Blogs from Bunaken National Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Asia

Spontaniety has always been a character trait that has gotten me into trouble but shown me some of the wonders the world has to offer, Which is how I ended up flying out 5 days after I decided I had an urgent and pressing need to go diving. My students were on study break, almost all of the puppies were on their way to their new homes and I was sitting on the couch feeling grey and chained to domestic beigeness watching a national geo doco about Wakatobi. In Indonesia. Awesome! So I ran out and booked a one way ticket to Bali a few days later and thought when my partner was asleep I would organise the finer details...which proved a lot harder than I thought. For a start, my contact in Bali couldnt do ... read more

As hard as it was to leave Darawan, we knew we had to keep moving with only 2 months to spend in this huge, spread out country. Luckily, we had 2 other couples with us to split the cost of the speedboat back and the car to Berau, which kept the cost down. We were planning on spending the night in Berau and flying down to Balikpapan after hearing first hand horror stories about trying to take a car overland for 3 days and over 20 hours. With the road is such terrible condition, it would be very slow going for sure. When we got to Berau it was our usual routine of Jessie waiting with the bags while Nate went room hunting. Too bad after walking around for an hour and half he literally could ... read more

Part II I left off with and saw much more. By the end of my first trip in October 2010, I had seen various chromodoris nudis and some tinier ones I still can't identify (any help appreciated--refer to tiny nudibranch photos). There was one dive spot I particularly loved when the weather, current and visibility permitted. We followed a rope, around which razor fish gathered with their noses pointed to the ocean floor, down to the sand. As we quickly equalized, Raf and Reiko dropped close to the ocean floor without disturbing a grain of sand. Where I saw only seagrass, Raf and Reiko spotted Skeleton Shrimp (Caprellidae) as thin as fine hair. The little guys crawled like worms arching their mid-sections and pulling forward. The skeletal creatures looked like acrobats when they clung to the ... read more

Eka sukellus on tehty! Tehtiin paikallisen dive masterin Julietten kanssa refresh eli kertaussukellus. J on aina jännittänyt maskin pois ottamista ja S regulaattorin pois heittämistä, mutta molemmat meni tosi hienosti, ainakin kurssisuorituksiin verrattuna. Ilmaa jäi vielä 20 min fun diveenkin harjoitusten jälkeen ja päästiin ihailemaan koralleja, jotka on täällä tosiaan poikkeuksellisen upeita. Oli aika absurdi olo aamulla veneessä lähestyä tuttua paikkaa. Eka kerta kun tullaan uudestaan Euroopan ulkopuolella samaan paikkaan, johon on vaihdollinen lento. Kun päästiin rantaan, huomattiin, että paikka onkin itse asiassa muuttunut tosi paljon. Täällä on nytkin kovat rakennusprojektit meneillään. Tuli kuitenkin kotoisa olo, ihanaa olla täällä ja saada chillailla, katsella merelle ja sukellella! Ja ruoka on yhtä hyvää kuin viimeksi, tänään on mm. syöty jo ... read more