Coconuts Crab

The day before we went holiday, people found this amazing coconuts crab walking on the steps going up to the villa, so they show us.
size like Man's head and it looks like quite old one?!

we think if people on the island when they catch this, normally they will eat it, but it's protected species by law in Indonesia thus we said to staff to release him/her.  

It might stick around in this area, if you found one, try not to poke or step on it, cause they got such a strong scissors to break hard coconuts! 

Bunaken Tarsius voice at this morning sunrise time.

Welcome to Cha Cha Wine club?!

Cheers!

at dawn from Cha Cha

Good morning!

Have a nice day.

Afternoon Tea at Cha Cha

Simple but tasty rice coconut cake with palm sugar - "Betawi Pulo" is one of "afternoon tea snack" in Cha Cha.
Not only with tea but also good matching with my favorite afternoon coffee "Lungo".

Tropical Plant "Pseuderanthemum reticulatum"

When u walking around in the tropical bush around Cha Cha, it's only small but you can find this kind of quite amazing flower sometimes.  I googled and found out it's one of pseudo jasmines - Pseuderanthemum reticulatum.

The flower shape almost look like orchid flower.

Spectacular scene but NO RAIN on Bunaken Island

Good weather until three days ago.

Bunaken Cha Cha - Ocean View Villa

Special Thanks to 

Photographer

Michael  Spencer

http://spencer-creative.com

Superior Room

 

Special Thanks to 

Photographer

Michael  Spencer

http://spencer-creative.com

Out side look of our "Superior Cottage"

Cha Cha's Superior room are surrounded by quite few flowers and plants.

Zero Current Dive in T.kopi

We were very lucky the other day, cause we did dive into the site call Tanjung Kopi with incredibly "Zero Current".  (It's known as the site with serious current sometimes)

Yellow fin barracuda

Chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus)

Jackfish

Spanish mackerel

Red-Lined Flabellina

Dive at Tanjung Parigi site. water temp 28℃.　

Red-Lined Flabellina size less than 1cm

White Sandy bottom dive in Sulawesi main island.

we saw lot's of egg of squid yesterday. 

water temp was 26-28 ℃.

young cuttlefish

Dactylopus dactylopus. "Fingered dragonet"

Don't be so angry....  

He was not happy when I found him hiding in sand..... 

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.