Indonesia - Mount Lokon

Today we hiked another volcano. This one was called Lokon. It was a long walk from the vans to the rim of the crater, but it was all in a dry stream bed / lava flow so it was not very strenuous. This crater was huge and had a lot of sulfur smelling steam coming out. You could hear the bubbling and belching of the vents several hundred feet below. All. Around you could find cracked rocks. They had been launched into the air as molten balls of lava and then hit the ground and partially split, kind of like cookie dough that is too dry.

After the volcano we visited another market. Again we saw cooked dogs for sale. This time I also saw a cage with a bunch of dogs in it. There must have been 10-15 dogs in a tiny cage. All of them looked sick and half dead. We were given toys again to interact with the people. I gave the little rubbery squeeze ball to a little girl, but she was too scared to take it.

Tomorrow we leave at 4 am to fly to Bali.

Indonesia - Mount Mahawu

We drove through lush farming areas, up winding mountain roads, close to the top of Mount Mahawu. The flora around this mostly dormant volcano was the object of our study today. We hiked completely around the rim of the crater. The pool at the bottom sometimes bubbles and spews steamy gasses. Today it was calm and we only saw one small wisp of steam.

After the volcano we stopped to see some prefabricated houses. They are all hand made one piece at a time. Then we went to see tunnels that the Japanese had dug here to hide in and fight out of during the war. We saw freaking huge spiders, crickets, bats, and birds inside the caves.

On the way back to Klabat we stopped to see some ancient graves. The youngest of these graves were from the early 1800's when they stopped using this method of burial because of cholera spreading by it. The older graves were from 800 BC.

Indonesia - Sabbath at Klabat

Being dressed up and going to church here without air conditioning is very uncomfortable. Wooden straight backed pews make it worse. Then paying attention to a service in a foreign language makes it really hard to concentrate. After church we had our own Sabbath school. In the afternoon we went and met some of the students that are still left on campus. They are the poor students who have to work to pay for school. They work one year, then do school and work for a year. They do this until they graduate, usually 8 years for a 4 year program. They take English classes but they don't speak English very well so we were supposed to help them practice by talking to them about stuff in English. They live in a pole barn with a concrete floor. Their rooms have no walls. They make "walls" with cupboards and plywood and boxes. Every thing they have is usually made by them. They seem very happy, and really liked taking pictures with us.

Indonesia - Diving and Snorkeling in Bunaken

We traveled from the Klabat University to the ocean side in the city of Manado via a regular city transit kind of bus. The one hour ride was really hot. The heat was accentuated by the fact that our seats were not bolted down. The already roller coaster like driving sent us rocking back and forth the whole trip. Once at the marina we loaded ourselves on a big wooden dive boat. All the boats were made out of wood, painted simple contrasting colors, and had sweeping curves reminiscent of Asian roof tops or dragon puppets. On the ride to the island of Bunaken we saw flying fish. Those things are amazing. They pop up out of the water and spread their wings and whip their tail to gain speed. Then they glide along the contours of the water for incredible distances. We couldn't believe our eyes as we arrived at our site for the week. The resort called Panorama sat right on the waters edge. Bungalows squated on the hillside seemingly stacked on top of each other. Ivan, Seth, Daniel and I were in one of the lower ones with an incredible view out over the bay. All the guys had rooms overlooking the beach. The girls were in a long house type bungalow that had no view.

We settled into the housing and then then rented our gear and went snorkeling. We went to a less alive portion of the reef so the noobs wouldn't mess anything up. I followed Dr. Snyder and he pointed out tons of stuff. He knows these reefs really well from his time as a student missionary and then as a full blown missionary years later.

