Diving the USAT Liberty, Tulamben, Bali

Yesterday we spent the day doing chores. Eric changed the generator oil and oil filter. Christi cleaned. For dinner, we went into Sanur again. We walked down the street, eyeing the menus at a few restaurants we passed. We settled on a place called Melanie’s Café that had an eclectic menu with a bizarre variety of foods. Eric wanted to eat there because they had a few Mexican dishes on the menu. Christi rolled her eyes, sure that a place that served Indian/Italian/Greek/American/Indonesian/Chinese/Mexican/Japanese was probably going to have terrible Mexican food.

Just like our last Mexican meal in Australia, we ordered fajitas and enchiladas. Much to our surprise, the food was actually pretty good. Granted, our standards are lower these days, but they got all the basics right. The enchiladas had the smallest smattering of enchilada sauce, but there was plenty of salsa on the plate to compensate. The fajita meat didn’t have grilled onions and bell peppers in it, but there were chopped onions on the side, and plenty of salsa, guacamole, and sour cream. Even though the food was not bad, we dreamed of the subtle things that make Mexican food so good, like poblano chiles and cilantro.

Today we went diving. We originally wanted Continue reading

Diving and Swimming with the Manta Rays in Komodo National Park

Continued from yesterday”¦ We suited up yet again, this time to go snorkeling with the Mantas. We swam around in search of them, and they didn’t take long to find. We saw a few individuals gracefully gliding along the floor below us. We also saw a group of four in a row, swimming in a wavy, loop de loop pattern one of the most elegant games of “follow the leader” we have ever seen. A couple more individuals entered the stage and suddenly we were looking at six mantas below us at once. It was pretty cool.

img_3559-small.JPG

Within 15 minutes of climbing in the boat Continue reading

SCUBA Diving in Komodo National Park

The dive boat picked us up at 0730. The boat is really nice by Indonesian standards. Like most Indonesian boats we have seen, it is all wood, but better maintained than most. It is relatively quiet compared to the majority of the boats around here, which seriously sound just like helicopters with their super loud one cylinder engines. We went with a company called Dive Komodo. There were two dive masters, two deck hands, and 9 passengers. There were some sweet rolls out, as well as coffee and tea and a cooler with water and soda.

The ride out to the north side of Komodo Island took 2 ½ hours. We anchored and looked at the site. It was a large rock. You could see Continue reading

Cook’s Look Hike and More Snorkeling

Pete and Fern picked us up at 07:30 to go on the Cook’s Look hike up the mountain to the left of us. In 1770, Captain Cook mapped the Queensland coastline. He was trying to make his way to the open ocean and couldn’t find a pass through the reefs. He sailed to Lizard Island, anchoring in Watson’s Bay, and scaled the mountain. At the top of the Continue reading

Diving Cod Hole & No Name Reef

Everyone was coming at 07:30, so we were up very early to get ready. Kosmos was a mess inside, since we have been more focused on the exterior than the interior since getting out of the yard. We ate a quick breakfast, did some tidying, and got our own tanks filled and our diving gear ready.

Everyone was on board and ready to go by 0800. There were 11 of us total — 4 snorkelers, the instructor and his two students, and another couple that would be diving with us.

Cod hole is 10 miles southeast of Lizard Island. We were happy to see there was a mooring available. The reason the spot is called Cod Hole is because gigantic Continue reading