Tanjung Kopi Point - almost zero current

Tanjung Kopi - Manado Tua Island.
It's supposed to be often strong current in this point, but the other day was almost zero current. GT and Jack fish were making group but very quickly separated and disappeared into the blue because of the "no current" situation we think..
It was quite relaxing diving, our guide pointed us beautiful flat warm and bat fish and more.  The sun glittered on the coral reef and made it looks more colorful than usual.

Dugong Watch Every-Week???

Today's first site the divers and snorkelers went was Cha Cha 2 Point.

Our snorkeling guide found "DUGONG" and showed to our snorkeler guest.
"Even the guide Mitsu was so excited as well as me.  Huge single dugong swam away elegantly right in front of us" guest said.   Wonderful!
I was just explaining about Dugong to the other family guests the day before. Who saw Dugong today was not them but now they will believe me. hihihi...

Other guest also saw a "Dugong" as well last week after he followed Raf's advice. He was very happy, and of course, that make us happy,too.

Maybe same dugong wondering around and maybe this is the season to them to look for a partner??
Either way, what a exciting news every-week!!
Fantastic!

Nocino Gone.....

Just two days later of last blog we put about our new family "Nocino", he disappeared without trace.

Did he go "jalan jalan" (go for a walk) somewhere and lost?  

It's very difficult for us to believe he went alone somewhere far without his mother or Hana chan who is his sister. They were always together.  At same night Hana chan lost her collar which never found on the beach or in the garden.  Somebody took him away and also try to take Hana chan, too??
Hana chan, luckily she is fine, only missing is her cute pink dot design collar.

I hope Nocino did not end up in the market in Manado (It's a Minahasa people has tradition to eat dog, catc, bat, rat,etc as you can see in the market).

We offered a quite big reward if somebody find him, but nobody could find him or heard any news  about him in their each villages since he disappeared more than a month ago.

so sad... we could not write any blog after for a while.... 

Nocino had a unusual big paw. Even local people knew if dog got huge paw will become quite big dog, it means he will be very popular for certain people who wants to showing off that dog to others.  Maybe he looked too special for "Bunaken Island dog"...??  

Nocino we miss you, and hoping you are fine and surviving somewhere safe.

"NOCINO" - Welcome!! to Cha Cha Family.

Finally we decided his name.

Seven or eight years ago we had lovely dog call "Cappuccino", he was brought by our staff from village together with Kuma (Chiro's mother) chan.
We named this puppy by memory of our "Cappuccino"chan and from our one of favorite Italian drink call "Nocino".

Nocino - Nocino is a sticky dark brown liqueur from the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is made from unripe green walnuts. 

This bottle is our favorite "Nocino"from Modena, North Italy.

Amazing Butterfly exist on this island.

we don't know the name of this beautiful butterfly, it was found dead at night unfortunately. pity...

but it's amazed us this kind of beauty still exist on Bunaken without going into the deep jungle.

Let us introduce our "HANA" chan, the new family in Bunaken Cha Cha Nature Resort.

News 2.

Welcome our new family -

 "HANA" (means flower in Japanese) chan

she is one of puppies of Chin chan. (Chiro's daughter)

we kept boy and girl puppies. but we are still thinking about boy's name, so please wait for it.

Bunaken Dugong appeared near Cha Cha 2 Point.

Big News!!!

News 1.

2nd of September (two days ago), our guest saw

 BUNAKEN DUGONG

near Cha Cha 2 point while he was snorkeling between the dive.

The guest said that Dugong was bigger than him.

Congratulation!!

Dugong, this picture was taken by R.Downey 2004.

U/W beauty from T.Weller Family.

Lot's of beautiful pictures and memory.

☆☆☆Thanks to T.Weller Family ☆☆☆

Orangutan Crab

Coral Banded Shrimp

International Airports "On-Time Performance" World Top 10

From Press Release of
 "FLIGHT STATS"



The FlightStats July 2013 On-time Performance Report Summary:

 Major International Airports

(HND) Tokyo’s Haneda held its top spot among the world’s busiest airports with an on-time performance of 91.28%. In June, three Asian Airports, three North American airports, three European airports, and one Australian Airport were in the top ten. The average on-time departure performance among the top 35 international airports was 69.66% up slightly from July’s rate of 69.26% and cancellations for the group were 1.82% down from May’s rate of 1. 99%. Stormy weather in North America and overall consistently weak performance by Chinese airports kept the overall airport performance average low.

