Diving Wakatobi
"What a good idea - if only I had thought a trip to paradise, stay in a cozy bed, travel by boat, snorkelling and diving every day as there's no tomorrow, and look for interactions with people; not too much, but certainly more significant. "
Such was the plan.
So. Just a few weeks in early October, I went on holiday with a group of friends and their children (we were aged 5 to 48 years) to Wakatobi. Wakatobi is an acronym of the four main islands Tukang Besi - WA ngi-Wangi, KA ledupa TO mia, and BI nongko. It is an archipelago located in one of the bio-diverse hot spots most sailors on earth. In 1996, the Indonesian government designated as Wakatobi Wakatobi Marine Conservation Area. In 02, Wakatobi National Park was created to cover an area of 1.39 million hectares, since 05, UNESCO has been listing the park as an attempt of the World Heritage site. Rumor has it that Jacques Cousteau was quite satisfied to claim this area as perhaps the best dive site in the world. There is some truth in it; the world has about 850 species of coral, some 750 of them are in Wakatobi. Compare this to 50 species in the Caribbean islands and 300 species of the Red Sea.
Getting to Wakatobi was quite difficult. With the remote location in the lower corner of Southeast Sulawesi province in central Indonesia and on the high seas during wet seasons for many years limited infrastructure in Wakatobi had allowed visitors to enjoy this paradise in abundance of peace and solitude, away from the tourists who wander. Things are changing slowly since the Wakatobi government opened a regional airport in 09. Currently, the Wakatobi Airport on Wangi Wangi-island is served by Daily Express Air flights from the city of Makassar in South Sulawesi, which is a hub for several domestic airlines and also serves a few direct international flights. If traveling in a group, go for a check-in group, as Air Express has a limited baggage allowance of 10 kg per person. So ... what about scuba gear? Excess baggage is charged between Rp.25,000-40,000 / kg extra. (Ouch!)
For most scenic roads and no hurry, there are boats and ferries cities of Kendari, Bau-Bau and some other small ports around. These options "leisure" take anything from 4 hours to 2.5 days before arriving at one of the seaports of Wakatobi passengers!
Unlike previous trips to Wakatobi where I had to stay in modest hostels for lack of better options on Wangi Island -Wangi, this time I got to the recently opened Patuno Beach Resort. What we lived there as a group exceeded our expectations, from the time of their friendly staff picked us up at the airport until the last day of our stay. Our daily buffets consisted of local dishes full of fresh seafood, or variety of western offerings. The Resort has standard rooms, deluxe rooms and executive suites. Our group was booked in the three types of rooms, and we were pleased with our personal choices. If their room rate (between 1.5 million to Rp.500,000 / night) are a little steep for the budget, hostels and "losmens' in 'center' Wanci - the capital of Wakatobi Regency - between rooms offer Rp.100,000 250,000 / night. precautionary words: you get what you pay for
Our holiday began and ended playing on the beach or in the sea !. There were 18 of us on this trip. Daily using two boats, we venture to an island or another, looking good diving spots and slowly enjoy the rides. Some days we did two dives, others three. We discovered that there was not really good diving spots, but there were only better and the best spots! We continued to find great walls covered with hard and soft corals, home to many fish, graceful sea turtles and smaller radii, various eels, nudibranchs varieties, several kinds of pygmy seahorses, snakes and shiny sea to excite all of us! The biggest fans of the sea were in abundance, so were sponges and crinoids. Personally, I felt like diving into a "fish stew", as they are not your everyday fish more schools. Frogfish, barracudas, snappers, lionfish, sweetlips, boxfish, ghost pipefish, angelfish, leaf scorpion fish, several kinds of anemone fish, jacks, cuttlefish, crocodilefish, batfish ... and as far as I was concerned, the list does has not stopped there. Furthermore, the types of gazillion other small and miniature floating things that were hard to miss and easy to find.
For younger children and non-diving adults also enjoyed snorkeling in the crystal clear blue water, and diversity of coral and fish, even in low depth. Again, with the help Patuno Beach Resort's friendly staff, we were also able to enjoy various lunches and snacks on isolated white sand beaches, mild and windy wind, under the coconut trees. Fine dining in the tropical paradise and we never had to repeat all settings!
The beautiful surprise we had one morning on the way to find a place of different diving was spotting hundreds of wild dolphins. Bottlenose course, and some appeared to be melonhead dolphins! What feasts for the eyes!
Realizing the importance Wakatobi National Park is not only in Indonesia but also the world, our group has also decided to connect with some of the college students and the local school. One morning we went out to clean a beach waste and garbage, and another afternoon, we worked together to collect garbage in a historic cave bathhouse. These collaborations have also enabled local students to practice speaking English with teens in our group. While another edge of a village gypsy sea, our multi-national children had the chance to learn local children on how to maneuver their traditional canoes. Priceless!
Beyond the blue sky and sea, Wakatobi also offers rich crops such as local dances, woven by hand, and traditional markets full of colors. And I'll be back.
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