The next three days were water logged. I spent so much time under water that I had an almost constant headache. I had a cold so I was worried about diving. I dove deep quite a bit while snorkeling and was able to equalize pressure but my sinuses sure had gunk in them. Our first dive went well. I had no problems. It was my first wall dive and it was a very different kind of diving than I had done before. It is easy to lose track of depth, and currents can be ferocious and change instantly in all directions. We were diving with aluminum 80s, starting with 200 bar. We spent most of our bottom time between 15 and 20 meters deep. We didn't use tables or anything, we just followed our dive guide who had a computer. Eight of us were SCUBA certified and four were quite inexperienced. Two guides dove with the inexperienced group and one dove with the group I was in. Our first dive was short. We splashed to the surface after 45 minutes. After a couple dives we began to get our breathing back under control and stay down longer.

The first day we dove twice in the morning and once in the afternoon. The second day we did the two morning dives and spent the afternoon on the surface because our group was doing a night dive. The night dive was incredible. It felt like a seal team mission as the four of us guys walked down the beach at dusk and out into the water to the boat. The sea was choppy and we bounced around in the inky grey darkness pulling wet suits on and checking our gear. At first glance the reef seemed sound asleep. Then our eyes and minds adjusted and we saw a totally different commerce than we saw during the day. Shrimp were out in abundance. You could find them just like spiders in the lawn on a summer evening with a flashlight at eye level. The hard corals were out. Nudibranchs had gained the courage to show themselves. The whole reef was patrolled by red soldier fish. It was surreal to hover in the plankton laden blackness like astronauts. By now we had become a good team. Our guide and the four of us were breathing at similar rates and although we bumped into each other a bit we had a sort of unspoken comradery as we swam in formation. Okay, it was totally unspoken, but it is amazing how much communication can be had under water. We reached our goal of 60 minutes. I never want to forget what it was like to bob up and down in the rough ocean at night as we waited for the boat and chatted about the dive.

Our last day of diving had the best dives. We started by plunging to over 100 feet and playing with knob head and napoleon wrasse as big as ourselves. Even though we hit such a deep depth and stayed at 20-25 meters afterwards, most of us stayed down a full hour. Every dive we were better divers. It was fun to look up and see the other group occasionally above us about 10 meters. They had similar dive times but were not able to go as deep as we were. We saw big game fish and barracuda. Someone spotted a shark. Turtles were seen several times every single dive. The second dive our last day was great. Everyone went to the surface before I did. I ended 10 minutes later with air to spare. Not complaining about a 80 minute dive. I've learned a lot about how to dive over these last few days. I started as the heaviest breather. The other guys could have gone just as long, but they spent a lot of air filming with their go pro's.  The smallest things make a huge difference in your oxygen needs.

Dive number nine was our last dive. There is always something new to see and experience. Parts of the dive were quite comfortable and parts were difficult. We had some hard currents to manage. At one point we were being ripped off the wall and out to sea. Another time we were being pushed to the surface. Wall diving has its own unique set of challenges. On another dive the current was pushing us down. Sometimes we get caught between two currents. They are too strong to swim against so we bounce back and forth in between.

Friday morning dawned on a very sleepy group of travelers. Just because say was dawning didn't mean we had to get up. It is light here around 5:30. At our normal breakfast time of 7 we had a normal breakfast of spicy fried rice, fried eggs, banana crepes, and jungle fruit. We all drank in the last of our paradise view before getting back on the boat for Manado, and Klabat University.

I'll miss the "No shirt, no shoes, no wifi... No problems."

Indonesia - hiking Mount Klabat

Jungle paradises are hot and sticky. Our 4000 foot high trek up an ancient volcano was no exception. At the top guys were videoing themselves wringing sweat out of their shirts. It was a hard, steep hike. The heat and humidity really weighed heavy especially on the out of shape and ill prepared folks. We spent a lot of time catching bugs and counting epiphytes in trees. On the way down we spent time learning about the crops in the farming area at the base of the mountain. A lot of stuff is intercropped, or grown together. There were Coconuts, Taro, Tapioca, Coffee, Cinnamon, Banana, Corn, wild Cucumber and several others. I can hardly wait to get out on the Island tomorrow and go snorkeling. We will spend three days there and I should be able to dive twice a day. I hope to snorkel whenever I'm not diving.