We found our snorkeling "guide", whose name is Katut meaning "4th born", on our beach and managed to get aboard our outrigger as it was launched in the light surf, then slowly cruised south along the coast, viewing a few hotel alternatives and enjoying the very clear water. We anchored close the the wreck of a Japanese gunboat that sank in World War II, and lies just 50 yards offshore a hotel that features its diving school at the beach at Banyuning. The ship seems to have been about 100 feet long and 50 feet wide, and a few parts extend to within a couple of yards of the surface.
The hard and soft corals, the sponges and the delicate sea plants were outstanding. There was a wide range of colorful fish of which many we had not seen specifically but their cousins in the same family. For example the blue demon fish here were two types one a brilliant translucent turquoise and the other a bright royal blue. The angle fish had different markings as did the parrot fish. The sponges were all different color including a bright mint green! There was a deep side of the wreck that only one of us went to. Thankfully there were only a few other boats, each with 2 or 3 snorkelers, so they area was not crowded. We swam about an hour and then did manage to climb back into the boat using a rope that they tied so that it went along the length of the boat. We arranged to keep the flippers so we can snorkel right off the beach.
Bali belongs to the best dive areas in the world, because it is situated at one of the main connections, Lombok Strait, between the Indian ocean marine creatures and those resident in the Pacific ocean, in the center of the world's richest bio-zones known as the Indo-Pacific. There are the Gilli islands which are directly situated in the Lombok Strait that are supposed to have a mixture of fish from both oceans, and we hope to get to a little later this month.
For lunch we walked up the road to Sails Restaurant, which had a lovely view over the sea, white bleached tables and white bleached bamboo woven chairs. The mahi mahi grilled in banana leaves with spices was delicious. We saw three roosters in baskets placed in water to cool them from the noonday heat presumably before they were put into battle.
We are arranging fora driver to pick us up and drive a coastal route west and then head south inland to Ubud. The female owner of our hotel had kindly given us some input of an interesting route but warned that it would take all day. One of the other guests was previously a scuba diving instructor in Amed and from him we bought a water proof case to put the camera in so that we could theoretically take underwater pictures with our current small camera.
We took another outrigger for an hour and a half out to see Mt. Agung at sunset. This is an active volcano that is the highest on the island (over 10,000 feet) and is considered sacred. People here believe the gods sometimes come down to the mountain to play --- remind anyone of Mt. Olympus? We joined a fishing fleet of outrigger who were fishing for mackerel along with a huge pod of dolphins, took some pictures, and returned to our beachfront resort to have dinner and organize tomorrow's trip.
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