My winter break was accented with many land and sea adventures and the company of a friend, Molly Maman. We spent 17 days between Sulewesi and Bali Island in Indonesia. The diving was excellent, even though the monsoons had begun at the end of our trip. The reefs in the Bunaken National Park were so alive that sometimes you could not find a dead spot in the reef to anchor yourself for a moment while on a drift dive. We spotted LOTS of very unusual creatures to include a seahorse smaller than s pinky fingernail, stony and common seahorses, ribbon eels, flying gurnards, Banggai cardinal fish, large mantis shrimp, barramundi cod, crocodile fish, the giant and the clown frogfish, scorpion leaf fish, robust ghost pipefish and many more. I felt like I was in the "Twilight Zone on one dives for all the bizarre and new creatures that I saw. In "my book" of dive places visited up to date, I would rank N. Sulawesi the third best dive area in the world. I unfortunately do not own an underwater camera at the present time and only took pictures on one of the days with a rented camera.

Our most exciting land adventure occurred on our day hike in Tangkoko Nature Reserve, North Sulawesi where we sited the 2 endemic species: the Tarsius spectrum (smallest monkey in the world) and the rare Red Horned Sulawesi Hornbill. Bali was our last stop where we shopped for all those lovely arts and crafts, enjoyed the famous Balinese Frog Dance, had daily massages and visited the Monkey Sanctuary in Ubud.