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Published: April 3rd 2012
Part I
Against many online reviews complaining of litter and plastic fish in this part of the Celebes Sea, I chose to go to Bunaken because of a trusted diver's recommendation. I've always found word-of-mouth or recommendations from good bloggers to be genuine and accurate guides even if different people draw diffierent conclusions about a place.
Along those lines, I read through various Bunaken blogs to figure out my accommodation on the island, and chose Cha Cha Nature Resort based on
laetitiaaroundtheworld's
Bunaken blog.
After this visit, I returned again. The following two or three blogs will be a combination of those visits.
Reaching Cha Cha Nature Resort
After contacting Raf and Reiko, the owners of Cha Cha, I found myself on a boat that seemed to have a fresh coat of navy-blue and orange paint. Two serious-looking boys, about eleven and fourteen, maneuvered the craft out into the widening sea. The younger of the two sat topside, out-of-view except for confident hand signals between his small dangling feet. The older boy sat at the stern, steering in response.
As the island drew close, thick white columns extended up from the water,
bright against the sun's rays, supporting a veranda of bright orange umbrellas. I rolled up my jeans, slipped on my booties, and dropped into the water that came up just under my knees. A gentleman smiled a welcome and pointed up a set of stairs that wound up and quickly disappeared into the green foliage. Curved hibiscus flowers accented the tropical leaves with red and white blooms. This wasn't a bleached resort manicured into geometric shapes like the backdrop of a Super Mario game.
Denny, the manager, introduced himself and the resort, making me feel welcome while all the other guests were out diving or snorkeling.
When I entered my room, the dark mahogany made me think of chocolate and comfort. Even the mosquito netting was, dare I say, romantic, draping around the bed corners and tied with thick white ropes and fresh red hibiscuses.
I might have kicked myself with joy that it wasn't the usual pyramid netting--the kind that tangles with your limbs and creates a quarantine for you AND the mosquitoes. I assure myself that the pyramid nets are worth the adventure, but felt incredibly grateful for the upgrade at Cha Cha. These small
details can make any traveler's experience more comfortable. Overcome with a languid giddiness, I flopped onto the bed and literally rolled around like a silly pup on soft grass.
More than satisfied with the bed, I pulled myself reluctantly back to my feet and stepped outside. A panoramic canopy of tropical plants spread across the resort. Not too far out, the blue ocean sent waves rolling to the shore.
One could easily sense that a lot of attention and care went into the resort's layout and atmosphere without sacrificing the pre-existing nature. The two seemed to harmoniously coexist rather than stand segregated.
Storytellers Around the Table
Every meal at Bunaken consisted of creative fusions of Indonesian, Japanese, European tastes, simply delicious, but the desserts . . . ah, the desserts were mouthwatering.
That evening, around the dinner table, everyone told their tales.
Reiko shared the naming of "Cha Cha" after the Juvenile Harlequin Sweetlips. Its flitting, dancing moves so quick that it is very difficult to photograph without a blur.
"So, one time," she squints her eyes in recollection and chuckles while covering her mouth with the back of her
hand, "I spotted one in the water and was trying to tell Raf. But, ah, I could not remember the hand signal? So, I, ah, copy it's movements and it look like Cha Cha." She does a goofy Cha Cha with her arms and makes us laugh.
Mitch and Stefanie, against the warnings of many naysayers, picked up and left the Western world to settle and work in Thailand where they have lived without regret since 2004. Their son continued his education in an International high school and was probably the best fish, er, diver out of our whole group. Nan, Stefanie's mother, had recently become certified and courageously treaded the depths of the Celebes Sea.
Yuri was more quiet except when speaking Japanese with Reiko, but quick to nod and smile to everyone. She came all the way from Japan for the world-class snorkeling. Sometimes she would swim out from the shore and, other times, join us on the boat.
Denny shared stories of his wife and children back in his hometown, Manado, and his opinion on bird's nest soup and dogs as meals.
Bunaken Tales: Raf & Reiko
My favorite
storyteller was, by far, Raf, whose stories chronicled youthful peccadiloes, his Italian mother and multicultural background, encounters with hammerheads in the ocean, and tribal machetes on land. He told of the prehistoric coelacanth thought to have gone extinct 150-60 million years ago (dates differ depending on the source) that was caught by a local fisherman (the creature had already been dying, which was why it was caught above its natural resting depths of 100 meters or more). There were wondrous descriptions of champagne-like bubbles burbling up from underwater volcanoes, sunken Japanese ships remnant from WWII, and entertaining characters he and Reiko met while establishing a life in Bunaken.
