Juvenile Cockatoo Waspfish

This one was floating around on the sandy sea bottom pretending like a small piece of leaf.
It's bit short of 2cm, should grow around 15cm long.

one of my favorite tiny creature.

Tuscan Olive Tree on Bunaken Island

Not only the dragon fruit tree, but our "Tuscan Olive Tree" growing taller than my hight.

3 years later. (2 years on Bunaken)

1 year old tree.

Vivai Pietro Pacini  in Pistoia

White Dragon Fruit Cactus

Dragon Fruit Flowers only bloom at night and only last for one day. I was waited for it and saw them very ready yesterday.

then... last night all flowers came into bloom!
They are large and beautiful and also has sweet but nice tropical aroma.

Although such a beautiful flower, it's withered before 9:30am.

pity but maybe get ready to next step (having fruit)...?! 

Cross fingers!

Thromidia catalai - Biggest Starfish around Bunaken, Siladen Island

Starfish  - Thromidia catalai

These are extremely massive sea stars. 

This one lost one arm, but size was about 60cm, it was 24m deep on the wall.

Have a nice "Good Friday" night.

Dogtooth Tuna and Pontohi pygmy seahorse in same time.

Todays dive
Water temp:27℃
Visibility:15m - 20m
No current most of the 2 dives.

Diamond ring picture from Japanese guest.

Mr.Ida sent us his wonderful total solar eclipse picture he took at Tarnate in Indonesia before his group coming to Cha Cha.

The one below they call a "Diamond ring".

Special Thanks to Mr.Ida.

Diving around Bunaken - picture by Bob

Our repeater guest Bob sent us again some beautiful pictures he took around Bunaken Island and also at Siladen Island.

This nudybranch called "Cinderella nudybranch" in Japan.

English name is "Purple sea slug".

Scientific name name is "Hypselodoris apolegma".

If you look closely the big one(the one in the right), it's got a kind of parasite, can u see?

This morning is "SOLAR ECLIPE" day!!

Good morning.

Here on Bunaken Island, we will watch this from 7:34am this eclipse.

for the detail, pls have a look this link.

http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/indonesia/manado

Happy New Year 2016!!

It's so winderful full of star nights here on Bunaken.

And also amazing big red moon came up, too!!

Last night Christmas Moon.

It was bit cloudy last night on Christmas day, but full moon misterious night sky.

Merry X'mas!! from Bunaken Cha Cha

Have a good Sunday!

Manado tua island from Bunaken Lekuan point. 

WHALE SHARK!!!

Yesterday at 2nd dive.

Diver Guests saw a
young whale shark at 9m shallow water!!!

One of our guest is a new diver, and this is her second dive and it's "the first day as a diver".
What a lucky diver!
This is why they say about "Beginner's Luck"...??!!!
also bit early in the season, usually around Jan to Feb we heard diver saw them around Bunaken, Manato Tua area also at Cha Cha 2 point (almost our house reef corner), I saw one in August though. But it's looks like they really constantly coming through around Bunaken area.

We normally explain to our guests, Bunaken is famous for marine biodiversity more than big fish but they are here.
Every year, we see Dugongs, Mola Mola (Sun fish) as well.

Special thanks to Ms.T - our repeater guest from Jakarta, she introduced to these guests to come to Cha Cha. We have very happy guests here.













photo by free photo site( photo AC).

Low tide at lunch time.

Small but amazing! Bornellidae, Notodoris serenae Gosliner & Behrens, 1997

It's only few centimater creature but nudibranch has a qiute variety of the color and shapes.

Type of Bornellidae 

This nudy look like Chirstmas tree....?!

Baby Notodoris serenae (Gosliner & Behrens, 1997)

This one growing bigger like more than 10cm long but top color will change to white.

Survigin without rain...

Luckly our Italian olive plant still growing on our balcony without rain for almost 5 month, we do give them water, of course, but we were very worryed if they can survive with this conditon.

Rocket(Italian Rucola/roquette) flower　↓

Big moon night @ Bunaken Island.

Suppose to be super moon but could not get a good forcus, cause not only not used tipod but also our cat "Balls" pushing his body against my leg quite aggressively starving for cuddle... umm.
but it's very clear and nice big moon tonight.

Have a good night!

Quick "Milk stand" or filling station...?!

Before

After

Pink Eye Goby can be beautiful but tough for presbyopic...?!

Pink-eye-Goby.
Tiny tiny creature who got pink color eyes and transparent body with golden yellow color organ, the size is only 1.5cm body even biggest one in this group.

No wonder many photographer divers especially in Japan are crazy about this fish.
umm... they are so beautiful!
Got to have a good macro lense or a BIG magnifying glass or a pair of good reading glasses?? to see this one though.

Warter temp. back to normal around Bunaken Island.

Luckly for us, but maybe not for coral?, water temp. came back to average level around Bunaken which is like 28-29℃.
This is the famous "Bunaken Drop off" from above.

Boxer Crab

Wow...
Tiny "Cheer-leader" in the sea.

Boxer crab

At moment not good visibility but full of plancton in the sea.

Lot's and lots of planctons in the water, so not good vis, but still very interesting diving everyday!!!

Mantis Shrimp

Yong Mantis Shrimp.

The Crescent-tail Bigeye Fish

They say "tail of this fish look like "crescent moon shape"?... yes... it is, and they can change body color, too.
This guy was size of 25cm long.

Double-lined mackerel

In the chilly, full of plancton water, I met few "Double-Lined Mackerel" around 50cm long, slim body fish.

Snorkeling in the cool water temp.(25-27℃) at Bunaken

Still quite chilly water continue around Bunaken area. maybe this is the El Nino influence...??
Usually average water temperature is 28-29℃ in this area.
and still good weather, no rain.  umm...

After tiny flowers..

I noticed tiny not colorful, some small flowers bloomed on our "Mango tree" the other day. 

Almost week later, baby mango started to coming out!! 

Haze season...?!

The season came that farmers, plantation owners and miners to set fire in the forest to clear land in Manado main land during dry season. 

What the driest beautiful weather will bring to us near future?

CNN.co.jp  news said "There is a possibility of the strongest "El Nino" in the history we might have in this year".
Beautiful weather is good for the business, but little bit scarely news for near future...?!

Cold Water in Summer High Season

Water temp still bit cold (around 27 degrees), sometimes we meet 24 degrees water while diving. lot of plancton thus fish looks so happy and so many.

Sunrise from Cha Cha

Our guests enjoy watching everyday different and beautiful sunrise from Cha Cha.
    and sunset reflection (pink sky) and "Milkyway" starly nights. 

Puppy

One of Hana's boy puppy. 

Wire Coral Crab

We had quite strong south wind for few days thus many boats went to dive and snorkeling at east side of Bunaken Island.
to avoid crowed dive site, we decided to go to "Raimond point" (one of my favorite dive/snoekeling site) and found this very colorful orange crab call "Wire Coral Crab" or sometimes "Spider Crab" mimic a whip coral.

water temp. was 26 degree, it's 2 degree colder than usual Bunaken water temp.  umm... COLD!!!