in February i talked my friend Kim into joining me on this portion of my Adventure. Kim and i met last year in the Philippines and spent several weeks together and enjoyed each other’s company, snorkeling and drinking rum and cokes :)
she will arrive 4 days after me and we will met on the island of Bunaken in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. this part of Indonesia is not that far from the southern border of the Philippines islands. Manado on the map is the larger city closest to Bunaken Island
Bunaken National Park is near the center of the Coral Triangle (which is recognized as the global center of marine biodiversity). the Bunaken National Park was established in 1991 and among the first of Indonesia’s growing system of marine parks. it covers 350 sq miles, 97% is marine habitat, has 22 villages and 35,000 people. in 2005 it became an UNESCO World Heritage Site. even with this ‘protection’ there is still a slow continuous degradation due to coral mining, anchor damage, blast and cyanide fishing, trash, and … diving :(
and so i begin my journey with a flight from Singapore to Jakarta, Indonesia. cost: US$63.63, again including extra baggage, food, and insurance; a 1+ hr flight. ... cheap ! there are not a lot of choices in getting to some of these cities and making connecting flights that will also connect with the ferry schedule. so i will arrive in Jakarta around midnight. which really works fine for me. i don’t mind having overnight flights. this also gave me an entire extra day in Singapore :)
my flight from Jakarta to Manado was US$75.28 all inclusive. a bit more expensive since it was a 4+ hr flight.
arrival in Jakarta was a bit confusing. i am no longer in a part of the world where English is widely understood and spoken. …and Spanish is not an option here! there was a transfer from one terminal to the other that i would not have been able to navigate without another ‘local angel’ that spoke some English. he accompanied me and made sure i got on the off the shuttle bus; even when the bus driver didn’t know where he was going. that was a strange bus ride. so many people to be thankful for during my little adventures.
i arrived in Manado at 9am, plenty of time to make the 2pm ferry to the island of Bunaken
i needed to do the usual chores of changing from my long pants to shorts, finding an ATM machine, getting a sim card for my phone, then a taxi to the harbor. when you arrive at the airport, the taxi drivers are all over you. i had things to do and lots of time, and i had a hard time ‘shaking’ them. but, there was this one guy who very quietly stood by me making some conversation in decent English. he wasn’t pushy and i decided to let him ‘help me’ :) his name is Okta because he was born in October. he has his own one-man ‘hospitality company’, and he spent 3 hours with me. the sim card that i was sold didn’t include any texting, plus some features weren’t working. we eventually found out i needed to ‘register’ it. he took me to several Telekomsel (internet provider) outlets and eventually to their main outlet where there we were #119 in the que. somehow he convinced someone that this poor old lady needed immediate help and we were ushered into an office with a girl who magically fixed the problem. maybe it was longer than 3 hours because he delivered me to the ferry at 1pm. we exchanged numbers and tested out ‘messaging, whatsap, and texting’ on our phones to keep in touch. he also had ‘connections’ with people who have boats, were tour guides, and had homestays that might be useful if we wanted to visit other islands or parks. i knew a taxi ride from the airport to the harbor was 150,000 rupiahs, he charged me 100,000 for those 3 hours !
amazingly the ferry left right at 2pm. it was a 1hr trip and the seas were quite rough; but it was a big boat, filled with people and supplies for the island.
a motorbike-driver-Jamey took me to Jonath’s Cottages then went back and got my bag and delivered it.
there are ‘Homestays’ on these islands. kind of like a B&B, except you have your own cabana (bed and private bath); and they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner: 7am, noon, 7pm because there are no ‘real’ restaurants nor shops on the island. there are a few family-owned shops, but it’s difficult to find anything except ‘noodles’.
i got into my cabana, WoW nice
with a nice big porch
Bunaken is a well respected destination for snorkeling and diving, known for the abundance of fish. the island is ringed by mangroves, which not only protect it from storms, but also are nurseries for the baby fishes. i had read that you needed to snorkel at high tide here in order to get through the mangroves and over the coral out to the reef. it was high tide and i headed out. it was almost 5pm and after i finally paddled my way through lots of sea grasses and dead corals, i turned around and looked back. the entire coastline was mangroves, and it all looked the same…. i had no idea where ‘home’ was :( the sun was setting and in my eyes, but i spotted a blue building and thought i had probably drifted to the north, so i assumed i was somewhere south of the blue building. ok, good enough; and i was right, i easily found my 'home'
i snorkeled and saw a Pennant BannerFish, which was a familiar fish from last year, but hadn’t seen this year.
