Sleeping with the fishes

To complete the 'sea leg' of our trip, we spent 3 days diving in the Tulamben area of northeast Bali. Our primary reason for heading there was to dive the wreck of the USS Liberty, a WWII supply ship that was torpedoed just after the start of the war. It lays just offshore and has been left in relative peace since a nearby volcano erupted in 1963.

We made 3 dives on the wreck and 2 dives in nearby Amed with dynamite dive instructor Mario. A former architect, Mario abandoned his native Spain for the beauty of Bali and the relative tranquility of life as a dive instructor. We were so happy that he did, as our dives with him stand out as our most unforgettable!

Since we were staying very near the Liberty, our access to the site was unparalleled. It was both humorous and sad to watch vanloads of divers trudge from the parking lot down to the rocky beach grappling with gear and trying not to knock each other down. Although the wreck was crowded during the day, we were able to swim around and through it with relative ease.

The ship itself is barely recognizable under layers of corals, sponges and crustaceans. Thousands of fish were tucked into every nook and cranny of the wreck. On our night dive we saw a dozen bumphead parrotfish that easily weighed 200 pounds. Their iridescent turquoise bodies just floated in sleep mode along the walls of the ship's former hold.

A huge school of jackfish also call the wreck home, swimming in endless circles off the stern. They looked like very tasty meals for the giant trevally stalking the edges of the school.

On our final day in Tulamben, we made 2 dives in the bay at Amed. On these boat dives we were just about the only people in the entire bay. We entered the water above a shallow shelf of grey volcanic silt which erupted with dozens of blue-spotted stingrays. With Gunung Agung hulking in the distance, it was the perfect end to our sea days on Bali.