Raja Ampat is one of the holly grails for most warm water divers. Little can be said about this remote and untouched chain of Islands off West Guinea to describe their true nature w/o the risk of plagiarism.

In a land home to over 17,500 Islands and the longest stretch of coastline the Four Kingdoms may appear on the map as just another collection of mostly uninhabited Islands. My first impressions were formed as soon as our plain slowly descended below the clouds, in our approach to Sorong, to reveal a vast horizon dotted with countless Islands and green top rock formation randomly protruding above the surface. Sorong, the gateway to Raja Ampat, is a typical Indonesian port city with its busy roads and low building mostly skirting the harbor. A short car ride from the airport leads to the docks were the capable and well organized crew of Pinditio scooped us aboard the zodiacs to the magnificent ship and by daytime we were on our way on remarkable journey through some of the worlds most prolific dive destinations.

The WEB is full of material to satisfy the needs of the curious as well as the detailed oriented travelers planning their visit to Raja Ampat. My experiences over the next 12 days are more anecdotal and sporadic, very similar to the landscape, so perhaps I should let the pictures speak and avoid long stories. What I can say with confidence is that the Water is warm and inviting, currents are ripping, just as you would expect, visibility is limited and floating particles are outnumbered only by life.

I’ll add few more entries, as time permits to showcase additional galleries for Macro and night dive encounters. For now here is a link to some wide angle images; Raja Ampat – Underwater wide angle photography