it was a short 30min snorkel, and i did not make it to the wall, but enjoyed being in the shallow waters with fishes. i had been 5 days out of the water ! nice to be back !
in the grasses, on the way back in i found this Black Blotched Porcupine Fish
and this tiny PeacockTail Cleaner Shrimp living in an anemone. it’s colorful tail is in the upper right corner, and head and little blue-purple legs/claws in lower center
this is ‘low season’ and i thought i was the only one there. at dinner, (which was at 6:30), i realized there was 1 young couple from Switzerland, and a family of 4, with screaming children, who thankfully left the next day.
i visited with the nice couple from Switzerland, who were here on a vacation. this is an island and everything has to be brought in, so the food at the homestays is pretty basic: always rice, lots of veggies, usually an egg omlet, and chicken or fish. it was amazing to me that our local-lady-cooks could find so many various ways to prepare the same foods for lunch and dinner everyday; but manage to make it taste different each time. the food was very good … and plentiful. i am not losing any weight while here ;(
we do have a nice dog and an unusual marked pregnant cat that are sweet and healthy, but always hungry.
this pregnant momma cat had one kitten left from her last litter, that she was still caring for. one day a stray dog tried to come around our table and got into a fight with our 'house' dog .... you should have seen her take off after them, all fluffed up, tail in the air ... and broke up the fight .... WoW !
the next morning, 11am was low tide, and although most people say to go at high tide, …. i like LOW tide, the water is shallower over the corals and the fishes are easier to see and photograph. i figured i could find my way through the maze and ‘squeeze’ over the top of the corals and get to the reef. i was IMPRESSED !
YES, a LOT of fish. a lot of the ‘usual suspects’, including this Orange Lined TriggerFish
the Male Spotted BoxFish. usually elusive, but here in Bunaken they are out in the open swimming around
and these two males were dueling, which i found interesting to watch
but the numbers of fish i was seeing was staggering. i’ve never seen this many ButterFly Fish together at one time
this is a Tear Drop ButterFly Fish .... notice how the black spot is ‘dripping-crying' :)
a new fish for me here is the Yellow Eye FileFish, not a particuarly pretty fish, but interesting. i researched and found it is in the same family as the White Spotted FileFish that i’ve seen around Roatan; and that makes sense, i can see the similarities
this is a pair of Pacific SailFin Tangs
there are a lot of blue-green Parrot Fish here, and they are difficult to identify ...
this Parrot Fish is an unusual color; but i still couldn't identify it...
and this is a Bi-Color ParrotFish that i WAS able to identify :)
even though this is one of the few fishes that you see here and in Utila and Roatan, it’s always a joy to see … the Scrawled FileFish ... but they are much larger here !
there was a new huge fish that was cruising in the deep blue. it took me awhile, but i figured it out it is a HumpHead Wrasse, known here simply as ‘Napoleon’ … he’s a BIG boy
this is the younger version with yellow on his tail
most days the visibility came and went, but look how many fishes there are. if it was poor, like this
you just needed to continue along with the current, and the next area would be clear, like this. and check out the healthy corals
the Eclipse ButterFly Fish was a new one for me. i only saw a pair of them twice in my 10 days
the first couple days were ‘mind-blowing’ for me. the sheer numbers and size of fishes was unbelievable. i saw a school of 20+ Cornet Fish, and they were huge. that is just unheard of. i just floated there shaking my head; thinking ‘are you kidding me? ...this is insane!'. it was impossible to get them all in one photo !
and i never realized they could be so huge and had such colorful markings.
this is a Barred Thick Lip, besides not having a very ‘nice’ name, you don’t pay much attention to it from a distance. but up close and in the right lighting, ...they are really pretty. the fish that looks like it is taking a ride is a Blue Streak Cleaner Fish... actually cleaning parasites from the fish, and getting a meal in the process
the corals in the shallows were in poor condition due to the twice-a-day-exposure at low tide …. but in the deeper more protected waters, they mostly looked healthy. there were several areas where an entire swath of corals were demolished. with huge areas on either side very healthy; like this huge stand of Purple StagHorn Coral that was breathtaking.
