Pulau Bunaken and the Coral Triangle

Coral Triangle, what is? Google that and you will learn about one of the world’s hottest of all biodiversity hotspots. It’s the Amazon Rainforest of the ocean. Coral reefs make up only 1% of ocean area, but account for over 25% of all marine life. The Coral Triangle, containing 76% of all known coral species in the world, is ground zero. The list of record-setting factoids is endless, and includes such accolades as: 

·         the highest diversity of reef fishes in the world

·         the greatest extent of mangrove forests in the world

·         home to 6 of the 7 marine turtle species in the world

You get the point. It’s another “lungs of the planet” situation.

OK, so what does this have to do with us? Well, the Coral Triangle is Indonesia’s backyard. It’s a somewhat triangular shaped blob starting in the Philippines, extending down through Borneo, over and across eastern Indonesia, and then through Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands (see map). 

For obvious reasons, the Coral Triangle is a diving and snorkeling mecca, containing some of the best dive and snorkel sites on the planet. It’s been on our “to-do” list since we’ve been in Indo, and it was next on the list. Last weekend was the infamous Asian holiday weekend known as CNY – Chinese New Year (see previous post for the story on that one), giving us a 4-day mini-holiday, and the perfect opportunity for a snorkeling trip to the Coral Triangle. Ya baby!

Now, saying you’re going to the Coral Triangle is like saying you’re going to Europe. It’s a big place with an infinite number of destination possibilities. Doing the math, and all things considered, we set our sights on the pseudo-famous, yet very chill, Pulau Bunaken – AKA Bunaken Island (i.e., pulau = island in Indonesian).  The beauty of Bunaken is that it’s smack dab in the middle of the Coral Triangle, is rated as one of the world’s top dive sites, and, the clincher is that there are direct non-stop flights from Jakarta to the nearby city of Manado, right at the northern tip of Sulawesi – one of Indonesia’s “big” islands.

Get this: Bunaken is at 1.4^o latitude – basically on the equator. Daily average temps are pretty much the same, hovering around 25 to 26^o C, every day. Like most of Indonesia, it’s just always warm, 24/7/365.

So that was the drill: taxi to Jakarta airport, 3-hr flight from Jakarta to Manado, taxi ride to the nearest wharf, 45-min boat ride to Bunaken Island – et voila, we are in the middle of the Coral Triangle. Nice. Although, truth be told, it was a long haul made worse by a flight delay, then a traffic jam in Manado, followed by us missing our boat connection and having to arrange a second boat at another location. Definitely the part of traveling you need to block out of your mind. We’re over it J

Arriving in the dark, and in the rain, we were just grateful to be there. Being a domestic flight, we pulled out a bottle of shiraz we had stuffed into our check-in bag and listened to the sounds of a hot and sticky tropical evening. Life isn’t so bad after all.

Day 1 was first spent exploring the island – all 8 km² of it. It’s small at about 1 km wide by 8 km long, but big enough to have a village (not surprisingly called Bunaken), and a “road” made out of interlocking patio stones. No cars though! – only the odd motorbike that the locals use to shuffle themselves around with. We wanted the island tour, so we gave a guy 8 bucks to use his motorbike for the afternoon. You haven’t really been to Indonesia until you have ridden around a small tropical island on a rented 100-cc Honda motorbike. No helmet, no license, no insurance….no problem! J

Despite the fun of riding a motorbike around a tropical island, the real event for us was seeing one of the best diving and snorkeling sites in the world, with our faces in the water. We specifically stayed at a place with access to the reefs and good snorkeling out the front door. High tide was required to get past the reef that rings the island, and get out into the open ocean – that’s the zone, the outside of the reef where it hits the dark blue of the open ocean.

That’s what makes Bunaken what it is: big, deep, endless walls of coral plunging into the depths of the ocean.  Combine that with an equatorial climate (the “always warm” thing), and a rat’s nest of ocean currents swirling around nutrients and keeping things fresh, you get an underwater tropical forest. 

It’s those massive underwater cliffs crawling with coral that make snorkeling here so surreal. It must be as close to feeling space travel as you can get without actually going into space. There you are, floating on the surface, maybe 2 or 3 m of water between you and the reef, effortlessly drifting in the current, the silence and the enormity of the ocean surrounds you, then wham! – you slowly glide over the edge of the reef and out into the endless expanse of space. It’s an intense feeling – like watching those drone videos of the Grand Canyon on You tube.

The highlight of the mission was Day 2, when we high-jacked a dive boat and came along for the ride. 10 bucks each for a 2-dive mission (we snorkeled obviously). Now that’s a deal! Getting out on a boat was definitely the ticket. The obvious reason for that is that being on a boat with locals means you can go to the primo sites – which is what we did! And the boys delivered! Never have we seen so many fish, of so many colours and stripes, all simply dancing around you like it’s their job to entertain the humans. Oh, and the sea turtles! We lost count. It’s literally like being dropped into a giant aquarium.

After, back on the boat, going back to base, wind in our hair….we both agreed: that was the best snorkeling of our lives. Overall, thumbs up on Bunaken.