Lokon Boutique Resort Tomohon

20 Dollars less in our pocket, a lot closer to the equator. After an amazing final night in Bunaken we took the ferry back to Manado. From there, the bus to Gorontalo. A nine hour jeep ride through tiny villages, by an abundance of rice fields, passing election posters, rivers and not so solid bridges. When we reached the mountain range the drive became less pleasent as the many curves that our driver had to enter with a speed of 80 km/h kept ...

... just hang head down and drift along next to plant or coral life trying as best they can to go unnoticed. Every area that could be dug out underneath seemed to house a moray eel. They are totally scary looking with that evil eye and the gaping mouth, but are very harmless to respectful visitors. Cardinal fish schooled amongst the anemones. We saw these black spiny sea urchins ...

... we were up by 6:30 and eager to start the day. When the sun comes up at 5am, it's pretty hard to sleep late anyway. After another fantastic breakfast, we were off and running at 8:30 headed towards Bunaken. We made two dives there today. The first site was a wall dive called Panggalisang. Very easy and no current made for a lot of time to linger over anything found along ...

... were very compatible. Also, for this trip the unbelievable Master & Commander Suite - our home away from home - was only $400/pp over the base price for the ten days; now it is an additional $800 - $1,100/pp depending upon season. At the airport in Bitung the students wanted foreigners to write in their books information about where we were from ...

... and more flower shops, never seen such elaborately evolved sexual organs in all my life. Well tomorrow we go to the market where you can get all you bat, rat, dog, and snake eating goods all at one location for a low low introductory rate. I managed to get sunburned on my last day in the sun, less I forget that I'm a white boy ...

... but this was totally different. The sulpherous smell was a lot less pungent and the slopes consisted of dried lava flow rather than volcanic silt. That meant I couldn't run down it in quite the same way (like walking on the moon!), but I did feel like I was on a totally different planet seeing the crater filled with red, purple and yellow rocks. I spent about an hour throwing stones down the sheer 40 ft drop into the crater and listening to the echo. I ...

... sitting on the table. 2 of it was working and reading peace and calm while the third that was kaput was churning out major distress signals before it finally broke down. And of course as luck would have it, it also had to be the one that was monitoring the volcano WE wanted to climb! Holy molly, was it that active and dangerous that it blew the sensors off the charts? Our man told us ...

... The hot water shower alone was SO worth the US$15! It's amazing how a week of living the 'simple life' made me appreciate everything around me so much more. While I wouldn't call myself a total brat, (I can live life without Chanel suits or Gucci shoes, you know) I realize that I'm definitely not the great outdoors, in tune with nature (read: doing nature's call in the woods) kinda girl. I found out quickly that ...

... after we set off, we met with a head-on collision with another boat. The boatman was screaming at the top of his lungs to the other guy and I had a moment of panic. I was at the front seat watching everything happen in slow motion. Neither of us could swerve in time and it broke the wooden truss of the boat. How are we going to get back on a wrecked boat? We slowly drifted back to the island jetty and the boatman assured us that he ...

... avec confiture tout ce qu'il y a de plus normal au riz saute en passant par les omelettes...bref avec ca t'as plus faim pour toute la journee ! Cote bouffe on a essaye nos premiers restos locaux (en dehors de ce qu'ils nous servaient au resort)...c'est grandiose. Le voyage vaut la peine rien que pour la bouffe. Par contre, ca arrache.. Vendredi soir on a essaye la version rustique..On a pris un nom de resto au hasard dans le guide et on a demande a un mikrolet ...