Tasik Ria Resort Manado

Air Asian Kuala Lumpur - Manado -lennon ja Wings Airin Manado - Ternate -lennon valissa notkuimme Manadon lentokentalla. Ulkona satoi kaatamalla. Naimme joulupukin. Soimme nuudeleita. Ja arvuuttelimme sita, millaisella koneella loppumatka taittuisi. Vahan huolestutti kentan laitaan parkkeeratun Wings-koneen pieni koko, mutta elattelimme toiveita, etta ehka meidan lentomme kuitenkin lennettaisiin jollakin isommalla...

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 ...

... devoted to frogfish hunting. Happy to say we were rewarded on all three dives! Another cool couple of finds on dive 3 were a zebra crab and more emperor shrimp, all hitching rides on these large, beautiful sea urchins that looked like giant colorful pin cushions. One of the finds of the day was a ...

... 700 years and earlier. Our next stop was what we liked to call the North Sulawesi Street of Dreams. Very often, small villages each have a task or particular type of work they are known for, whether it's construction, food, art or whatever. The entire community at large then benefits from inter-village trade of goods and services. The Street of Dreams was basically a ...

... dive back to Emma's Point. It's amazing how quickly darkness sets in here. Equal time of day and night here on the equator. The dive started out kind of ho-hum. It was a muck dive, but we sure weren't finding much of anything. We haven't gotten the knack for finding anything anyway yet, so the actual job of finder was left to our Divemaster guide. Sure enough ...

... and spent a week mostly hanging out with some nice boating excursions here and there. Now, we're in Manado for a bit until Mike gets over his food related illness. From here, we're headed south to Gorontalo by car which'll take about eight hours and then we'll catch a ferry further south to the Togean Islands. I'll get some pics up of all our adventures to date soon.

... and started off our first day. We saw some really interesting animals, and the high diverstiy was evident from many invertibrate groups. We passed through a sandflat, seagrass bed, patchy coral lagoon, reef flat (inundated with crown of thorns starfish), and the reef slope diving down very deep. The deep water was a magnificent blue, so very deep! On our way back in we saw a really cool pipefish, which was very similar to a seahorse. This is how our days ...

... a fairly big airport by Indonesian standards. Dad and I visited the ATM and became Indonesian millionaires (9600 Rupiah to the dollar). We were met by a smiling, older gentleman with a sign reading "Kevin Claus" and the name of a Japanese woman who was also visiting Cha Cha Nature Resort on Bunaken Island. We loaded our bags and were whisked off to the somewhat seedy harbor. On the way, people were flying their world cup colors on tall (maybe ...

... for 4 days of snorkelling morning and afternoon and eating fresh fish in between, which was all included in the ridiculously low price of $8 per day! Being the only guests we had all the privacy we wanted, only being interrupted now and again by some over-enthusiastic puppies! The snorkelling on the fringing reefs was by far the best have ever experienced. The water was crystal clear with visibility of at least 20m, and absolutely teeming with all kinds of ...

... how it was all resolved (I didn't feel like asking him when we saw him in Manado a few days later) but I'm sure that someone in the Philippines or wherever he goes next will hear a story about how "those ******n Indos are slippery, always trying to **** you. You gotta keep your eyes open, be alert." Moving right along, after our little jungle adventure we headed back through Manado to the ocean once again. This time to Bunaken National Marine Park, where we got a ...