The top ten performers among international airports were:

1 Tokyo (HND)         91.28%
2 Munich (MUC)      86.12%
3 Tokyo (NRT)         84.90%
4 Seattle (SEA)        83.63%
5 Amsterdam (AMS) 82.67%
6 Minneapolis (MSP) 81.84%
7 Singapore (SIN)   81.75%
8 Frankfurt (FRA)    81.74%
9 Phoenix (PHX)     80.99%
10 Sydney (SYD)    80.11%

Meeting with "Napoleon wrasse" in front of CHA CHA.

Meet Napoleon wrasse while diving / snorkeling in front of Cha Cha.

Young "Varnus salvator sp."??

We found monitor lizard in a hole, we think these are called "Varanus salvator sp."
They are still young ones and it's look like they were born there thus we are still wondering whether to save them or leave them there if there are enough food and comfortable for them in that hole... ummm...

They can swim and eat small fish or some marine life on the beach. We saw once it took big risk and came  out so far to hung around the reef when it's very low tide at lunch time. That one was almost 2 meter long (body1m, tail 1m long) monitor lizard.

Photo by Reiko Downey
Bunaken Cha Cha Nature Resort

Unicorn Fish (テングハギ)

Cha Cha becomes Techy...??

"Cha Cha becomes Techy……just slightly"

Now guests bar bill is automated so no more trying to decipher what is written on your bar bill,
thanks to iPad and great new software.

Favorinus sp.???? found on Bunaken wall.

A type of Favorinus sp. No. ??? I think....

Body size was only 5mm.

↓ It is bit similar like this one??

http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall/favosp5

Hermit Crab

Hermit crab - was in 5m deep reef at Cha Cha 2 Point.  Shell size was around 12cm.

Fish Fish Fish! of drop off at Bunaken Island.

A typical view of Bunaken drop off.

Enjoy Private beach on Bunaken Island

Bunaken ----- The Relax Island.

Congratulations! Lotta and Martin Wedding Day - 29th May.

Lotta and Martin Wedding was on 29th May. 

 ♥Congratulations!!♥

Cha Cha from the sea.

Beautiful sky!

Great dane "Chiko"

Our great dane "Chiko" putting her bottom on my foot while we were talking to guests.

New Toy for Raf "Anti Stress Green Man"

This was gift from our Japanese guests Aya and Ritsuko to Raf.

"Anti Stress Green Man"  

Made of slimy gell body, so you can squash them, throw them at to the wall, fold them, or you can put a particular name before you do all that...  Fantastico~~~!!!

The World New Discovery?? Blinking Nudibranch on Bunaken Island night dive.

World New discovery??

At night dive around Bunaken, I was filming a short movie to see what's the result of the combination of my new torch and digital camera.

while I was filming this non active nudibranch, I realized this one start blinking it's body color. I was so surprised.  I knew few nudibranch are able to make right inside body and people can see if it's in the dark.  But this one was blinking and changing body color reacting to the torch right.
Amazing!!!  maybe this is "The World New Discovery"??
It's also easier to see this process through the camera screen, because when I tried to see without screen, it was difficult to see the blinking, but through the digital screen, you can see like this.
Enjoy the short video!  ↓


Video by Reiko Downey (Bunaken Cha Cha Nature Resort)

Night dive beauty - Amazing creatures at night on Bunaken Wall.

Night dive at Tanjung Parigi beach, Bunaken Island.

Basket seastar

Huge Nudibranch 

Actinia equina on the wall of Bunaken Island

Sunset behind Manado Tua Island.

Just before night dive, we could see sunset.

Late afternoon weather on Bunaken

quite often rain and thunder at late afternoon nowadays.... 

Plaga Wine Tasting Party at Cocoon, Bali.

Meet a fresh and modern local wine from Indowines.
Enjoyed "Plaga Wine Party" at COCOON in Bali,  20April.

Blue-ringed octopus（ヒョウモンダコ） in house reef at Bunaken Cha Cha.

Night Dive in front of our resort. When they are calm, you do not see their blue ring straight way, so I thought I found a new looking nudibranch or something, then get closer to them, they start show these beautiful blue rings all over the body and legs.

