Sunday, October 31, 2010

Raja Ampat Marine Reserve, East Papua, Indonesia 3

Sea Anemone: Photo by Scotty Graham

Photo by Scotty Graham

Squirrel Fish: Photo by Scotty Graham

Photo by Scotty Graham

Photo by Scotty Graham

Moray Eel: Photo by Scotty Graham

CW: Brenda, Neil, Allison, Ishmael, Solomon, James, Otto, Andrea, Tracey near Blue Majik Dive Site
Photo by Scotty Graham: Sandbar near Snake Island: Donna, Tim, Tracey, Scotty, Brenda, Neil, Andrea, Allison

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Raja Ampat Marine Reserve, East Papua, Indonesia 2

This is a typical advanced rural village toilet. I tried it out. Strong Quads and good balance for life!

To flush, or shower, you fill the scoop with water and dump away. There is a spigot that you can fill this with water. Uniformed foreigners, get in and take a bath this will offend.

A curious village elder who joined us for tea, while we waited for the rain to stop.



This fish gets protection from prey by the stinging arms of the anemone and the anemone gets cleaned by the fish!

Nicoletta has logged over 1400 hours of diving. She should have been a marine biologist.


Papua Lobster

This is new equipment for me. It is called a BCD-a buoyancy compensator device. It took me awhile to figure out how not to fly like a rocket (not safe) or settle on top of coral like a sack of potatoes (a burning bad time!)

Andrea

Andrea

Tracey

Beached, in between dives.

Baby Giant Clam

Trumpet fish blending in.

Otto, the dive master. Very smart. Over 14,000 dives. My guardian angel.

At the gift shop. The bark paintings go for over $300.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Raja Ampat Marine Reserve, East Papua, Indonesia

Quarter 1 is over and I'm at this top rated Scuba diving area for untouched coral reefs, with 6 colleagues from JIS. It is so pristine and lovely. A good break from the city life in Jakarta! Here are some pictures. The underwater ones are taken by a fellow diver here from Italy. Her name is Nicoletta Bianchi. She lives in Bali and works for an Italian company that has offices around the world. She will be moving to Viet Nam soon to do the same kind of Operations work.