A narrow dirt road led us to the beach with a shack that served snacks and lunch. Oddly, we noticed only women, with just a towel wrapped around the crown of their heads, then two aluminum tanks one on top of the other shuffling scuba equipment up and down, in and out of the beach with the grace of a ballerina and the strength of a horse. In Bali, most women are the workhorses of the manual labor force, from making and carrying offerings, to lugging sacks of rice or fruit on top of their heads. They even help at construction of a new site by lifting sacks of sand and stacks of bricks on their heads to and from the job site.

After a short walk steps from the water, we put on our equipment and carefully walked into the water. It was 9:30am and the waves were high enough to topple me over before I can even get my fins on. I swallowed quite a bit and the waves continued to pull me front and back as I clumsily put my fins on. With that done I inflated my BCD, swam backwards to meet my group and descended. The bottom was sandy black sand and already there were resident fish making their way to us, maybe for a treat. Just another couple of meters I can make out the outline of the front of the ship and as we swam closer, the ship was covered in soft and hard corals surrounded by fish in all colors and sizes swimming all around us.

All dive photos courtesy of Norbert. Thanks Norbert!