i took a couple walks into the village. this woman, with no English, insisted that she take my photo with the children, so i returned the favor … and all the children wanted to ‘high five’ me
although many parts of Indonesia are Muslim. this part of Indonesia is predominately Catholic. there were purple Lenten ribbons on my the fences of most of the homes, since it was just prior to Easter. and they have built an impressive church
....and the people are living in meager structures with pigs in their yards ...
after 4 days, Kim arrived. i had put her in touch with Okta and he picked her up from the airport. i asked her to be sure to bring rum. she didn’t get any at Duty Free and Okta stopped at this small shop where she didn’t have many choices. this is what she arrived with. .... well it does say DRUM in bold letters :) .... so we switched to Whiskey and Coke :)
she also brought along Sibyle that she met on the plane. she was on her way to another group of islands, but decided to join us for a few days. that’s how traveling works sometimes :) she wasn’t really a ‘snorkeler’ but a 'swimmer'. with no mask, no snorkel, and and no fins, i don’t know how she managed. we eventually talked her into trying both, but she preferred it ‘her way’. she did admit that fins made fighting the current easier.
meanwhile, as they were floating at the surface, this is me ... down 20-25 feet taking a photo
the currents were another interesting experience. the plan is always to go with the current, so you hope you enter the water in the right place. often it is going one way, and then switches and goes the other way; or different areas of the reef has a current going in different directions. it was never a problem, but something you needed to pay attention to and adjust your course
in the 4 days i had snorkeled, the current was going south. i was so excited to introduce Kim to the wonders i had been experiencing. so i had the plan to walk north and snorkel south …. but … the currents had changed. after struggling against the current a short while, we got out of the water and walked back south and tried again.
a lot of the new fishes i am meeting are not as colorful and pretty as the small reef fishes… but they are much larger and i don’t think i’ll ever see them snorkeling in other locations. this fish had a large and sloped head, and looked a lot like a Porcupine fish, but i knew it wasn’t. i think i have it identified correctly as a HumpNose BigEye Bream
i saw this other non-colorful large, sleek, distinctive pointy-nose fish many times. i think i have identified it correctly as a LongFace Emperor
this is a Juvenile RockMover Wrasse, about 2 inches long
it looks like it has no control over where it is going… i can relate to that sometimes. you may have to view this in 'full screen' in order to see it ... the fish was so small
Siladen Island is 30min by boat, with a few higher-priced ‘resorts’, so we opted for a day trip, rather than spending the night. we hired a boat for snorkeling. again, me and another ’snorkel tour boat’ :(
Siladen Island has no mangroves; but beautiful beaches, and a nice view of a neighboring island and Manado Tuo, an inactive volcano, standing at 2,000 ft
i was not as impressed with the snorkeling at Siladen as on Bunaken, so i am glad we didn't spend any nights here. but i was fascinated with this Map Puffer Fish … who never let me get very close to him
until i happened to approach on his left side …. he barely noticed me … his eye was missing ! it didn’t look like it had been injured, it just wasn’t there. you can see in the photo, no eye! Poor guy :)
i also spotted this cute little Balloon Fish in the shallows, with it’s LARGE BLUE BLUE eyes ... yes, he did have 2
Kim spotted this Nudibranch, in a color combination i have not seen before
someone was attempting to grow corals in this area. some places are supplying the pipes with electricity to facilitate growth, but we didn't see any signs of it here
we walked around the village, and stopped for Cokes for them, and a CoCoNut for me :)
after leaving Siladen we traveled to the other side of Bunaken to a dive site that was recommended as good for snorkeling. we saw several more turtles there … Ho Hummm :)
one of them decided to surface for air
i had followed him out into the blue, and i was right on top of him, ... looks like Angel Wings !
and i followed him for quite awhile, they are so pretty and fun to watch … and i love them … but the photos all look the same, … all over the world
these brightly colored Flame Anthias were hard to miss
there were hundreds of Red Toothed TriggerFish feeding just off the wall.
i’ve only seen a few of these fishes in the distance while diving and thought they were so pretty and graceful
today i got to see why they are called RED Toothed …
after this strikingly patterned Zebra Moray Eel slid under this coral, he wasn’t coming out :(
around 1:15, the Boat Captain told us we were ‘done’. again, the guy we booked with told us we’d be back about 3pm. we argued, but it did no good :(
Kim and i spent several more days totally mesmerized by the fishes and just floating out over the wall. we were both enthralled with the numbers of fishes we continued to see
we saw hundreds of Long Jaw Mackerel, they swim in large schools with jaws wide open and the jaw shines bright silver in the water as they pass you by
with the rest of the fish just a blur. it’s amazing to see
Kim found this Fine Speckled Moray Eel nicely camouflaged in this coral. i had a hard time spotting it at first.
