About 15 kilometres from Teluk Dalam, Hilisimaetano is a working traditional village — quieter than Bawomataluo and with a less rehearsed feel. The central avenue still has around 140 surviving omo hada (traditional Nias houses) on heavy timber piles, lined up either side of a stone path.
The village holds a stone-jumping demonstration on demand, but the real interest is wandering between the houses, looking at the carved figureheads, and watching the daily routine of weaving, drying coffee, and tending pigs that has barely changed in a century. Several families produce simple wood carvings — small ancestor figures (adu) — that make modest souvenirs.