Diving with turtles, Tech dives, Back on dry land

For our final day on the liveaboard, we did some "tech dives". Tech dives? What have I gotten myself into? 

Sunrise, as usual in Indonesia, kicked off our day. Then, our dive briefing about Castle Rock, one of two tech dives for the day. Basically, there is an underwater rock which has created an incredible dive site surrounded by strong current. Timing is important on this one - everyone jumps at the same time and descends quickly. If you don't descend quickly, the current will take you out into the Big Blue. This was nerve wracking because I tend to equalize slowly, but miraculously, I was able to descend fast enough and not end up washed up in another country. Also, once on the bottom, we were told that we would need to hold onto a reef hook as long as possible to watch the sharks and fish otherwise the current would take us. The current was not as strong as the dive masters said, so we managed without the reef hooks. Once again, the underwater world was mindboggling beautiful.

Dan checking out the colors of sunrise 

Such a tiny kitchen on the liveaboard which is used to cook enough food to feed everyone 

Castle Rock briefing - the 1st tech dive of the day 

Shark 

Some of the dive sites had many divers, so for our final dive, we changed plans to Tatawa Besar in order to avoid the masses. I loved this dive! My favorite part was being able to swim around with lots of sea turtles - sometimes they even changed the direction they were going to swim with us. They seemed indifferent to us hanging out with them while they snacked on soft coral. It was an eye-popping experience.

Tatawa Besar briefing

Sea turtle

Lion fish

Lobster

Puffer fish

Milkie helping to get our last meal ready. This guy was an awesome member of the crew.

Milkie showing us some of the things we saw on a night dive

Milkie sharing with us his love of all things "micro" that you usually see better at night.

Lando was one of the dive masters who dove with our group. This guy is Zen-like underwater.

The entire Tatawa crew

Lando and I stayed very close on some of the dives about which I was nervous 

Heading back into Labuan Bajo 

Inside the Dive Komodo shop after our trip

Everyone shared what they wanted to do once they were back on dry land like showering and getting out of a wet bathing suit. For me, it was ice cream. It hit the spot! Next, it was finding our hotel "Danke Lodge", grabbing some dinner and hitting the hay for a good night's rest. After having been on the boat for several days, our bodies felt like they were still rocking in the waves - so bizarre. Despite having an unparalleled experience on the liveaboard dive boat, it was sweet to be back on dry land.

Creemees being made

Happy campers with their creemees 

Our hotel for the night - it was a few km outside of the city, so it was much quieter

We love the Indonesian fruit juices - they are made with just fruit and made fresh