Siladen - Northern Sulawesi

 

We decided to spend the first part of our time in Sulawesi on this tiny little island called Siladen. The northern tip of Sulawesi is quite well known in the diving world for the muck diving in Lembeh Strait (next post?) and for the reef diving off the island of Bunaken. Bunaken sounded like a nice island and there were certainly tons of affordable dive/accommodation options on the island. But we wanted to get a bit more off the beaten track and away from divers (who, honestly, can sometimes be a bit much for us). So we found a tiny island right next to Bunaken called Siladen....and I searched for places to stay and found the perfect spot, Bobocha Siladen (Bobocha means octopus in Indonesian). We could not have asked for a better place to stay, eat, and relax at for five days. We had only set foot on the island for about one hour (less?) when we decided to head out for our first dive - I guess we couldn't wait much longer. The first dive was all it took for us to know we were in a special place and we continued to dive or snorkel as much as we could during our time on Siladen.

 

This was the view of the shallow reef as we slowly arrived at Siladen on a water taxi. This view and the clarity of the water had us biting the bit to get in the water as soon as possible. Our place was on the beach in the distance in this photograph.

It is never a bad thing to spend your day diving on walls covered in hard coral like this! Jay would, naturally, know the scientific names for all of these corals....I know it is a hard coral and that is big, beautiful, and healthy! Jay (or the dive guide?) is in the distance in the image.

These cute little striped catfish were really fun to watch as they moved about in typical schooling fashion.

We were blown away by the healthy reefs here and this image captures what a healthy reef should look like- fishes, corals, turtles, sunlight, no trash, no sedimentation, ahhhh..... almost perfect (except no sharks because they have all been eaten by guess who). While I say there is no trash in this photo, there was actually a TON of trash in these waters, which is one of the reasons why we were surprised the reefs were so healthy. Although I do not have a photograph of it, plastic was everywhere you looked on the surface of the water. The plastic floated in on the current lines and sometimes we would surface into plastic bags, plastic water bottles (to be clear, I HATE water bottles), tampon applicators, dental floss holders, straws, caps, caps, caps, and many unknown plastic thingys. It was everywhere, mostly blown over to these islands from the city of Manado on the mainland of Sulawesi. Fortunately, we were not surprised by this sight as our guidebook had warned us to be prepared for hoards of trash. But what we were surprised by was the fact that the reefs still appeared healthy minus the sharks. There was a good mooring system set up to prevent all the dive boats from anchoring on the reef and our dive operator was very careful not to add to the pollution - even going as far as taking a cigarette butt from a dude before he had a chance to flick it overboard. Nevertheless, despite the healthy reefs below the trash problem is clearly in need of some help and one way to start would be to ban the silly idea of bottled water worldwide. Tall order, but an important one. We traveled this time with a UV water sterilizer so we could fill up Nalgene bottles with tap water and sterilize it. It was lovely to not purchase water bottles.

Black coral, I think, and Julie

When they say "wall dive" off Bunaken they are not kidding. Here is Jay and the WALL. This wall dropped until it disappeared with no bottom anywhere in sight. I have no clue how far down it went, but presumably really far down!

This was one of the larger tropical nudibranchs I've ever seen - and it had a tiny friend next to it! 

Guess who took this gorgeous photo of corallites (coral polyps)?

After a day of diving and snorkeling, we had this amazing beach and cottage to come "home" to. We sat on our comfy beach chairs and watched this sunset get more and more fantastic.

Dinner was served every night on the beach and they catered to our vegetarian diet (Jay didn't want to eat fish here so he went veggo) with amazing skill because so much of the diet in Indonesia is based on fresh fruits and vegetables. For our first two nights we were the only ones staying at Bobocha Siladen; Sarah, the wonderful Indonesian woman running the place, was our fantastic chef and host. Just look at this romantic meal she prepared for the two of us!

Dinner! Rice, green mango salad, eggplant with a yummy curry sauce, stuffed and fried tofu, and curried hard-boiled egg. We also had sambal to go with all of this - sambal is a staple Indonesian condiment that is made from fresh shallots, red chillies (sweet and spicy), kaffir lime, lemongrass, ginger. Sambal recipes vary by island in this country and we were happy to sample any and all sambals that came across our plates. We would always get dessert too which usually consisted of fresh papaya, banana, or mango.

I'm thrilled that I was able to get this shot of the reef and the intact and healthy mangrove system surrounding Bunaken. 

Color. Need I say more?

Diving can get expensive but snorkeling is free! Lucky for us, one of the best snorkeling spots we found was right off of the beach we were staying at! Here I am with the corals.... very happy.

Soft and hard corals off Siladen.

This little dude was trying out his paddling skills in a very inventive boat.

I'm pretty sure we go to Indonesia half for the diving and half for the food. Here is yet another incredible dinner on the beach.

Tofu cakes (the tofu was smooshed up with green onions, chillies, and other tasty stuff and fried), omelette with green onions, chili cucumbers, pumpkin curry, rice, and a Bintang.

Manadotua is a dormant volcano that provided our main view from the beach at Siladen.

We did one night dive right on the wall off Siladen. It was probably the coolest night dive that either of us have ever been on. I mean, just LOOK at this shrimp. This is the bad ass shrimp of the shrimp world. Those are some seriously sexy fuzzy legs.

We also saw this young slipper lobster on the night dive, which was a real treat for me! If you don't know, night dives are cool for both of us because crustaceans come out to play (for Julie) and coral polyps come out to feed (for Jay).

Jay took this shot snorkeling off Siladen!

Jay and I had an epic snorkeling adventure when we suddenly ended up snorkeling completely around the island of Siladen (map found here). Actually, it sounds like Jay planned on doing that all along and I got roped into it because I didn't want to leave my man alone (despite the fact I was a bit chilly). It was quite the swim with decent-sized waves and a fair distance between the reef wall and the island itself. And did I mention the current? But look at what we saw! Bumpheaded parrotfish! These are popular on the plate for humans, so seeing them where they belong is always a treat.

Jay, Julie, and our host, Sarah. She was a really great person!  She had all these ideas about how to improve education, health, and the environment and she acted upon them! We left in awe of all the projects and amazing things that she was doing for the island and people of Siladen.

Here is a view of Manado and a volcano as we approached the city on the water taxi from Siladen. After spending the morning in the city, we took off for Tangkoko National Park to spend some time in the rainforest. Perhaps that will be my next blog?? Although I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the stuff to do before the holidays!