My February winter break plans changed just a couple of weeks before originally scheduled departure. So, I emailed Wakatobi resort, and to my delight, the US rep replied and attached the first of two emails I sent inquiring about staying there – from 2007 and 2010. A flurry of emails and negotiations later and I was signed up for 2 days in the jungle outside of Denpasar, Bali (for jet lag) and two weeks at the resort.
Jungle? Def completely in the woods, and enjoyed a (skinny) dip in my own personal pool:
and headed out for gourmet meal at Sangsaka (what would a blogpost be without food porn?):
Headed to the airport at 5:30 am on the 12th and was met outside by Wakatobi personnel, who escorted me to the lounge to wait for our charter to the island. The resort can hold about 60 guests, but this week it entertained only about 28. That’s how I enjoyed a private villa for a share-price! Tucked into the jungle:
with lovely maintenance (my area):
and plenty of lounging facilities:
and view from that very spot:
which included my own set of tiled steps into the sea. I spent quite a bit of time there, just gazing out to sea and enjoying the occasional wildlife (monitor lizards) and birdlife:
I dove twice a day and was fortunate to have (by far) the most knowledgable dive guide EVER, a Brit named Lisa. Not only did she point out pygmy seahorses the size of your pinky nail (and with coloring and texture mimicking the fan to which it was attached),
but could write out the name of anything I pointed to. Daily dive briefings:
and my first week dive buddies:
I was a two-dive-a-day girl,
stepping onto the boat about 7:15 am and off about 11:30. Yes, stupid early, but them’s the rules. Usually awake around 5:30, watched the sun come up and asleep 9:30 – 10.
Visibility not excellent. First few days there we had rainstorms (it is the wet season) and winds, but as the week wore on, that got better and better and the second week was spectacular. And as always, Visibility was a function of how protected was the dive site and the profile of the site itself. One of, if not the actual, my favorite sites was called Roma. Went 3 times. First time there was a school of about 200 2-foot barracudas that swam in a circle and at one point looked like a giant tornado vortex with the sun streaming right through the middle.
Breathtaking. When I dove the same site on my last day, schools of fish were out in droves and I just enjoyed so much being a land-based animal amongst the undersea beauty and bounty that I actually wept. A first. So grateful for the health of those reefs.
Anyone who wonders why I take so many planes and trains to get to some of these places might get it that the harder to get to, the less human damage has occurred. We even saw 3 cuttlefish, in different shapes and sizes:
and funnily enough, after our first sighting, there was an article in the NYT about them and how scientists had just discovered they have small structures covering their bodies like little umbrellas that they stand up and down in order to change the texture of their bodies.
There was a bar at the end of the jetty, which I didn’t visit until about my 4th to the last night. Just didn’t really do any drinking while there, but once I went (to have a beer with Lisa), I was hooked! Sunset:
and one night sat at the water’s edge, not on the jetty, to listen to a guided meditation and marvel how the changing light rays on the water reminded me so much of M. Monet. He really got it right.
In the afternoons I would read, play bridge on my iPad, or snorkel from our jetty down to the next one, about a 90-minute roundtrip adventure that contained plenty of life, including turtles, banded coral skates (snakes), and a plethora of fish and trash (which I would accumulate and toss. I made it a point on every dive to bring up trash). I even had a go at paddle boarding:
all around:
At last, time to leave. All staff were a joy as were most of the guests. So relaxing and I had the perfect view from the charter flight back to Denpasar, Bali, to appreciate the abundance and health of the Indonesian reefs:
