Sunday, July 1, 2012

{Our getaway to Nagannu Island}

Shane gave me a getaway for my birthday this year.  We headed out the last day of June on Saturday morning bright and early. We dropped the kids off with friends of ours at 7:30 am.  We went and loaded on our bus that took us from the air base down to Tomari Port. This picture below is us on the bus. :)

Here we are are Tomari Port getting ready to get onto our boat that will take us to the uninhabited island of Nagannu. The island is about 1 1/2 miles long and about 1/2 mile wide.

 Here is our boat that took us to our destination. It was about a 20 minute ride. There were fairly LARGE swells out in the middle of the ocean. It was a fun ride. :) Some girls next to us put their arms up in the air as if they were on a roller coaster ride. haha!
 This Japanese guy was our tour guide. Yes, he spoke English. :)
 Here we are pulling up to our island. See those huts? We stayed in the second to last one on the right. It was awesome being right on the beach hearing the waves crash.
 Our little hut. Sorry, these pictures are so dark. Our darn waterproof camera is weird. We haven't figured it out yet.
 We did some snorkeling first thing when we arrived. We found this starfish. This isn't the usual STARFISH you are used to seeing. This is a different kind of starfish. It is like a pillow. It's really cool. I think it was mating season because there was a certain fish that kept charging me whenever i got near its home. It was so funny. He was as big as my hand, but when he started charging me it totally freaked me out! haha! I was just waiting for teeth to show or for him to ram into me. bahaha! There were a lot of this certain kind of fish and when i got near their hole in the coral, which is obviously their home, they got soooo protective. They kept chasing off other fish too. I am thinking they had eggs to protect.
 Eating our yakisoba in the outdoor restaurant gathering area.

 Enjoying our ice cream cones! :)
 Walk like an egyptian....
 Here we are combing the beach for shells. I am not kidding when i say that this place is AWESOME for finding shells. We found HUGE shells, all in one piece. I found about 300 BUTTONS!!! Buttons are basically a really cool looking "button" that clams use to protect themselves in their shells. I should post a picture. They are becoming popular because you can use them to make pretty jewelry. Well, i hit it BIG with finding TONS on this island! We found a few with every step we took. We found the largest clam shells you have ever seen. One that we decided to take home with still stuck together on its bottom end, but it was opened up at the top. It weighs about 20 lbs. It's huge. This is the place to go to for shells, not joking.
 Eating again.... :)  Not sure what i am doing here. hahaha!

 Feeling ready to take on the sharks after eating his japanese bbq dinner...
 We woke up bright and early. 5:30 maybe. We looks sleepy. This is sunrise. It was a beautiful sunrise. We combed the other side of the beach for shells that morning. The beach was formed by coral. This beach is loaded with coral everywhere. Some spots are just piles and piles of coral. Amongst that mess of coral you will find WONDERFUL finds. :) Shane found me a glass fishing ball! woohoo! It's not one of the LARGE ones, but still i am so excited about it.
 Mango juice ....soooo good. Mango juice and ice cream is a big thing here and i LOVE it. :)
 This is what they served us for breakfast. Interesting. French fries, soup, grilled sandwich , and coleslaw that tasted like sesame seed. hhmmmm....
 Taking a picture with MY camera just before leaving. See all the rocks? There were lots of rock formations. AND when we walked down at the tip of the island early in the morning, we came upon a spot where shane spotted about 5 reef sharks. I followed him, climbed through the water to get to another rock formation that was sticking out of the water and we watched these sharks chasing after food. They are soooooo fast. We couldnt' capture a good picture of them because they were going so fast. One of them jumped completely out of the water. It was sooooo cool seeing that in REAL life.
 Sunrise ...

 See those islands? Those are the Kerama Islands. It's a chain of about 22 islands and only 4 of those are inhabited. Shane and I are going their the day after 4th of July with a group of friends to do some snorkeling. I cannnot WAIT!  It's one of the most beautiful spots in the world as far as Clearest water and one of the best spots for scuba diving and snorkeling. Healthy coral reefs, with numerous and diverse sea life. I will post pictures after we go. It takes about a 45 minute to 1 hour boat ride to get to the spot we are going to.

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