and hence are the perfect playground for snorkeling and diving. How about a swim with 4-meter-wingspan manta rays before or after work?

Photo: Elias Levy

If you don’t have a diving license yet, you’ll be able to learn this beautiful activity together with other hackers in one of the most stunning underwater environments on the planet, instead of your hometown swimming pool.

Speaking of amazing nature, Komodo island is of course also home to the biggest lizard in the world: the Komodo dragon. Organize a trip to the island with some fellow hackers in order to see actual dragons in the wild!

Photo: Adhi Rachdian

So let’s get to the logistical part:

Getting there

In good old Hacker Beach tradition, there is no direct way to get to Labuan Bajo. It does have an airport with local flights however: LBJ. There’s also a variety of options for getting in via boat. Check out WikiTravel for details.

Visa

Citizens of almost all countries get a 30-day free entry stamp for Indonesia. It is possible to apply for extended visas at an Indonesian embassy. This should ideally be done before travelling to the country. Source

Accommodation & Cost

You should easily be able to survive on $30 a day (our unofficial price target for a comfortable extended stay).

As Hacker Beach is not an organized event and certainly no pre-packaged vacation, you’re on your own with finding a room or apartment. As always, it’s not a bad idea to find others you can share an apartment with, or to stay at the same hostel/guesthouse/bungalows as other hackers.

Communication

We’re hanging out in #hackerbeach on Freenode. You can usually catch a friendly person on the channel any time of the day. Here’s a Web chat, in case you don’t have an IRC client set up. We also log the channel publicly.

Wiki / Knowledge Base

We finally came around to setting up a wiki this year. Any help with adding and editing content is most appreciated!

RSVP

In case you decide to join, we’d be happy to have your (nick)name on our list of participants. Head over to the wiki page for HB5.

Join us!

Nothing left to do but looking for a plane ticket and coming to Labuan Bajo in January. See you there!

People are getting excited about Hacker Beach 2017, so I thought we should give you an update. It’ll be short and sweet, as there’s really not much to say at this point:

Hacker Beach Episode 5 in January 2017 is happening and you’re invited!

We’re currently looking for a location, same as every year, and you’re invited to propose one! We finally set up a wiki this year, so you can check and add proposals there. (Also has a page for Hacker Beach 2017.)

Discussion is happening on IRC, in #hackerbeach on Freenode. You can find channel logs in this little app we hacked up last time. If you don’t have an IRC client, here’s a Web chat you can use.

If you can’t wait for January (I know I can’t), there’s also a little pre-hackout in Chiang Mai, Thailand with a few people hanging out there in November and December!

So, keep the locations coming, say hi on the IRC channel, and maybe even see you in Chiang Mai! The next post will be the official announcement for Episode 5.

The session schedule now has its own dedicated page as well as a link to the whole schedule in iCal format. The easiest way to keep track of sessions is to add it to your calendar app(s).

In case you didn’t know so far, anyone can get a hackerbeach.org WordPress account and add sessions themselves. Please ask on IRC if you don’t have an account yet, or if your account is lacking permissions to do so.

Go check out the page, and be sure to subscribe to the iCal calendar so you don’t miss the sessions you might be interested in.

If you’ve been following us on Twitter or on IRC, you will likely know about our next destination already. Heck, you might even read this with your plane ticket sitting in your email inbox right now. But if not, and for everybody else, here’s our official announcement of Hacker Beach, Episode 4.

After years of trying to find a location in South America, we finally succeeded: fellow hackers and like-minded individuals, we’d be delighted to have you join us in Canoa, Ecuador next January! We hope you like surfing and seafood, because there’s plenty of both in this laid-back little fishing village.

In addition to 10 miles of deserted, quiet beach, there’s also a nearby jungle hosting a diverse array of plants and wildlife. In fact, Ecuador officially has the most biodiversity per square kilometer on planet Earth. So before, during and after Hacker Beach, you should really explore this beautiful gem of a country, located between Columbia and Peru in the North-West of South America.

Getting there

In good old Hacker Beach tradition, there is no direct and easy way to get to Canoa itself. You’ll have to fly to either Quito (the capital city, located 2850m above sea level) or Guayaquil (the unofficial capital of Ecuador). Both cities have buses going to Canoa. Alternatively you can try to make your way via neighboring countries and/or smaller cities. From Europe, there are good flight connections from MAD and AMS for example. You can ask on IRC for more tips, in case you can’t find a good option.

Visa

Citizens of most Western countries get a 90-day visa on arrival. In general, visa requirements seem to change frequently. If you come from outside the US or EU, please check with your embassy. Ecuador currently hosts Julian Assange in their London embassy, so I’d assume they won’t be total douchebags. 😉

Accommodation & Cost

Ecuador is rather cheap in international comparison. Prices look similar to SE Asia for accommodation and food. You can live on $30 a day. Probably less if you really want to. By the way, Ecuador uses USD as official currency. (And be careful with Bitcoin, because the government really doesn’t like it.)

As Hacker Beach is not an organized event and certainly no pre-packaged vacation, you’re on your own with finding a room or apartment. As always, it’s not a bad idea to find others you can share an apartment with, or to stay at the same hostel as other hackers.

Questions?

We’re hanging out in #hackerbeach on Freenode. You can usually catch a friendly person on the channel any time of the day. Here’s a Web chat, in case you don’t have an IRC client set up.

RSVP

In case you decide to join, we’d be happy to have your (nick)name on our list of participants. You can RSVP on the event page for HB4.

Join us!

Nothing left to do but looking for a plane ticket and coming to Canoa in January (or even for New Years). See you there!

This is just a quick PSA for anyone interested in Hacker Beach who’s also joining the incredible Chaos Communication Camp near Berlin this year:

We’ll be hanging out at the Oblivion Bar village, sharing a nice big tent with some friendly people and open-source projects.

Please drop by anytime you want and have a chat with us! We might even do a small self-organized session about Hacker Beach sometime…

See you at the camp.

Let’s transform our 1870s villa meets 1970s GDR location into a Workation Retreat, for Community and Concentrated work in Nature.

This is not exactly on the beach, but there are canoes, and in summer this should make for a perfect countryside getaway for people like us.

Let’s help fund this thing!

Update: Almost there. Just a few coins missing.

According to good old Hacker Beach tradition, the first person just booked a flight, making our next destination official. Having been to South-East Asia and East Africa so far, this year’s region of choice is the Carribbean. Pack both your swimming gear and hiking shoes, everybody, because we’re going to !

Not to be mixed up with the Dominican Republic, this little island nation in the middle of the has only 73000 people living in an area of 750km2, mostly taken up by phentermine rainforest-covered mountains of volcanic nature. Known as “The Nature Island of the Caribbean”, its spectacular flora and fauna is among the most well-preserved in the region.

In contrast to Hacker Beach #2, but in the spirit of the original Hacker Beach, everybody will be on their own again for all organization and bookings, including accommodation. Forming small groups for sharing rooms, apartments or houses is recommended, and of course we’ll coordinate enough to stay in the same area of the island.

We’ll be updating the blog with more infos soon. In any case, hang out in #hackerbeach on Freenode, if you’re interested in joining in the next episode of Hacker Beach in January 2015!

Over on his blog, bkero writes about how we improved the Internet situation here at the Fort.

Enjoy!