The view from our lounge chairs at the Komodo Resort (which is not on the namesake island)
The ride to Komodo Resort was rough, to say the least. It was rainy and windy, with 2-3 foot white-capped swells. Luckily, our captain brought rain ponchos for us, and garbage bags for our backpacks. It was a crazy ride, and the boats engine petered out a couple times. I'm sure you can imagine that this was a little concerning. But we made it here, and settled into our bungalow, just steps from the beach.
The view from our cabana's veranda
The view of our cabana from the veranda
With the rain and wind taking hold, we settled in for a lazy day involving lunch, reading, a siesta, dinner, more reading and bedtime. Yes, I know: vacation is hard work.
The next day was beautiful, and our biggest decision was whether to snorkel before breakfast or after. Before, or after? Before or after?
We opted for the latter since we didn't have any gear yet. We walked up the beach a bit and got in up-current, so that the we could gently glide through the corals with the current.
The reef at Kanawa Island Resort was nice, and we enjoyed it, but the House Reef in front of Komodo Resort is spectacular. The water here is so clear, the soft coral is so colorful, and the dropoff is so close that the House Reef could easily be the poster child for the ad campaign, "come see the coral reefs in Indonesia". It is by far the most vibrant reef we've snorkeled in. We had finally found the reef we were hoping to see. Did you know that Nemo has a twin?
We swam for a good two hours, checking out the entire length of the resort. We were sure that it was early enough in the day that we didn't need sunscreen. Wrong. We both got a tiny bit of sunburn on our backs. Oops.
Speaking of sunscreen, I highly recommend "Water Babies" sunscreen. It's SPF 50, and has no parabens and very few chemicals, so it's good for me, babies and the environment. It also does a great job. But only if you put it on.
When not snorkeling, I've been either blogging, reading or combing the beach for buried treasure. The closest I've come to treasure is foot-long clam shells, some really cool coral,
and a crazy fish. It's a cowfish! It has a trapezoidal bottom, and it's whole body is like a 3-D trapezoid. It has spikes for eyebrows, two on its behind (you can see one of them in the photo), and one on it's back (the thing that looks like a dorsal-fin is actually a spike). It's just about the craziest thing I've ever seen!
But the best part of our stay was today, when we went out with the dive boat to go snorkeling. We went to two spots, and for both of them, the water was so clear that when we got off the boat, I could very clearly see the scuba divers -- and they were over sixty feet below me!
Waiting to jump off the boat at our first stop
Almost the entire resort went on this trip, even the manager. Only 4 guests stayed behind, while the other 25 got on the boat hoping to see a manta ray at Manta Point. This being this "off season" for the mantas, seeing one is really hit or miss.
From October to March (winter in the U.S., but summer here South of the equator), there are so many mantas that you have to wait to exit the boat (!!!) but this time of year, there may be no mantas in sight. Last week we met a guy who didn't see anything while diving at Manta Point, but four days ago, divers saw mantas with babies. You just never know.
But today we were lucky. Was it the power of having 30 people with fingers crossed?
We were lucky enough to have spotted a stingray our first dive. The stingray was quite small, probably about two feet wide, light brown with spots. There is a small chance that it was a skate, not a stingray, but as Tadashi says, "Who cares? We saw manta rays! Manta rays are bad-ass!"
And he's right. We saw four massive mantas at our second spot, Manta Point.
When we got to Manta Point, our snorkeling guide was looking overboard for mantas, finding a good place for us all to jump in. He was very excited when he spotted a manta, and he shouted, "Manta! Manta! Manta!" He was even shouting it to our other boat. So we saw our first manta as soon as we got off the boat.
The smallest of the mantas had about a 10-foot wingspan, and the largest was about 15 feet. All four mantas were at cleaning stations, with little fish nibbling on their skin and in their mouth!
The cleaning stations are on the floor, so we just hovered above the mantas. Good snorkellers are able to dive down, but I'm not one of those (Tadashi did, though).
Mantas are so majestic that I could just watch them for hours. Sadly, the captain wasn't going to wait that long.
I also saw a sea turtle on the second dive, just as me and the guide were getting ready to get on the boat. We were the last ones, so nobody else saw it. Sometimes it pays to be the slow-poke.
Very happy after having seen a stingray. The mantas were on the next dive.
The worst part? We have no photos of any of it, or any other underwater exploits. But trust me: it was freakin' awesome!
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