traveldiary.stracke.us

After a day’s worth of just lounging around yesterday, we thought it was time to peel ourselves off our lounge chairs and do what we are supposed to be doing here………diving. It was a difficult move because the 90+ degree heat and alleged 70% humidity (according to Intellicast Weather) can really suck the life out of you.  We braved it and informed the dive shop, that we would give it a go. The Bunaken  Island Marine Park comes advertised to be one of the best dive destinations in the world. Yeah we have heard or better said, have seen many such advertisements for places in various dive magazines, only to be disappointed upon venturing into the deep blue.  Lonely Planet had informed us, that plastic garbage, that had come down from Manado  with the currents,  could be floating on the surface , if the wind was blowing “wrong”.  One of the Spanish guests here had told us about plastic ware she encountered on the surface on her snorkel; our German friend, who was here snorkeling a month ago, mentioned the same calamity.

8:15 Briefing for the dive: “We are going out in the boat to Bunaken Reef, We will dive the wall. There will be an interval with some fruit and water and then a second dive. Enjoy!” OK, I’m not much for long-winded briefings, but a little more info would be nice. Where did you say we were going? How deep is that? Will there be current, Downdrafts? After our live- aboard diving, we know that the more information, the better. On the other hand, now we  have a guide just for the two of us. Actually, we have 6 dive staff for 5 guests on the Siladen dive boat!

After a 20 minute ride in a flat-bottomed comfortable boat, we stop at our site. I’m sorry to say, there was plastic ware floating on the surface at various points of the ride. With the money we pay in park fees, can’t they use a big water vacuum to clean up the debris.  Yes, I realize I am looking at this with Western eyes. Most of the people in this part of the world are not divers, to them an ocean or sea represents fish for the eating, not the looking. But tourism does play a big part in their economy, so if they want to keep their reefs in preen condition,  a change may have to occur, as it slowly seems to be in Malaysia. When we went shopping there on a Monday, it was plastic bag free day…….no bags given out. They wanted to try to reeducate the population about the waste plastic bags create.

Suited up and ready, with a backward roll into the deep blue we go. Wow, along the up to 90 foot deep wall, there are schools of fish, healthy soft and hard corals, nudibranches, turtles all over the place. As a matter of fact, I think we saw the biggest turtle, about 4 foot long, that we have ever seen.  I don’t know where to turn my camera first, everywhere there is something beautiful to capture. The schools of fish are amazing, swimming every which way; and by schools, I mean hundreds of fish!  We are ever so slowly drifting along the wall. The 60 minutes go by in no time and we must come out of the water…no more air. That sucks! We now have to wait another hour before we can do it all over again.

While onboard the boat, I finally get up the courage to converse with the Italians in Italian. The compliment how much I still remember…sure….I’m sure they are just being nice. One might consider our resort, the “Little Mediterranean” away from Europe. There are primarily Italians, with a smidgen of French and an even smaller smidgen of Spanish people here. Ok, there are only 30 people altogether at Siladen Resort, but we can claim to be the only German/Americans. The people we have talked to seem to be quite nice, but then divers all over the world seem to be of the friendly kind.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 9:11 am and is filed under Indonesia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.