The new DMs were awaiting their work visas and had yet to arrive, so Raf and occasionally Reiko led all the dives. The two were probably stretched out thin with all the managing, dining, diving and side eco-projects plus much, much more, but I counted myself incredibly fortunate to hear more tales.
Probably the stories I enjoyed most were of Raf and Reiko's first meeting and how their separate paths eventually led to a life in Bunaken--a precious three-day love story that paralleled how my boyfriend and I came to
A Real Dr. Seuss Wonderland
Pastel sea squirts aka Rhopalaea Crassa. Closely related to salps.be together today.
An Introduction to Salp
The dives matched the tales. I can't promise that if you visit you will see the same creatures as they seem to appear and disappear with the hours of the day and the seasons of the year. The Wolfe family saw the pygmy seahorse right before I arrived and I have yet to see one in Bunaken. I visited Bunaken a second time in April and encountered completely different species from my first visit. Like I said, no promises.
I'll detail more diving adventures in my next blog, but begin here with my favorite sea creature.
By "favorite sea creature," I mean my favorite sea creature I have seen up to this day in April 2012. Of course, as luck would have it, I didn't bring my Canon G11 because the underwater housing had sprung a leak--a manufacturing flaw not covered under warranty that many users have complained about--so I have no photos as proof, but if you go to Cha Cha and ask Raf, hopefully he'll recall and vouch for this spotting.
It begins after we completed our safety stop and began heading back
Hypselodoris Apolegma Nudibranch
aka "Princess Nudi" with pink-purple body, white trim and yellow tentacles. to the boat. The process was slow and relaxed amongst countless red-tooth triggerfish when a strange plastic fish came into view, except it was too translucent, too perfectly formed to be a plastic bag.
We drew closer to see through its transparent skin to what looked like reddish-orange seeds. From the seeds, thin extensions like thin spines stretched the length of the cavity. The entirety of the creature (creatures may be more accurate)--a chain of six sac-like compartments--was pumping water through itself to create momentum to move in the water.
"What was that?!!" I called out to Raf once we were out of the water, utterly thrilled and blown away by my first (and sadly my only since that day) encounter with a
planktonic tunicate.
"You've never seen one of those? I believe it's a salp. They're more endemic in cooler waters, but this one must have gotten lost and drited over here."
"A what?"
"A salp."
I insist that you look up salp images--they can appear in a small chains like we saw or as elongated colonies that coil upon themselves as if with aesthetic purpose. Such encounters always catch my breath and
Hypselodoris Apolegma Nudibranch
aka "Princess Nudi" with pink-purple body, white trim and yellow tentacles. remind me on a planet dominated by water, there's so much left unseen.
The salp is one of the few creatures I randomly look-up online to remind myself of its existence. It's what makes me incredibly jealous when reading or listening to people talk about taking submersibles down to the ocean's depths to see transparent and/or bioluminescent creatures rippling in the never-ending darkness. I'm really awaiting a James Cameron documentary after his recent journey down into the ocean's black depths.
Raf and Reiko happily and hesitantly tell of what they have spotted in Bunaken. They speak of dugongs (aka manatees), which I have yet to see, and schools of dolphins, which we did see at Mike's Pt., and many more sea creatures. I suppose the hesitation draws from the inability to promise divers what they will or will not see. They don't have a secret whistle to call out the dugongs, salps or dolphins. Some divers may arrive expecting to see every creature that has ever been spotted in the area, but nature doesn't always work with such stagnancy. So, I highly recommend splurging on Bunaken (and its neighbor Lembeh, which I'll write about another time).
When
I returned the next time around, I experienced
Bunaken: Adrenaline Night Dive.
Where would you recommend as a place with bizarre creatures or great storytellers?
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Brett Myers
non-member comment
Damn, you have a hard life sometimes Michelle!
Hi Michelle, How's life going? Glad you're continuing to enjoy living in Malaysia! My brothers getting married in KL next year, so I'll be looking forward to checking some of these places out, Brett