And now for something a little different. This fellow peering down at me as I took pictures from under his canoe is a local fisherman in the Alor area of Indonesia. These guys hand make bamboo fish traps, and place them on the reef. Then they paddle their side rigger dug out canoes to the traps, and use their hand made goggles to look down and keep an eye on them. They also free dive to spear fish.
The hardest part about getting a shot like this is holding your breath for long enough that you don’t get your exhaled bubbles in the shot.
One of these days, I really should do a write up for this trip. The diving was wonderful – an excellent combination of muck and gorgeous reefs. Topside was interesting as well – some very pretty sunsets, lovely mountain islands dotted with rural villages, and behemoth blue whales, spotted several times!
About Judy G Diver
Born and raised on the west coast of Canada, I have always felt a strong connection to the sea. But for many years, I stayed on the surface, afraid of what lurked down deep. When I was in my early 30's, with three young children (aka the P's), my husband (aka Mr G) signed us up for a SCUBA certification course, as a surprise. Although I had my fears, my stubbornness prevailed, and somehow I made it through four murky, frigid, cold water dives in Vancouver to successfully pass the course. Soon after we went diving off the west coast of Mexico, in the Sea of Cortez, where my eyes were opened to the beauty and other-worldliness of the life down under.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
I currently have well over 2000 dives under the belt, and I have been fortunate to travel and dive in Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Fiji, Palau, Philippines, Galapagos, Costa Rica, Hawaii, California, Egypt, Mexico, several islands in the Caribbean, and here in British Columbia.
In addition to this blog and my personal website (Awoosh.com/Directory), which is linked at the top of the blog, my stuff has been published in a variety of magazines and websites, including a regular monthly feature for Scubadiving Magazine for several years. All links to this work can be found in this blog.
