Indonesia Day 9

Fish, fish, and more fish.  Today we did three dives.  Per the usual routine, we woke up around 6 a.m., got ourselves and the camera ready, and headed to the dive shop to analyze our tanks before heading to breakfast at 7 a.m.  We have really enjoyed talking with Hinne, Spencer and Chi at meal times.  Unfortunately, Chi was not able to join us for breakfast this morning as she has been fighting an ear infection which got worse during the night and she was in severe pain.  Hopefully she gets better soon, ear infections are no fun at all.    

After another lovely breakfast and some good conversation, Hinne, Eric and I headed out at 8 a.m. for the first two dives of the day.  This morning’s dives were at another island named Siladen.  The first dive site was Siladen Utara and the second dive site was at the jetty at Siladen.  They were both wall dives, as it the norm here. 

They were both very nice dives with tons of fish.  The visibility was not the best on either dive as there was not really much current.  On the first dive we saw a bunch of blue spotted stingrays and a ginormous trident snail that was eating a blue starfish.  On the second dive we saw a huge school of mackerel along with all the other macro life like orangutan crabs, bubble anemone shrimp, soft coral crabs, black coral crabs, and the list goes on and on.  The numbers and variety of fish here are just unbelievable.  You usually don’t see just one fish of a certain type, it is generally in a huge aggregation.

After the first two dives, we made the approximately 30-minute trip back to the resort.  We arrived back around 12:50, so we raced up the 79 steps to our bungalow and had a quick shower before coming back down the dining area for lunch.  We were scheduled to do a third dive today, so after lunch we headed back to our room to have a quick rest and download all the video off my memory card in my camera before coming back down for the 3 o’clock dive. 

On the second dive I maxed out the memory card in my camera, so was unable to get any video of the ribbon eel at the end of the dive.  Hopefully, we will see another one as that was the first one we have ever seen and now we have no proof!  I’m sure we will see another as they are apparently fairly common around here. 

The third dive was at Likuan 2.  We again saw tons of fish and lots of macro life, some dogtooth tuna, but at the end of the dive we came across a VERY cooperative turtle who was positioned perfectly for me to video.  I got a very long and very close-up video—probably the best turtle footage I have ever gotten.  It was the perfect end to the last dive of the day. 

We made the short five-minute trip back to the resort and up the 79 steps to our bungalow to get cleaned up, download video, and then make our way back down to the dining area for dinner at 7 p.m.

Days 10-11

Lazy days…Yesterday I took the day off from diving.  However, Eric went out with Hinne and did three dives.  They did Likuan I, Alung Banua, and Likuan III.  The first two dive sites were on the morning dive and the last dive site was a night dive.  I believe Hinne said he had only done one other night dive before since he had learned to dive, so he decided to try another one and he really enjoyed it.  There was apparently very little current, which was nice, and of course lots of crabs and shrimp and eels come out to hunt for dinner after the sun goes down. 

Today, Eric, Hinne, and I went out for the two morning dives with our guides, Eric and Winston.  Our first dive was at the adjacent island (Manado Tuo) at a dive site called Negeri.  The coral reefs around the island are very beautiful.  We did a relatively short shallow dive along the top of the reef, which was really beautiful.  We saw a leaf scorpionfish, mackerel, orangutan crabs, about three or four different types of shrimp, and I think this one reef must have about a quarter of the worlds anemonefish.  I swear there was an anemonefish every two to three inches for as far as you could see.  I don’t think I have seen anywhere near that many anemonefish in all my years of diving combined. 

The second dive was at Likuan.  I decided to sit this one out and had a little nap on the boat while Eric and Hinne went diving.  I guess there was quite a current at this site today and they had a fun ride whizzing along the reef.  Apparently, as with most dive sites, they saw turtle after turtle as well.  After the dive we returned to the resort. 

It was full moon yesterday and the low tide this morning was quite impressive.  When the tide is that low, they can only get the boat a short way into the bay and then you have to get out walk quite a distance to get up to the resort.  It is an interesting walk, though, as you get to see all the starfish and hermit crabs wandering around. 

I believe Hinne went out and did a third dive today as he will be leaving tomorrow afternoon to go back to Manado for an early morning flight the next day.  Eric and I took the afternoon off and had a nice long nap.  These naps are getting to be addictive.  I don’t know what I am going to do when I get back to work…