Diving across new borders

Saying Goodbye to the 'PinesWell after another failed attempt to climb a mountain we decided we have had enough of the Philippines. We are outta here. Actually our visas were up and Mt. Apo was our last plan for the country that we have called home for the past two and a half years. For me it did not really sink in until the last night that we would be leaving this wonderful country that has provided us with so many memories. In many ways both of us wanted to stay longer to visit more places and meet more people in a place where we felt familiar with the culture, language and surroundings. But another part of us was itching to move onward to new destinations on a trip that we had been planning for the past year or more.

So the day after we got back from Apo we headed to the airport with our Indonesian visas in hand. Luckily our taxi driver was one of the nicest that I have had and it made me remember what I will miss most about the Philippines: the people. Sure I have had to leap over cultural barriers and sometimes living in this country has not been the easiest but the people here have made it so worthwhile and have given me life long memories.

Back to the airport. We were headed to Manado in northern Sulawesi (a huge and weirdly shaped island in eastern Indonesia). This area is known for its unparalleled marine biodiversity and amazing diving and this was one of the main reasons that we were headed here. After our hour long flight we were already in a new country excited about the potential that it held. We were also both a bit anxious about a new place where they did not speak the language that we had grown so accustomed to speaking and knew that it would be harder to get around and have deep connections with people that we had in the Philippines. But we were ready and got through customs with no problem. Then we haggled a bit for a taxi that brought us to our first hotel in Indonesia. We tried to communicate with the folks at the reception with our few Indonesian words that we had been studying and our message was successfully conveyed with accompanying hand signals. So we navigated our way through our first hurdle without too much trouble and we were feeling confident. It would certainly be more difficult to get around here but hey that is part of traveling.

Hello Indonesia
We went out on the town of Manado for a bite to eat and the streets were filled with food stalls (these are somewhat lacking in the Philippines) serving delicious looking food. We sat down for an absolutely delicious and spicy meal of gado gado and a coconut curry. It was sublime (absolutely delicious food for less than a dollar). I was certainly going to enjoy this part of Indonesia.

The next morning we headed to the port to try to find out about the boat to Pulau Bunaken (Pulau is Bahasa Indonesia for island) off the northern shores of Manado. This part of the world considered the "coral triangle" and is the center of underwater biodiversity. The Philippines is also part of the triangle, but its waters are largely overfished and only 5% of its corals are still in pristine condition. The corals of Sulawesi, however, are rumored to be spectacular. According to the Lonely Planet, Pulau Bunaken is where divers go when they die. And so we came to the island to see for ourselves. There isn't a huge selection of accommodation on the island. It's a fairly small island with a small community with basic living conditions. Most of the accommodations are owned and run by foreigners (surprise, surprise!). We decided which accommodation based on the overwhelming response from the locals as to where was the cheapest place on the island. It was also a good choice since it it's also the only locally owned resort on Bunaken. The first day on the water we went out with other guests on a snorkeling extravaganza. It was brilliant! The colors were spectacular and the fish were plentiful. I hadn't seen such a wide variety of fish since the Great Barrier Reef. It was overwhelming. So many species and many we had never seen before. We visited three spots and were in the water most of the day coming away tired a little sunburned but fulfilled.

The second day we dove. The first dive was also incredible. We saw 3 of the largest green and hawksbill turtles that either of us have ever seen (probably over 4 feet in length). One was even sleeping in a crevice on the wall of the reef and we were able to get a really close look. There was a huge Napolean wrasse that was almost if not bigger than we were (also something we never saw in the Philippines even though it should have been). The second dive turned out to be not as good but still a fair amount of fish including about 6 large large Napolean wrasse at the end of the dive and a whitetip reef shark. The area where some other sharks was devoid of them on this dive. Oh well. The next day we went for our final dive and we saw some other colorful corals and some more fish but again it was not as good as our first.

The afternoon we went for our last snorkel on the other side of the island in search of some rumored dugongs. We were not lucky enough too find them but the snorkeling was again superb with absolutely gorgeous coral with almost 100 percent cover in many areas (something we did not see too much in the Philippines or anywhere else for that matter). We also went for a snorkel in the mangroves which was a bit eerie but interesting with roots and branches surrounding us in the murky water.


Overall the island had offered some great snorkeling with amazing fish and coral diversity. There were sheer walls surrounding the island which provided some pretty good diving but not quite as amazing as we had anticipated. Perhaps we have been a bit spoiled by our diving experiences in the past and we are expecting too much. It certainly was not too much of a let down though. We had a few days in the water to be awed a bit by its natural wonders. Our first stop in Indonesia gets a check in our book (maybe not a check plus though).

We also had an opportunity to meet some other interesting folks who also made Bunaken their home for a short time. There were even two other Americans: one who was teaching English with the Fulbright program in Java and another anthropology student who was trying to find out a bit about the ocean and the people in the area. There were also the German and Swiss students who had been assigned to work on the island with an environmental education program for three months which feel apart shortly after they arrived. They gave an interesting insight on the island and development work in the area. It was weird to be in the company of other Westerners. It had been awhile again and it seemed like the island was crawling with them. It was nice for a bit of conversation but certainly does not help our Indonesian language skills. It is a bit weird to be on the tourist trail since it seems that almost all of the Philippines is off it. It has its good points and bad but we will try to jump off it soon at least for a bit.