RAJA AMPAT

When 28 oct to 7 of Nov 2018

Why I wanted to dive as much as I could

Did you know…

• Raja ampat is an archipelago comprising over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals surrounding the four main islands?
• Has a 75% of all Hard Coral Species that exist in the world (537 hard coral species)

The name of Raja Ampat comes from local mythology means "the Four Kings" that occupy four of Raja Ampat biggest islands : Misool, Salawati, Batanta, and Waigeo, and there you can find the Richest Coral reef ecosystems in the world.

Raja Ampat is in the westen part of Papua island, my initial idea was to stay in west papua for 3 weeks but is quite expensive specially for a Solo traveler, at the end I spend 3 days in a Homestay in Wasai ant the rest  7 days on the Jaya liveaborad. 

Flight Hamburg- Dubai, 3,5h hours layover, flight Dubai-Jakarta, 7h layover in a cabin hotel at the airport, flight Jakarta-Sorong, transfer to the hafen, 2h ferry to wasai and once there, some paperwork to pay the entrance fee (500.000 Rp Nov Oct 2018), and finally arrive to the Home stay, in total around 40h of traveling.

Raja ampat is far, far away, but I won't mind to do it again, the place is amanzing

I choose the Warimpumren homestay, close to Wasai´s hafen just because In a couple of days I was going to jump in a liveaboard from there. I spend my days on the home stay recovering from jet-lag (7h of difference), enjoy the fantastic food that was served in the homestay, doing snorkel in the house riff, reading in the hammock, and enjoying the sunsets.

I did one dive just to refresh before the liveaboard, I went to Cape Kri a dive spot that I repeat later on during the liveaboard. Just with a dive I could have an idea of the beauty of raja ampat, not only under the water….

One afternoon I visit Saporkren village, which is in walking distance from the home stay. It went we a couple people who were also staying at my homestay and it was really funny.

The village it self is not more than street, completely full of children, I neever seen that many! We found a stall where they were selling some vegetables that we didn’t know, luckly for my, I went to the village with a Dutch girl that was able to speak a little bit of indonesian. the Veggi was the Areca nut which is the thing that they chew all the time, that makes their tooth red and then spit it to the floor. The first time I sow it was back in 2014 in  Myanmar, there I thought that the people was spitting blod. We try it, the locals had a lot of fun with us, it is bitter really bitter, but you have to try it.  We walk around a little bit and get to the peer, every 2 steps the people was talking to us.

The next day the liveboard starts :)

I book 7d/6night in Jaya (Scuba republic) basically because the prices were reasonable.

During these days we took a journey through the Dampier strait which separates the islands of Waigeo and Batanta and is part of the Indonesian Through flow, channelling a gigantic volume of water from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean and back. These currents carry with them millions of eggs and larvae that supply the region with both genetic diversity and food. 

The first day was just a wellcome day to know the fellow travellers and also the crew, and explain a little bit how the next days were planned. We did a dive als a refresh. Basically the hole week was eat sleep dive repeat.

Each day we have an early light breakfast around 6:30 before the first dive around 7, back to the boat, proper breakfast 9, a little bit of relaxation and then jump in the water again (10:30), lunch  at 12:30, 3 dive at 14:30 and the depending of the day, we had snacks or a visit or another dive(night dive).

Food was amazing, and on board you could buy beers or soft driks which was perfect to end the day. At first I thought that it was gonna be hard to do 3/4 dives each day, but not really!! The Crew had everything really well organized, we were split into 4 groups each with 4 people and most of the time we were diving alone. 

There were some many spices to see, Wobbengon shark, yellow block fish, nudribranches, clown triggerfish( most colerful fish I ever seen), unfortunately for me I could not see a manta (2 oder groups sown one :( ) but still was an amazing experience.

During the week we made 3 visits

A small village with around residents and homestay, and several divecenter. We arrive late in the afternoon and walked around the island for an hour or so, some children wanted to com to play with us. That day we had one of the best sunsets I have ever seen , and later wie dove in the Alborek jetty.

When I was researching about Raja Ampat, I found a photo of Wayag and I was really impressed. I even look  how to get there but it's kind of tricky. Luckily for me there is a small version of it closer and is called Paiynemo. We went up to the view point, and enjoyed the view.

On our last be spend the afternoon in Mioskon, is an uninhabited island, well there is some habitants, bats, a lot of them but nothing else. Nice afternoon and another beautiful sunset

The last morning before where arrived to the Wasai port the crew unfold the sails

I don’t have that many Photos from the underwater because I didn’t take the go pro with me in most of the dives luckily  two of my travel buddies did some amazing videos.