Blue Ring Octopus　（ヒョウモンダコ）

The blue-ringed octopuses (genus Hapalochlaena) are three (or perhaps four) octopus species that live intide pools and coral reefs in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, from Japan to Australia (mainly around southern New South Wales and South Australia). They are recognized as some of the world's most venomous marine animals. Despite their small size and relatively docile nature, they can prove a danger to humans. They can be recognized by their characteristic blue and black rings and yellowish skin. When the octopus is agitated, the brown patches darken dramatically, and iridescent blue rings or clumps of rings appear and pulsate within the maculae. Typically 50-60 blue rings cover the dorsal and lateral surfaces of the mantle. They hunt small crabs, hermit crabs, and shrimp, and may bite attackers, including humans, if provoked.   (From Wikipedia) 

ヒョウモンダコ（豹紋蛸）は、マダコ亜目 マダコ科 ヒョウモンダコ属に属する4種類のタコの総称。日本ではその中の一種Hapalochlaena fasciata を指す場合が多い。小型だが唾液に猛毒のテトロドトキシンを含むことで知られ、危険なタコとされる。 ウィキペディア

"Joshikai" with our repeater guests, good friends.

Ritsu

Aya

Three of us got together and went Lembeh Diving Tour from Cha Cha to "Black sand divers(Friendly owner Bruce & Fun)" again this year.  We had great fun! 

Let's have *"JOSHIKAI" (girls night out) more often!!

* Joshikai (女子会) is a word of the minute (a vogue woad) in Japan at moment and a big boom, the meaning is "girls night out".

 Some say Magazine models in Japan made this boom, others say it's greatly influenced by TV drama "Sex and the city".

Diving at Tawara Point, Bunaken Island

Tawara Point on Bunaken Island.
 Water temp. - 29℃.   Visibility - about 20m.

Ghost pipefish

Shallow reef of Bunaken Island

Diver's bubble stuck inside hole of Bunaken coral wall

Meeting with Dugong!! at Bunaken Cha Cha point.

Our guests met Dugong on Bunaken Island

at 2nd dive, Cha Cha 2 point, 1st of April (It's real, not april fool joke, hahaha)


I was just talking to the guests two days ago about the dugong when/where they can normally see this wonderful creature. Could not have been better  timing, but actually who saw the dugong today, was the other guests on our 2nd boat.  What can I say....?  It is not easy to make everybody happy...  umm....

All guests except one, who had video camera, saw the dugong eating sea grass on the shallow reef at Cha Cha2 point.  so no picture of the today's dugong again.

This one I took at same Cha Cha 2 point while I was snorkeling on 2006.

***Dugong***
"The dugong (Dugong dugon) is a large marine mammal which, together with the manatees, is one of four living species of the order Sirenia. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas), was hunted to extinction in the 18th century. It is also the only sirenian in its range, which spans the waters of at least 37 countries throughout the Indo-Pacific, though the majority of dugongs live in the northern waters of Australia between Shark Bay and Moreton Bay. The dugong is the only strictly marine herbivorous mammal, as all species of manatee use fresh water to some degree."      ----  from Wikipedia

More books arrived from Ms.Saori living in Houston, USA.

Library Update.

More books arrived from Ms.Saori living in Houston USA.

Since she's been to Cha Cha with her mother, she started to support our

"Children's library project" which is one of our Mata Biru projects on Bunaken Island.

This is the 3rd box that arrived from her. 

After she went back to Houston, she started to use her beautiful underwater photograph to make some Calendars, talking around to her friends and acquaintances, colleagues, sold the calendars and put some money together to buy Children's books to send for this project.  Saori san herself choose books carefully and send it over to us from U.S.   Truly amazing work and effort. 

Thanks Saori san!!!

At the moment the library is temporally closed due to the very bad weather we had since Xmas but as the Dry Season has arrived it will be opening very soon again.

While the library closed we had bad news, somebody broke into the Library took some Manga (comics). This gave our staff and us a big disappointment especially after we receive Saori san's support from Houston, however we should not give up yet, and  as long as our resort exist, we will support this Mata Biru project collaboration with Book Bound. 

Her Underwater Photograph Calendar 2013

Amazing Fish book!

Nice teeth?!

This fish called "Lizardfish".
Take a look at these teeth!
I have seen this fish having smaller fish in his/hers mouth, will chew it slowly...?? If I am fish size, just want to avoid from being eaten... umm.