Raja Ampat World Famous Diving

After the best snorkeling in my life I was really looking forward to Raja Ampat. Four days at a dive resort there sounded like an opportunity not to be missed.

The flight from Manado to Sorong gave us a good look at the waters of Indonesia. Beautiful blue waters with tiny islands and atols scattered here and there.

The ferry from Sorong to Raja Ampat was 120,000 Indonesian rupiah in the cheap seats and twice that for premium. Being kind of frugal we went badic and we're assigned seats in what Ellie called the ocean version of a chicken bus. With the exchange rate we were more cheap than frugal because the nicer seats with air conditioning were about $15 USD.

After arriving at the Raja Ampat ferry terminal we were met by boats from the resort and taken the last few miles to our home for the next four days.

Our little group of a dozen grabbed beers and sat out on the dock to watch the sun set.

The next morning had us split between boats with the veteran I ers on one boat and rookies on the other. With Ellie as my dive buddy I joined two other divers. One with little experience, and one who had not scuba dived in years.

Our guide, Francisco, was good, but the rest seemed either inexperienced or confused at times. That doesn't mean it was not beautiful. It was just frustrating to see little mistakes with equipment make it difficult to relax and enjoy it. But we did enjoy it.

We took the long power boat with the awning covering us across to another island and past another larger and newer resort. We stopped near the dock of a third resort and we're told this would be our first dive for the day. It felt like we were being taken to the neighbor's house for a swim, but I had to trust their judgment.

It was a bit of a struggle to get on our Scuba gear, but once in the water the fish started to swarm to us. They even nipped at us a few times....

At this point I will end my narrative and post a few more pics because after we got back from Raja Ampat I found I had a hernia. Our Great Barrier Reef live aboard was canceled and I had to go in for surgery. More later.