Coral, fish and more, "oh my!"

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We flew from Bali to Manado in Sulawesi to go diving at an island called Bunaken. I worry that the non-divers out there will be bored with all of the underwater stuff so I've put a few above water pics first.

While we were on the island we walked to another dive resort one night where some local guys were playing music. The lead sang into a microphone carved of wood and the drummer hammered on the most unique drum set you'll ever see. Check out the pic.

After diving in Bunaken, we drove across the north part of the main island of Sulawesi (home of the Bugis if anyone is a fan of sailors) to another dive destination called the Lembeh Straight. En route, we stopped at a local distillery. Actually, that makes it sound like a serious processing facility and this was just a single wood burning still that you might find deep in a Louisiana swamp. They created the mash from coconut, corn and nutmeg and it was a rather tasty beverage on its own. Then they distilled it and put it in a bottle with dozens of vanilla beans for flavoring and a centipede for virility. Okay, I invented the virility part but sounds like a reasonable story, doesn't it?

Anyone who cooks would be amazed to see what fresh nutmeg looks like. It grows inside a fruit that looks like an apricot. The mace that wraps around the nutmeg seed inside is bright red.

Back to diving. Bunaken has gorgeous coral and critters. We met a fellow traveler, a Danish girl named Maria, who has the enviable job of scouting out dive destinations for a new tour agency. She told us that nudibranchs (those are the underwater sea slugs that come in a fascinating array of shocking colors and shapes) are so pretty that they look like candy and she wants to eat them. Well, they are actually very poisonous, hence the gorgeous colors, but she makes up flavors for what they SHOULD taste like. So I invented some flavors of my own when describing them in the attached pics. Hopefully that makes it more fun for the non-divers. FYI, I often shorten their name from nudibranch to "nudie" so don't get confused.

P.S. The whiskey was so potent that you could light it on fire. I think we drank half the bottle with mango juice over a couple of days and left the rest for the locals. We bought a small water bottle full of the hooch for about $1.

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Photos

paint can drum set
This guy could really get a groove on with this home made drum set complete with symbols. They stretched a heavy duty plastic over the top of the cans and kept them taught with dozens of rubber bands. Rather ingenious.

Local whiskey with centipede flavoring
Don't ya love the way the guy felt the need to point out the centipede. Like you could miss that sucker?!

real life fish tank
The pic doesn't show all the colors but hopefully you get a sense of the beautiful coral and serenity.

Blue worm
Wouldn't it be cool to have worms like this in your backyard? The birds would love it too.

flat worm
Another pretty worm.

pygmy sea horse
This little guy was smaller than my thumb nail.

Sponge crab.
Doesn't he look like a grumpy old guy? I guess that's where the term "crab" came from. He's a sponge crab but he's missing his usual sponge toupee. Kinda like a little John McCain. ;-)

Lobster
These guys were out of their hiding places at night. They are really beautiful with pink, green and blue markings. Another critter I can't bring myself to eat here.

scorpion fish
Can ya spot the little devil?

Napoleon wrasse
You can't tell it from this pic but this fish is 2-3' long. They are fairly rare.

white blue, black & yellow nudibranch
Tastes like blueberry and banana taffy.

Green spotted nudibranch
Toby thinks it has a smilie face. Hm, tastes like mint and chip ice cream. Suzy should like it.

various nudies
It's either a nudie party or somebody's about to become lunch. Nudibranchs often eat each other.

white & blue nudie
It's on an organ pipe sponge. Not sure if that's the right name but they are pretty too.

white w/ blue stripe nudie
John Grady would say that the racing stripes make him fast. Hm, a fast slug.

giant yellow nudibranch
Tastes like lemon pie. ;-)

"tailgating" nudies with blue trim
Taste like pancakes with blueberry syrup.

orangutan crab on bubble anenome
Okay, so they're a tad smaller than the land apes. But with those long hairy red arms their knuckles would drag on the ground just the same.

Twin spotted lion fish
We were lucky to see this brilliant red dude during the day. They are usually only out at night.

fishermen
Between dives we watched these guys occasionally pull in shiny silver fish. The guy behind them throws small fish into the water as chum. I presume that the water splashing onto the surface of the water also attracts the fish.

Comments

[Kris]

Magic Mushrooms?
Man, I look at those pictures and then those captions describing the flavors of the nudies, and then I wonder... hey, are they sampling those magic mushrooms over there? Or maybe that centipede has some kind of psychoactive synergistic effect with the moonshine. :-) Kris

[Cathy Green]

Bunaken pictures
OMG, I wouldn't be able to get out of the water. What awesome pictures! And the commentary is hilarious, you must have gotten hungry. Keep up the fun and photos, I enjoy each and every one. Stay safe! Cathy