Lembeh...Day 5

Under the Sea….Day 5

Well everyone told us that muck diving was totally wild and completely mind-boggling…which is exactly how we have experienced it so far! The visibility is not good, like 12 feet, and there is trash and muck and lots of black sand…but the creatures that grow and live here are beyond your imagination! Instead of being overwhelmed by the color and splendor of a reef all around, diving in Lembeh is like a scavenger hunt, where we savor each discovery! It is a much more relaxed pace underwater. 

We saw this incredibly rare fish today called a Ambon scorpion fish-we met people who came from England just to try to lay eyes on one of these! They are sort of hairy and look exactly like a little clump of seaweed..with eyes! We saw a coconut octopus and they we saw it being attacked and eaten by a flounder! We saw 3 swimming spotted sting rays; we saw a black and white banded sea snake, a demon scorpion fish, and loads of lionfish. So many little weird and wonderful creatures that our guide started writing them down on this underwater tablet because we had no idea what we were seeing! We saw 2 long armed octopuses, a school of razor fish, which “stand” straight up in the water…down close to the sand so they look like a group of plants not fish. My absolute favorite thing I have ever seen underwater is a flamboyant cuttlefish. Today I saw it for the first time and we saw 2 of them! Google it, I am sure I cannot fully explain these things. They are no bigger than the palm of my hand, and they look EXACTLY like the dirt and sand all around them, but if you stir the water near them (which our dive guide did) they turn these outrageous colors and actually shift back and forth in colors in front of your eyes! It is almost like they have a band of color moving over them, one second they are brown, then white, then, yellow, then purple! It is truly a miracle to witness this color change! They change colors to freak out potential predators. I just cannot even begin to explain the astounding way that they rotate colors! Seriously, google it. We did two dives this morning and plan to do a night dive tonight.

Our “Resorts”

The places we have been staying at are called Two Fish Divers and are run by a British couple. Almost 100% of their employees (including all the dive masters and handlers) are Indonesian and they really couldn’t be more helpful. They took the entire boat, and a crew out just for the 2 of us to do our dawn dive in Bunaken. While diving, we have always only had one guide and us…which is so nice! There is no crowding and our guides have this uncanny ability to spot even the most camouflaged creatures! Half of the things we have seen so far in Lembeh we would have never noticed on our own.

We eat in an open air pavilion which can be very exciting…the pavilion here in Lembeh is cathedral like (maybe 20 ft high), last night during dinner a gecko fell from the ceiling and landed right in Jeremy’s water glass...he didn't try to sell us any insurance, because he's busy training for the Olympic high dive! The food has been really great, although pretty spicy; I leave most meals with my nose running from the heat (although I am a total weenie about spicy). We have some kind of rice and noodles with every meal. For protein we have fish, chicken, pork, or tofu. There is always fresh fruit and veggies. We are not planning on having much of either one in Sumatra, so it is nice to get to eat them here. For breakfast they make us eggs to order….we have ordered “tomato omelets” which is a fried egg with a (whole) slice of tomato in it. We have not seen any cheese yet. For dinner, they give us dessert of some kind, last night it was coconut custard, which tasted great but had a weirdly crunchy texture (from the fresh coconut). We eat community style with the other divers. Each place has less than 20 guests. So far we have only met one other American.

This afternoon (currently), Jeremy and I are relaxing in hammocks outside our room. We are sharing a fresh pinapple, carrot, and orange smoothie. Today is the first afternoon that it has not poured rain, we are grateful to be outside in the cool ocean breeze. The weather continues to be hot, but not nearly as humid as Bunaken.

We will try to post some photos later.