Day 7: Lembeh Strait

We headed to the Lembeh Strait on the most overcast day there. We actually saw a few raindrops that day. The most efficient (and inexpensive) way to arrive at the Strait was to drive to one part of the Strait and then take a boat through the strait. Dell was with us again and we had learned a little more about him. He loved American Rock. He had a tape of Bon Jovi in the car and he decided to play it. It was a tape of acoustic versions of all their biggest hits. We had listened to the tape three times! Twice on the way to the Strait and once on the way back (we were saved from listening to it twice on the way back thank God). I knew every lyric to each song on the tape by the third round. Dell would sing about two verses and then hum the rest of each song. At least it made the trip interesting...

We arrived at Lembeh and boarded a boat whose captain was wearing a Michigan State Basketball T-Shirt. Small world, huh? The dives were definitely different than diving at Bunaken. There was no walls of coral and we saw some new species, the pygmy seahorse, which usually range from ½ to 2/3 of an inch. We also saw several frog fish. The water throughout the Strait was very rough on the surface, but it was smooth below.

We arrived back where we left off, but our driver was not there. The dock smelled of dead fish, which was tolerable for about 3 minutes. Unfortunately, our driver did not return for 45 minutes! We were the only Caucasians and I have never felt so many people staring at me in my life. I didn’t really feel scared, just out of place. The driver finally arrived and we headed back. We were stopped at a police checkpoint, where the officers were using there power to take the small amount of income from their fellow Indonesians to help appreciate their small wealth. They were checking to see if our driver had every single safety piece in the car (which included a fire extinguisher and first aid kit among other things).

I'm back to falling asleep at 9...