Boating to Bunaken

Above:  Boats arrive through a clearing in the mangrove.

After our errands in the city of Manado, it was time for us to go to Bunaken for a two night stay and two days of diving. We had hoped for a slightly longer stay but it wasn’t meant to be due to yesterday’s morning flight shifted to the afternoon.

It was a 45 minute ride to our dive resort “Living Colours” on the eastern side of Bunaken island.  While this is the mangrovey side of the island, it is also the side that doesn’t receive the garbage from Manado city.

I could sense Kim’s disappointment as the boat pulled in through the mangroves … through a small clearing we beached the boat on a very small beach with a small bar and equipment shacks.  From here we could see the chalets built on the hill behind.  It isn’t a resort in the sense that many people, especially non-divers, would have it.  Jaako, the Finnish owner greeted us and went through the paper work.

The walk up to chalets is steep, with monster steps of up to 42 cm in height. Jaako said they were in Finland when the steps were being built and were shocked by the outcome upon their return!

It is normal in Bunaken for dive resorts to charge more for non-divers  as they’re not bringing additional income to the operator.  It’s actually good because there isn’t nothing much to do for non-divers. There’s no real beach but there is excellent snorkelling if you walk out through the mangroves and swim out about 50m.  The mangrove is sandy rather than muddy, so it isn’t too bad.