Yay! We have Internet!

Boy, do I have a LOT to catch you, my loyal readers, up on!  After leaving the dive boat, Nai'a, in Fiji, we spent 3 weeks in the Solomon Islands.  The first two were on one of the myriad small islands around Marovo Lagoon, at a very small "resort" with only 2 guestrooms with a shared toilet and shower rooms.  Because of the skin bends, I opted to snorkel only for the first week (man, was that hard to watch Steve head off into the deep and come back with great stories and videos of what he saw).  There are some beautiful fish and corals there - and just a few feet from the surface.

OK, so I started the above note on June 15 in Papua New Guinea (PNG), uploaded the picture, and my computer died for good.  It's now June 25 and we're in Sydney for 4 days.  The first day was spent shopping for a Kindle, new computer and extension plug (this started sparking and smoking on our last night in PNG), as well as getting my hair cut.  So now, I can try and catch all y'all up on our adventure.   Back to the Solomons:

The view out the front of the resort

I continued to snorkel for the first week of our stay, seeing some gorgeous fish and corals, and accompanied by my buddy, the longfin spadefish, when right off the dock in front:

I started diving again in our second week there, limiting it to 2 dives a day to "only" 40 feet.  Steve would go deeper with our hostess, and see more sharks than I did, but I saw plenty that was neat and beautiful.

The red fish in the center is a Flame Angelfish; is rare; and was found on only one dive site.

This little guy is a blenny, and is only about 2 inches long.  He darts between holes in the coral, and standing on his pectoral fins to watch for stuff in the water to jump out and grab.

An anemone folded up on itself (that "bag" is super soft and squishy)

There was a relatively tame Hornbill named Lucy, who would fly in most days, looking for bits of food to steal.

That's all for the Solomon Islands diving.  Next post will continue our adventures in the Solomons.