Bunaken Cha Cha Nature Resort - Big bird visited again!

these few years "Big bird" visiting our house, sometimes having look at window glasses which show the reflection of him/her self. today again I saw the "Big bird" doing same and walking around in front of our house for a short while. again amazing nature life in Bunaken Island.

New Year Diving started!

The first dive in 2020!!

A rainbow appeared again at very low position of the cloudy sky.
just like we saw exactly same type on new years day few years ago.
It's must be a lucky sign for new year!!!

we found a very rare nudyblanc (Plakobranchus ocellatus van Hasselt, 1824) on Lekuan sandy slope

Hippocampus pontohi -pigmy seahorse (black one in the middle)

pineapple sea cucumber (Thelenota ananas)

"Electric clam" in the small hole on the wall.

it's got sunny, so Lekuan reef became colourful as usual, no current, it was wonderful dive.
water temp. was 26, 27℃. it was quite cold compare to usual.

Huge ◯◯◯◯◯？？

Guest family brought this one from LIKUPANG - North Sulawesi.

ummm ??   Coconuts???

No..

it's a type of Mango

Never seen this before on Bunaken Island. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020!!

BUNAKEN CHA CHA NATURE RESORT

A visitor on Christmas morning.

First in the morning, Raf called me saying

“Reiko, somebody at the entrance!!  Who is that??”

went out and had look..

wow…?!

A Little Snowman????

he was standing at the entrance door mat.

Raf:  “I told you so yesterday, I have present for you, and you never seen it before on Bunaken.
it’s not exist on this island”

oh..  ya, he was telling me that he has some rare present which I never had before.

this cute snowman with yellow hat and scarf, is

hand made  by Raf.

It’s was so sweet❤️ morning on Christmas day.

Season Greetings from Bunaken Cha Cha Nature Resort

Dear all,

We wish your Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Raf and Reiko 

from Bunaken Cha Cha Nature Resort

Dolphin passing in front of Bunaken Cha Cha

Pyrosoma atlanticum

Also at night dive, we saw this creature from deep; 

Pyrosoma_atlanticum

This one was small size like hand, look like soft sponge and pinkish color.
I've seen this before several times, one of them was 5 to 7 meters long and the color was SHOCKING PINK, so everybody thought it was big plastic rubbish or ... Whale Condom or something.

it's always fascinated to see deep sea creature coming up... !

Sleeping filefish, Night Dive@Bunaken

There are some filefish we can see day time, but sleeping one at night is bit rare to see like this.
maybe for them difficult to find a hole they can fit in when they go to sleep, if they sleep diagonally like this always..  😁

Dolphin passing in front of Cha Cha this morning.

Cha Cha contacted me that quite many dolphins passing in front fo Cha Cha.
so I went out from house upstairs wait 1 minute, surely I saw dolphins, one was jumping at flat surface.
it's bit far but very nice scene on Sunday morning.

Video from Toni & Minna our guests Lembeh Strait & Bunaken Diving

Toni & Minna made amazing video about Lembeh Strait & diving in Bunaken.



There are lot's of "funny look" sea creatures.  fantastic!







Thanks Toni & Minna!!

departure morning

Hot day starting! May2019

on the sand bank island(?) 3min walk from Cha Cha.

Wow! 

It's a great idea to take picture like this on the sand bank- just 3 minutes walk from Cha Cha. 

Thanks Vivi and Alex😍

Big size dolphin we met the other day.

Feb2019
middle of rainy season.

we met very relaxed dolphins in channel between Bunaken Island to Sulawesi main land.
They were quite big size compare to the dolphin usually we see around here.

Beautiful creatures... they make us very happy us usual and  bring such a peaceful feeling!

awesome!!!

Dover Strait Swimmer TERUKO with "Uminchu Club" student came.

Ms.TERUKO ONUKI -  Dover Strait Swimmer

she held the record in Japan for swimming across the channel from Dover to France. 
(as the first Japanese)

She came with her followers, Students of "Uminchu Club" again (Ms.Teruko is the representative of this club).

The weather was not good though swimmers enjoyed swimming & freediving around Bunaken and Siladen island.

They all amazed by coral beauty of Bunaken still keeping the good conditions.💖

Really good morning!!

This morning, sun came out finally!

so much rain until yesterday.

This year's rainy season is really heavy.
it's like the unforgettable hard rainy season we had when we moved to Bunaken 20 years ago.
maybe weather is also coming back with some kind of cycle??

Manado, Sulawesi main land was flooded the other day, though Bunaken was OK even with hard rain, we went diving as usual.

some part of Manado town

dangerous level of water easily over 2m!

picture by people in Manado and Tondano.

Hopefully better weather to start new year.

These few days west side of Bunaken had huge wave.
we saw so many boats on this side escaped from big wave at Lian beach side.
we heard even Manado harbour was closed for a while due to this conditions.

but since this morning, weather getting better, so as the condition of the sea.
at this moment in the late afternoon it's still small rolling wave. hopefully we can have good weather through this holiday season.

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

Have a great Christmas and New Year 2019!
Take the time to celebrate your desires, values and affections with your loved ones. Wishing you all the best.


we will have 20 years anniversary of Bunaken Cha Cha next year.
Thank you all for warm support!!

big hug from Bunaken Island - Raf & Reiko💖