Capturing the Moment

  Today was the last day of our six day scuba liveaboard in the Komodo Islands. The crew of the Amalia and the boat itself took very good care of us. Usually on the last day of the liveaboard you just chug towards harbor to unload, but I was pleasantly surprised that we were going to have two more dive before lunch and then head back to Labuan Bajo to disembark. Cristina and Nelwan asked us what we would like to see and if we had a preference of dive sites and we all agreed...more mantas! Rhinopias! First Dive Site: Mauan This turned into a really fun sandy muck dive with nudibranchs, mantis shrimps and a very rare rhinopias scorpionfish. These scorpionfish take camouflage to a whole new level, with wild filaments adorning their entire body. They are considered to be the 'holy grail' of fish for aquarium specialist as well as underwater photographers. Nelwan had gotten word that there was one in the area so we were quite pleased when we were able to find it. Pe...

 I can't believe that Day 5 of our 6 day liveaboard trip has already come. We have covered some distance and seen a lot already. Today the Amalia headed back North a bit to central Komodo for a bit of muck/macro diving with some beautiful underwater reefscapes thrown in.  We were still on a nudibranch kick from south Rinca so we kept the good nudi vibes going with some fun new finds. Our first dive was a site called Pil'arsteen. We checked out the beautiful 3 sisters dive site next where hunting blue fin trevallys scoured the reef. But it was our third site of the day that really blew us away. Under the waves lapping up against a small island was a muck divers dream. We found robust pipefish, ribbon eels, nudibranchs, relative of mandarinfish, and the ultimate find, thanks to Heidi's keen eyes, the cute, yet deadly blue-ringed octopus. This was a dive site called Wainilu, and would be another to add to your 'must dive' list while in Komodo.  The diversi...

Ghost Pipefish  Day four of our liveaboard found us in beautiful south Rinca. We were the only boat in sight and during breakfast we could see a large school of mobular rays breaching out of the water. The visibility of the water here in the south was a bit worse than up in North Komodo, but better than the forecast we were receiving from the days leading up to today. But it wasn't going to affect our primary goals for being down here which were macro critters, adventure, and dragons...and we got all three. Orange Cup Coral on the Yellow Wall    We had a four dive day including a night dive. Our dive sights included Cannibal Rock, Jimmy's Rock, Yellow Wall, and a night day at Torpedo Bay. We found a ton of wild and crazy nudibranchs that Heidi is hard at work identifying. Beautiful shrimp and crabs abounded, but what really shocked me was the color and coverage of soft coral. Yellow Wall definitely lived up to it's name but every site was packed with live c...

Geared up and ready to go   Dive 1: Batu Balong     This is one of the premier dives in Komodo. If you only have a couple days in the park then this site should make the list. It is an exposed rock pinnacle that tumbles down into the depths. The walls are covered with soft coral of greens and pinks and fish of every color swim nearby. Big pelagic fish come in for closer looks here all the time. We had some dogtooth tuna, a massive napolean wrasse, a white tip reef shark, and lots of big jacks swimming along the wall here. Then angelfish and anthias swarm closer to the reef making the whole wall look alive. Juvenile Angelfish  We had seen several adult angelfish on our dives here and Bali, but this was the first place of the trip where we found juvenile angelfish. Besides looking nothing like the adults, these juveniles may just be the wildest and most beautiful of any fish on the reef. Their irridescent blues and psychodelic patterns put them in a class...