Best Xmas Ever!

Woke up to a dream that we had a display of slugs at the Shedd Aquarium and I accidentally put one into the wrong tank and he started eating all of the other ones.  What a nightmare!

I did a little Facetime with The Franch and once it got light out here I called them back and gave them a virtual tour of the resort.  In my new nudi hood of course!

Pedro and Judith (from the resort) actually came on the morning dives with us.  I have never seen Pedro go diving before so I had to take a picture.  

He has a custom wetsuit with a holder on his leg for the pointer stick.  I have got to check these Sea Gods out.

I couldn’t finish all of my lunch so I put some in the fridge for between the afternoon and night dives.

I have to say out of this whole trip today’s afternoon dive was the first time I considered not going. My stomach was having a little bit of an issue and I actually felt tired.  

But I went anyway!!!

Some Indonesian dancers came to perform before the night dive.  Interesting (for about five minutes):

At dinner, they gave us a Christmas card and a little gift of a nudi keychain.  Mine matches my hood!

They also served roast pig (whole)!  And then brought out a watermelon carved with Xmas trees in it… with lots of fruit all around.

Lots of nudis today:

42 - Trapania toddi

43 - Phyllodesmium opalescens

44 - Goniodoris sp. 10

45 - Favorinus mirabilis

46 - Okenia liklik

47 - Phyllidia ocellata

48 - Phyllodesmium macphersonae

49 - Trapania tora

50 - Trapania vitta

51 - Mexichromis trilineata

52 - Discodoris boholiensis

53 - Eubranchus sp. 6

54 - Hypselodoris confetti

55 - Thorunna halourga

56 - Tenellia sp. 74

57 - Goniobranchus hintuanensis

58 - “Taringa” halgerda

59 - Thuridilla carlsoni

60 - Hypselodoris maculosa

61 - Samla bicolor

62 - Dermatobranchus funiculus

63 - Hypselodoris infucata

64 - Plocamopherus tilesii

65 - Colpodaspis sp. 2

66 - Nembrotha sp. 1

67 - Thorunna daniellae

68 - Hypselodoris tryoni

69 - Eubranchus sp. 26

70 - Eubranchus sp. 25

71 - Cratena sp. 2

72 - Philinopsis ctenophoraphaga

73 - Jorunna funebris

74 - Phyllodesmium sp. 7

75 - Doto sp. C

76 - Tenellia sp. 14.

77 - Rostanga sp. 4

78 - Ceratosoma tenue

79 - Godiva rachelae

80 - Tenellia sp. 75

81 - Baeolidia moebii 

82 - Notobryon wardi

83 - Carminodoris estrelyado

84 - Bornella stellifer

Silted Out

Yay!  They have three-in-one coffee packs and a kettle in the room to heat water.  I can get up early and have my coffee.

It is rainy season in Tulamben.  So far it has been cloudy and overcast.

The guests are basically two groups.  A Swiss guy and his Japanese family (three kids!).  And then Pedro’s friends.  Since they all speak German, they are talking to each other and nobody speaking English at my table.  Nina said that she feels bad for me.  But I am just fine with that.  I have a good book and can’t wait to get to the nudis!

For Christmas, I bought myself a nudi hood!  

The first two dives were awesome and I’m happy to be back her.

OMG.  The first half of the afternoon dive was fine and then we got totally silted out!  It totally became a night dive and there were big clumps of mud floating through the water. We tried to power on and see if it would go away but it didn't.  We finally gave up at like 45 mintues.  I have never seen it like this at Tulamben!  Then after the boat returned, there were a couple of HUGE waves that crashed and knocked me down.  I lost my fins and the boys were able to retrieve them.  Whoa.  We are all wondering what is going on.  Tsunami? Earthquake?

Funny thing is that right before that I was comparing diving and muck diving to life… 

You get so excited about diving (life).  Then you realize that some dive sites (events) are mucky (not pleasant), so you follow a guide (mentor) and keep showing up for dives (daily activities) and eventually you start seeing the nudis (beauty) in it all!  It takes experience, patience and neutral buoyancy to enjoy this… and today, we had to determine when we need to just give up!

It turns out that there may have been a tsunami in Java.  That could explain this.

I did find a Costasiella usagi with a weird rhinophore, see #18 below.

I forgot how good the food is here.  Especially the desserts.  I had fried banana and vanilla ice cream for lunch and then homemade coffee ice cream for dinner.  It was delicious!

Here are the slugs I saw today:

1 - Facelind sp. 5

2 - Samla bilas

3 - Unknown (aeolid with white body with distinct orange lines, orange rhinophores and oral tentacles and cerata purple with white tips)

4 - Doto greenamyeri

5 - Thecacera sp. 5

6 - Aegires villosus

7 - Hypselodoris zephyra

8 - Unknown (aeolid with white body, lavender rhinophores and oral tentacles, cerata light yellow with orange dots at the base)

9 - Eubranchus mandapamensis

10 - Mexichromis multituberculata

11 - Unknown (aeolid with white body and pinkish purple rhinophores, oral tentacles and cerata)

12 - Phyllidiella pustulosa

13 - Unknown (body is clear with white sparkly dots, yellow rhinophores and oral tentacles, cerata yellow with white lines running through them)

14 - Carminodoris flammea

15 - Tenellia sp. 28

16 - Unknown (Yellow body with yellow/purple/white rhinophores and cerata, purple oral tentacles)

17 - Unknown (aeolid white whispy one with lavendar oral tentacles, lavender apices on the cerata and a lavender line down its back)

18 - Costasiella usagi

19 - Costasiella kuroshimae

20 - Elysia sp. 37

21 - Dermatobranchus sp. 8

22 - Elysia marginata

23 - Goniobranchus verrieri

24 - Pleurobranchaea brockii

25 - Tenellia sp. 15

26 - Bulbaeolidia alba

27 - Aegires sp. 7

28 - Cerberilla asamusiensis

29 - Stiliger ornatus

30 - Unknown (maybe too bad of a shot to ID, possibly a Caliphylia?)

31 - Thecacera sp. 8

32 - Tenellia sp. 29

33 - Moridilla brockii

34 - Dendrodoris nigra

35 - Unknown (maybe a Miamira of some sort - notice the bright blue spots)

36 - Cyerce elegans

37 - Pleurobranchus forskalii

38 - Unknown (aeolid all lavendar and just one of the oral tentacles has dark purple stripes)

39 - Carminodoris bifurcata

40 - Pleurobranchus albiguttatus

41 - Hypselodoris whitei