June 29th to July 5th Pulau Bunaken, off North Sulawesi

Egg Cowrie with black mantle

We departed Ubud well in advance of our 6:00 pm flight as you never know the traffic situation on Bali. We arrived and had a late lunch and a foot massage/ head neck shoulder massage at the airport.  Once we entered the domestic terminal we realized that the equivalent massage money would have been much better spent putting the money towards the airport lounge that you could pay to enter which had free wi-fi, snacks and excellent seating.  We did not see this option until close to our flights departure.  Our Lion Air flight to Menado, via Makkassar was late so we did not arrive to the Gran Central Hotel until close to 1:00 AM.  The next morning we got up and went to look for malaria prevention medication, since we thought we might need it on the island or in the central part of the island.  The one we wanted was Malarone but it is not available in Indonesia so we bought some Doxycycline on advice of the doctor who we spoke with at a pharmacy within walking distance of the hotel. 

We were picked up by the staff of Bunaken Village Resort around 11am and taken to the private boat port for transfer to Bunaken island.  The boat was just us, our luggage, and as many big plastic water 5-gallon containers as the boat could hold.  There is no fresh drinking water on Bunaken only brackish water.  The Bunaken Village Resort is just lovely - we could not be happier with our choice as the place is very pretty, has excellent wi-fi, a small swimming pool, a good dive center, an excellent reef just in front of it, and with only 10 rooms in very family style. There is even AC if we want it, but at 20 euros more per night because of the need to run a generator. Meals are at 7am - 8:00am for breakfast, lunch is 1 pm, tea is 4 pm and dinner 7pm.  The food has been tasty and healthy. 

David had organized to take his Advanced Open Water certification so on Sunday he was out in the water for 2 dives and then in class before dinner, with one other person in the class, his diving "buddy" Marina from Holland. Monday he developed a cold so could not dive until he could clear his ears, which was Wednesday night for the night dive. Tuesday we hired a local boat to take us to different snorkeling sites around the island.  The waves were abit rough and I did not want to be "on the wall" - the steep drop off as I am terrified of what is going to come out of the deep. Wednesday we snorkeled right off our resort with an underwater camera we rented from the resort for $25. We have a greater appreciation for all fish and marine life photographers, as it is hard to be a snorkler, buffeted around on the surface while you are trying to hold the camera steady to take a photo of rapid moving fish.

David's dive mate, Marina had done the deep water dive (30 meters) and the multi-level dive successfully on Tuesday, but then got the bends and had to be taken to the decompression chamber in Menado.  Cost her over $7,000 for the required two treatments in the chamber.  She was back Wednesday afternoon but can not dive any more this trip.  She had 3 more days before flying home so she did not need to change her flight plans.

David completed his Advance Open Water credential by doing the night dive on Wednesday night with an exciting drift dive along a reef "wall", and Thursday did his deep dive and multilevel dive.

We did look for shells Thursday afternoon as it was a low tide and Leslie found a spider conch, egg cowrie (pictured above) and also a tiger cowrie.  These were carefully put back in the sea after being photographed.

Tomorrow, Friday we head off to Makassar where we have an overnight before our road trip to Tana Toraja.