Labuan Bajo is the most famous city among Flores. The vast majority of the tourism that go to this island spend all the days at this city or the surroundings. Due to this, the city is the most crowded and expensive. There are plenty of hotels and western restaurants but most of them are high-priced.
We decided Dragon Dive Komodo as our homestay and we would dive with them as well. The owner is Manu, a nice French gay, and our instructor was a Catalan girl. The hostel was very nice, with so many wall drawings that made us fall in love and chose them.
The staff was very nice to us since the beginning. We had a problem with dates of the reservation and the owner helped us without hesitating. Moreover the first night I had a stomach illness and I was vomiting over and over again, the Indonesian workers took care of me, made some home-made remedies, and prepared like a bed in a sofa close to the toilets. I am very grateful to all of them because they made our stay very comfortable.
DIVING IN THE NORTH OF KOMODO NATIONAL PARK
As we had only one day for diving we went for the north of the Komodo National Park. The diving points are far from the coastline, so usually, the diving centres offers you a day trip of 3 dives. The trip to get there is almost an hour and at some point with big waves of the open sea. Even though the boat was very nice I use to get dizzy in this situations so I always bring dizzy tablets and I had to take one!
Crystal rock
Crystal rock was our first stop. Some other divers and Manu had already told us that diving at Komodo was incredible. However, when we got into the water it exceeded our expectations. It was full of different big fishes from all shapes and colours you can imagine, the coral covered all the reef. It was amazing!
At the pictures we can see: ternate chromis damselfish, yellowmask surgeonfish, threespot dascyllus, yellowfin surgeonfish, longfin bannerfish, diagonal-banded sweetlips, golden spadefish, pyramid butterflyfish, brown-marbled grouper, six-banded angelfish, blackfin barracuda, palette surgeonfish.
When we got on the boat again, Manu told us that this dive was not one of their bests. Apparently there was any current so the big fishes were not there. Considering it was one of our best we couldn't wait for the next dive!
Castel rock
The second dive was not disappointing either. It was even better than the other. We found three sharks, or they found us! That stayed with us most of the dive. They passed in front of us over and over again, like they were doing a show just for us. They even followed us when it was time to leave as if they were saying: We were having fun! Don't leave us!
At the pictures we can see: latticed butterflyfish, bluefin trevally, longfin bannerfish, ternate chromis damselfish, whitetip reef shark, grey reef shark, longnose butterflyfish, giant trevally, emperor angelfish.
Shot Gun or the Cauldron
There was a problem with the portable compressor of the boat so we couldn't do the third dive. Some people told us that at this dive you stay hold on to a hook because of the current watching the animals pass by. When the dive is about to finish you have to let it go and flow until the surface.
Anyway, it was one of the best dives we have had and for sure we will come back someday to do the last one and see more dive spots.
If you want to continue reading about the trip click to Manggarai Barat regency or Boat trip Komodo. To know a little bit more about Flores and the accommodations we stayed at click at Flores the exotic island.
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