Bunaken

This weekend, some friends came into town to celebrate my birthday with me. We watched a movie, ate waffles, and yesterday, went to Bunaken, which is the name both for an island near Manado and the marine park next to it. There's a public ferry, but it doesn't go very often, so the four of us rented a boat to take us there and back. The picture above is the view from the boat. The island that looks just like a mountain is Manado Tua, or Old Manado. For some reason.



We didn't go straight to the dock on Bunaken Island, but instead they put down these glass window sort of things on the bottom of the boat and went over the coral reef so we could see it. All of us were amazed; this reef is huge, and only about three feet deep into the water. None of us had ever seen anything like it before, and the men on the boat thought it was really funny how shocked and amazed we were. But it's really very beautiful, and easy to see even from above the water.



So, instead of swimming at the beach, we stopped in to rent some snorkeling equipment (except me, I used my nice mask and snorkel from scuba training) and took the boat back out to an edge of the coral reef. I'd never really been snorkeling before, and I was a bit skeptical about it, and especially about doing it in the ocean and dealing with the salt water in your mouth, but it was just as simple and easy as could be. We basically drifted along the edge of the reef and looked at the coral and the fish and had a great time. The reef drops off, so there's sort of a vertical ledge, and it's very easy to swim along next to it.



We spotted some scuba divers beneath us, and now I'm very excited to go back soon and dive, because it looks like the easiest dive you could imagine, and it was very beautiful in the water. At the end of the day, my friends left for their overnight drive back to Gorontalo. I was very tired afterward, and sunburned on the backs of my legs and in a nice line where my two-piece separated, but my burns are pretty mild and so I'm fine today. All in all, I had a great time going to Bunaken and now I can't wait to go back! But it will have to wait, because I've got plans to travel for the next couple weekends!

(Sorry there aren't more pictures, but I was too busy snorkeling!)