Bunaken

Currently, there is only one ferry (actually more of a speed boat) from Manado, which only operates once a day, and you cannot book tickets in advance. Instead, you inform the captain that you want to go along and pay him when you arrive. Therefore, I set off early in the morning from Tomohon towards Manado to ensure that I would get a spot on the boat. I found the speed boat and the captain right away, but then I had to wait 3.5 hours for departure. I actually wanted to sit in a café to pass the time, but I couldn't find an appealing one, so I ended up sitting in a food court where only locals were and watched two men playing mill.

For three of the four days in Bunaken, I made two dives each day and had a local as a dive guide on the first two days. He had somehow specialized in tiny creatures like mini crabs and nudibranchs (basically small sea slugs in all sorts of colors). Once, he excitedly showed us a red nudibranch, or at least that's what he claimed. For me, it was nothing more than a red dot; he could have told me anything.

On the third day, I dived with a German guide (Ronny), and it was really cool. He showed us a few nudibranchs and mini crabs, but he also pointed out the large sea creatures (if we hadn't seen them ourselves): turtles, reef sharks, trumpet fish, stingrays, pufferfish, Napoleon fish, triggerfish, a shrimp, and an electric clam. The two dives with Ronny were so amazing that I would have used my last day in Bunaken, which I had planned as a chill day, for diving again if I could dive with Ronny one more time. Unfortunately, Ronny's vacation started the next day.

So, the last day wasn't really chill either; I explored the island with Gloria from the accommodation. After breakfast, we walked along the road to the small place north of our accommodation and then back through the water. At some points, we sank into the mud up to our knees and always had a latent fear of sinking deeper or falling over. Ultimately, however, we made it back to the accommodation for lunch without any major mishaps.

After lunch, we walked to the place south of our accommodation. That's where I had arrived by ferry and thought there would be a bit of activity. But what was happening when I arrived was probably just the people who had sat on the ferry with me. The only interesting thing there was a white-red church with a stained glass window showing Jesus as a helmsman.

I really enjoyed my time in Bunaken, and the friendly people from the accommodation surely contributed a large part to that. On the last evening, after dinner, we went to the beach again to see bioluminescent plankton - and we were lucky! It was a great conclusion!

All the animal pictures from diving were taken by Svenja; you can find more on her Insta profile: Svenja_knipst