the next day, i went back out, and found it again... not far from where it was the day before
after snorkeling 10 days on this reef, i began to recognize that there are particular areas where you will see some fish, and other areas where you will not
i found this Long Nose FileFish in the same coral 2 days apart
and, this Blue Spotted RibbonTail StingRay in the same area twice
for some fishes, this is their home, and they don’t travel far from it
there were several areas that looked like they had been ‘bulldozed’, so boats could get through the reef at low tide. they were marked with a buoy and we eventually realized we could use them to get safely across the coral at low tide. it was an 'eye-sore', but at least every boat wasn't destroying reef as it traveled to shore
on the reef there are ‘cleaning stations’... areas where small fishes provide a service of removing unwanted critters from larger fishes' mouths, gills and bodies. which in turn provides them with food. when a fish visits a ‘cleaning session’, you get the feeling they are at a Spa. they just lay there relaxing. this is a good time to get photos.
Titan TriggerFish are quite large up to 2.5 feet, have teeth strong enough to chomp on coral and are known to be aggressive. i keep my distance from them. there are are a LOT of them swimming just off the reef in the deep blue. i had several opportunities this year to observe one while at the Spa. at the top of his head you can see a Blue Streaked Cleaner Wrasse doing his job. this is another fish that you usually view from a distance. but when you have an opportunity to see the Titan up close, you notice they have subtle markings, cross-hatching, and colors, that you don’t see from a distance
here is a video of the treatment, check out how his fins move, and his leisurely exit. i don’t think he fears many predators
there are many large (2-3ft) HumpBack UnicornFish swimming in the blue, and i was able to catch this one at a ‘cleaning station' too. these guys are well over 2feet long and be sure to check out that ‘horn’ at the top of his head over his eyes.
a few MORE NEW fishes: the FireTail DottyBack
—a Reticulated ButterFly Fish
—a Black Bar Damsel Fish
--a Broom File Fish
i tried to get this photo, so you can see why it was given this name, if you look at the ‘broom-like’ spurs on the sides before the tail… they look like they could do some damage … or aid in sweeping the floor :)
--a Leopard Blenny, they move very fast, but who could miss that distinctive eye
coming into shore one day i found this Mantis Shrimp ... check out those eyes ! Each eye contains 12 photo receptors that allow them to sense different types of color. For comparison, human eyes typically contain three types of light-sensitive cells for seeing red, blue, and green.
at about 3" long, they are the ones that pack a powerful punch with their claws to stun their prey at 50 mph, accelerating quicker than a 22 caliber bullet, delivering 160 pounds of force ... impressive little creatures !
so many, so MANY Sweet Lips here. they are one of my favorites … i have many :) i’ve always loved seeing them, and all last year was never able to get a good photo because they are always on the move. in Bunaken, i had better opportunities. love those yellow lips !
and this is my first Oriental Sweet Lips - Sub Adult encounter
some of the other fishes i’d seen before but never had an opportunity to get up close and personal with. it was different here at Bunaken ... i think this is because they are not fished
--Blue Girdled AngelFish
--Ornate Butterfly Fish
—Meyer’s ButterFly Fish
—Spine Cheeked Anemone Fish, aka Nemo
another photo of the coral …. this looks like a painting !
at the end of the snorkeling, you always swim in the shallows where you find many many Sea Stars. i really like this one !
our last Saturday i hired a ‘kid’ to take me to the other side of the island. there are a couple 'high-end' many day-trippers come to this harbors
so there were many stalls selling clothing and stuff. i bought a t-shirt for $3
on the way there were these huge ‘elephant ear’ plants, i had to have a photo :)
10 days of snorkeling on Bunaken was FABULOUS !
the numbers of fishes that we saw was mind-blowing;
and the beautiful corals were refreshing
there were other options that we considering doing after Bunaken: Bangka Island, the Tangkoko National Park, and Lembia Straits. but ... we both agreed that we were extremely happy with the snorkeling and accommodations here; and didn't really feel like moving around.
we would be getting enough of that on the next leg of our journey ...
Raja Ampat
No comments:
Post a Comment