Happy Holidays from Papua!

As many of you know, Jay and I took off from America about two weeks ago to spend our holidays in Papua and Sulawesi - we can't seem to leave Indonesia alone and each island is so different from the next! We have been in a very remote corner of the world in Papua called Raja Ampat. We went for the diverse coral reefs, diving, and a kayaking and camping trip. We just finished that and are enroute to a unique place in southern Sulawesi called Tana Toraja. I've been wanting to go there for YEARS and I'm stoked it is finally happening. Here are a few photos - we will see how uploading them goes.... but this is a start to longer blogs that will follow.

Happy holidays to all. Jay and I do wish we were with our families on Christmas Day.... I want to watch Scrooge with my parents (a Barber tradition) and Jay wants to be by the fire at his mother's house or skiing at Jackson with his father....  so we are thinking of them a lot right now. But sometimes the tropics call and you must follow. Ya know?

We did something crazy and booked a week of diving in Raja Ampat. Ths our dive resort..... unreal. Unlimited diving and snorkeling right from the pondock (this is what over-the-water bungalows are called in Papua).

 Millions of anemones and clownfish

A shellfish biologist meets the world's largest giant clam ever. Well, I don't know about ever but seriously - this thing is MASSIVE. Made my day, even over the manta rays we snorkeled with. I'm not kidding. Clams beat mantas!

 A coral biologist meets a massive coral. Large things abound in Raja Ampat.

 So many damn small fish that I don't know.

Papuans LOVE to sing as we discovered. Our dive guides dragged guitars out on the dive boats and sang on every surface interval.

 Fam Islands

Ummmm...I'm feeling a lot like David Attenborough right now. We got out of bed at 2am, took a boat in the dark with bioluminescence in our wake, hiked an hour uphill in the dark jungle, and watched the birds wake at dawn. This is a red bird of paradise!!! YES!!! We also saw a Wilson's bird of paradise, but you will have to stay tuned to see photos of that bird along with all my other awesome (I hope) bird photos. These birds are all about impressing females and this male is displaying and trying to out display the other males in the area.

We rented kayaks for a five day paddle - camping or staying in homestays in the islands. Avoiding the sun was tough and it was HOT but it was an awesome experience.

 Yup. 

 Snorkeling from our boats

Jay with the jungle hammocks we rented for camping. I started calling them torture chambers - so hot and damp and muggy and not great if you are tall. But everything else about camping was fun and it was worth it to have white sandy beaches all to ourselves.

Much more when we are back in the USA. We love all of you. Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! We will be in Bali for that... woohoooo! Best food in the world!!
Love you... J+J