I wish there were words strong enough to share with you all the truly amazing nature and atmosphere of this place, but unfortunately no such dictionary exists. Not even the photos I share with you can fully depict the charm and character that you not only see here, but also feel. Today has been amazing, I can safely say that I went on the single best dive of my life to date, and the other one had more fish on the reef then you can imagine. The quality of the diving here is unmatched anywhere else in the world. Today started as any other, we had breakfast at 7:30 in the restaurant over the water, then headed over to the dive center, where we planned the two dives for the morning.

(Map of the dives today, the resort is the red pin and the two sites are yellow)

            Our first dive was at a spot called fish soup, named for the abundance of fish that frequent it, and was about 30 minutes from Pef, and our initial plan was to go to another spot near by fish soup, but that never happened. The first dive was cool, full of life, and made for some great photos, and I am sure it would make for an amazing fishing spot. My golden moment on this dive was catching my first usable photo of clown fish. They are really hard to shoot with a wide-angle lens because they are small, but on top of that they hide from you deep within their anemones and are completely out of sight. This one shot made the dive for me, but I cannot leave out the huge schools of tiny fish, and the really bright and healthy corals.

(Schools and schools of these little fish, this is Fish Soup reef)

            Leon and I surfaced first from the dive, and the clouds over a very special spot known as the passage had cleared up, and we began talking to one and other about shifting the location of the second dive. When the others came onto the boat we discussed going to the spot named The Passage, located between two islands called Gam and Waigeo. This is one of the best-known spots in Raja Ampat, and happens to be very close to the resort. Everyone aboard the boat agreed that since the sun had broken out of it's prison made of clouds we should head there. The boat ride took about 45 minutes, passing by two pearl farms and the resort on the way.

(Clown Fish at fish soup)

            When we arrived at the passage, I was mesmerized, it was this small cut between the jungles of these two islands, and had a really unique feel to it from above. We hung out on the boat for a little bit had a coffee and some bananas and hopped into the water. As usual, I followed Leon, as he is better than the others at helping photographers get cool photos. We immediately headed into a cavern in the wall, and he pointed up at the surface to me, when I looked up there were these amazing sun rays breaking the surface of the water and penetrating the cave. I immediately started trying to get some shots of them, but was having great difficulty in doing so. Leon and I went to the surface a couple of times so he could help me get the settings on my camera just right, and explain to me how best to take the photo. After two surfacings, I had it kind of figured out, but my pictures are not perfect.

(Leon in one of the Caverns at the passage with the light rays)

            After shooting in the caves, we went flying through the passage on the tidal currents. It was an awesome experience, a bit like wing suit flying underwater. We went shooting through the water, dodging rocks and keeping close to the edge where we wanted to end up. When we finally got out of the strong current it was incredible, the brightly coloured soft coral with the trees above the surface made for some really cool shooting opportunities. I followed closely to Leon and mimicked a few of his shots learning quite a bit about flash position, and shot angles.

(Soft coral with the light rays behind it at the Passage)

            A dive wouldn't be the same with Leon if there weren't some harmless clowning around, and on this dive he and Eudon began planking with their heads in a sea sponge. Eudon was laughing so hard while doing it that his mask actually filled up with water, all the while I was taking photos of them.        

(Eudon Planking in the sea sponge) 

            After a bit of goofing off, we headed further into the passage where I spotted a group of archerfish. These fish eat land-based insects, but they don't simply wait for the insects to land on the surface of the water, they shoot them down with water that they spray from their mouths. They are very plain looking fish, silver with black stripes, but are very hard to photograph, as they are fast moving and very timid. I chased them around for a while before managing to trap them in a cove and get them in a shot as they rushed past me to get to the exit.

(One of the Archerfish at The Passage)

            I am happy to say that the passage is by far the best dive of my life thus far, and have been reassured that I will be back there several times before I leave here. Nowhere else in the world can you have an amazing life and coral filled dive and ascend into the jungle. This was an amazing experience, and well worth the trip up here, even if it were my only dive while here, but thank god it is not, because I am having way too much fun. After a very long second dive, I came up with almost no air, we all decided that we would take the afternoon off and relax. I imported all of my photos to my computer, and Claudia helped me edit them. I will write more about the rest of tonight after it all happens.

(Look at the Jungle above the water, and the jungle below)