USS Liberty Tulamben

First of all, I still have to tell you about our night. Our bungalow is located next to a very beautiful and above all very very large fish pond with water lilies. Yesterday when we arrived, I was very impressed with how well and decoratively it was designed.

When we went to sleep, a few frogs started to sing. Daniela asked me if I needed earplugs. No, I can fall asleep without earplugs. Then suddenly SILENCE and I thought, yippi, that's it now. But I couldn't finish that thought and thousands of frogs started singing. Damn, I wanted to throw something into the pond, but then they would have kicked me out for sure. What a terrible noise. So, I used the earplugs. That made it bearable. While I'm writing this, it's starting again. You think there are two or three frogs here singing a little, but now I know what's coming next.

Now to the beautiful part :-) I accompanied Daniela diving today. You can also snorkel in this area and that's what I had planned for myself. The dive center picked us up from the hotel around 8 a.m. We had to drive through Amed to Tulamben. During the drive, there was a small pick-up truck in front of us. There was a small calf on the truck bed. Oh my goodness, the poor animal stood there with its tail tucked in. You could see the tense, fearful body of the animal with every turn the driver took. I was relieved when we finally arrived.

All dive centers transport their cylinders on a pick-up truck and it's always male drivers. I was a bit stunned when I saw who carried the cylinders to the beach. Petite local women carried the cylinders on their heads. Just by looking at it, I got a concussion.

Daniela went diving with a guide alone. They dived right below the wreck. That was funny. At some point, the two disappeared inside and I snorkeled around the wreck for quite a while. It's amazing to see how the decayed ship lies on the seafloor. I could also observe huge colorful fish. No shark came by :-). Eventually, I went back to the beach and sat on the rocks to dry off. There were several dive centers there. I watched them for a while. Then Daniela came back with her guide. She was also thrilled with her first dive. They even saw a turtle and it was exciting to dive through the wreck. The second dive and snorkeling were just as great and adventure-filled as the first one. We returned around 1:30 p.m.

In the afternoon, we went snorkeling again at our house reef. With the sunlight, the corals came into view beautifully. We also saw a huge trumpetfish.

Now we're lazy on the balcony, listening to the waves and the frogs....grinning.

Tomorrow we'll rent a scooter and we have to plan Sulawesi. We'll probably go there on Saturday or Sunday.