Retro-posting!
I was in Ambon to help with a ten day Sustainable Fisheries Management Planning Training... the training was excellent, but draining, as it always is when I'm functioning morning 'til night in multiple-languages. It also meant I was in an area of Indonesia that I had never been before... and with the long Easter weekend on the horizon, I decided there was no better time to extend my ticket and explore a bit! Luckily I wasn't going to have to do that alone, either... ii came and joined me and we had a fabulous weekend!
We explored the underwater Ambon diving for two days and then explored the terrestrial portion of the island as well! We literally covered almost every square inch of the island! There are a few stories about it I wanted to share... but as they say, 'a picture is worth a thousand words'... so...
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| Hukurila |
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| Hukurila Cave |
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| Laha Piers |
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| "Dad, what's a toad face..."? |
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| Better keep that eel in your trousers!? |
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| Coy eel |
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| Posing mandarin fish |
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| Tube anemone |
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| Lionfish dead ahead |
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| shoefish |
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| Bottle sponge |
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Lightbulb eel
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| Squat lobster catching a ride on a fire urchin |
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| Stylin' underwater Ambon |
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| Dive log |
The diving at Laha was the most utterly surreal experience of diving I've ever had... I can understand why they have named this area 'the Twilight Zone'... because it is! You're diving in a black sand slope FULL of garbage under the constant drone of the active fishing vessels at the jetty, which throw all their waste directly overboard... at one point the only exposed skin on me was so itchy... it was disgusting to think of the cause... but then on the other hand, everywhere you looked there was another unique an interesting critter... The types of creatures that choose to make this place their habitat are seriously special!
Our overland exploring consisted of a two-day road trip around the entire island!
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| Best umbrellas ever! |
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| View of Seram from Fort Amsterdam |
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| 1642... still standing after all these years (with a new roof) - good ole Dutch construction! |
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| So many eels at Larike! |
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| Seaside mosque near Larike |
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| Gardaria... the Ambon specialty... size and texture of a plum, tastes like Mango! |
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| Standing on "Pintu Kota", the Gates to Ambon City |
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| Pintu Kota |
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| Downtown Ambon city |
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| A lone rooster with his pink wall |
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| Gimme five! |
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| Hug an eel today... |
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| quite content |
I really don't know exactly what it was about this place... the people, the place, music, food... Ah, Ambon, Sweet Ambon (Ambon Manise)!
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