Today has been great, I didn't get up to go take photos of the birds, I slept in late for here I was woken by Leon at 7, and went to have a breakfast of a fried egg and toast with sweet chili sauce. After breakfast we met everyone in the dive centre and decided what we wanted to do today. We came to the conclusion that we would go to a sot called Mantas, named because of the Manta rays that go there robe cleaned off by the little cleaner fish that live in the rocks there. The ride from the resort island, Pef to this spot was around 40 minutes, and a little bumpy. We got to the spot and hopped into the water, and were greeted by 2 big Mantas and one small one. They left shortly after we arrived so we didn't get any good photos of them, but I snapped of some ok ones where you can see them. Unlike the Bahamas here they have all black mantas as well as the white bellied ones.
(Mantas at the first dive, Both black and white)
We ascended slowly from the first dive, because my ears are reverse blocking a bit. This means that as I go up the air is expanding in my ears, but so something is making it harder for it to escape, but along as I surface very slowly I am fine. After the first dive we headed to a village on Arborek Island, which was very cool, teaming with fish under the docks, and full of local children fishing on the dock. The kids fish in a very interesting manner, they cast in grappling hook shaped fish hooks with 4 hooks and no bait, they put them in the middle of large schools of fish and yank them through the schools, impaling the fish with the hooks, and capturing them. While on the island, I hopped in the water with my camera gear and shot the growth on the dock posts. It was amazing soft corals amazingly colourful.
(Soft coral growing on the Arborek Island Jetty)
After a while on the island, we headed to the second spot called Lalosi, and it was full of fish, and another woebegong shark. This was a cool dive, fun to see so many fish in one place. I have found many clownfish here by now, they are a common sighting on our daily dives. After the second dive we headed back to the resort, and went to the beach in the bay behind the island, Leon and the other two guests walked through the bushes on the path, and. Claudia and I kayaked around. When we got there we found a camp full of nomadic fishermen, who are actually not allowed to camp on this island, nor are they allowed to fish around it, but as outsiders, we didn't say anything, we took photos and sent them to the local managers. At the beach we saw a stone fish right near the shore, it was cool, but being as poisonous as they are, it makes you feel like shoes are necessary. After this we paddled back around front, and edited all of our photos. After this we sat in the restaurant drinking 7 year old Havana club rum while watching the sunset.
(Stone fish at the beach. Very hard to see in the sand)
Dinner was as usual amazing, spicy chicken, aubergine with a mustard sauce, salad, baby corn and fish, followed by a soursop ice-cream. I am sitting in the photo studio now looking at photos and videos of dive spots that I will be diving while here, and I am not sure I will be sleeping tonight it's all really exciting to see, and is making me want to go dive now.
(Map Of today)(The resort is the red pin, Dive Sites are yellow, and Surface stops are green)
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