About MINADO ECO LODGE & SOLOMON DIVE ADVENTURES

The lodge sits on private Turupu Island (2 km in circumference) across the bay from Mbili Village. In less than a minute’s walk, you can be in the sea experiencing rich and colorful marine life in less than 3 m water. The lodge features 2 lovely guest rooms, full kitchen, and a large dining relaxing area, with a lower deck for reading, napping, just watching the view. Separate toilet and shower rooms are just down the hall. Our pride and joy is our new jetty extension with its leaf roofed pavilion, where one can dine, relax, play games, visit, do computer work or just enjoy the view and watch the birds that travel back and forth and the bats that zoom in at twilight. Clear nights often find us out on its deck marveling at the moon and stars. Bookshelves provide ample reading material. As our maximum capacity is 4 guests, you are assured of lots of personal attention to your needs and wants. We are tiny, and choose to stay that way. It enables us to "give our best to our guests" and really get to know the people from all over the world who come to visit us.

Lisa Choquette
Living her dream in "retirement", Lisa owned and operated Dive Makai Charters in Kailua-Kona, with former husband and still good friend Tom Shockley. Together they built a business renowned for marine education, customer service, and the remarkable ability of their guides to find and communicate unusual animals and behaviors. Her mission is to train Solomon Islanders in the same model to own and operate their own SCUBA business.

The diving When I first started diving in Solomon’s in 1990 after 14 years of diving exclusively in Hawaii, Solomon Dive Adventures was my next venture when I was absolutely overwhelmed by the proliferation of marine life that surrounded me on virtually every dive. It brought new meaning for me to the term "sensory overload". I very quickly became addicted to the sheer drop-offs enticing me to forbidden depths, to gray reef sharks ever patrolling the edges of the reefs, the pugnacious anemone fish guarding their eggs and anemone hosts from danger; to delicate, fairy like shrimps hiding on certain corals, to schools of big-eye jacks so thick it was difficult to see water through them. Not to mention the sheer joy of being able to shed my wet suit and feel the warm water on my skin- much of the time I dove in just my bathing suit; on rainy days a shorty or a Polartec skin were more than adequate.

But I digress- let me save these descriptions for the dive sites and give you a brief run down on conditions to expect. Our corner of Marovo Lagoon offers everything from the calmest, quietest water you could wish for to more challenging current and occasionally surge dives. We are so situated that we can virtually always find protection from weather on one side of an island or the other. I am in the midst of a whole new ocean cycle learning curve, as the moon phases are considerably more evident in the presence of both currents and wildlife here than in Hawaii.

Currents - Chris Newbert once said "Coming to the Solomon’s to dive and complaining about the currents is like going to Colorado to ski and complaining because it's snowing!!". I love it. Yes, some of our best big animal/ massive schools of fish dives are subject to everything from mild to raging currents. Currents carry the food that starts the feeding at the base of the food chain, and the rest of the chain congregates in the areas where it tends to concentrate for an easy buffet. Can we put you in for a drift dive?? Sure, and we will- BUT- you will miss, or at best get a small glimpse of one of the best shows on earth. What to do! I strongly recommend that you head for your nearest fishing supply store, buy the biggest stainless steel fish hook they have and the strongest handline. Snip off the sharp tip, tie one end of about 10 ' of line very securely to the hook, and the other to a clip that goes on your BCD! PRESTO!! A reef hook. This allows you to pick a spot in the current where the show is at its peak, hook onto a rock, and ride above the reef without disturbing it and enjoy. If you're a photographer, it frees your hands to concentrate on your art. We will have a few available for rent, but I suggest that you customize one for yourself.

Surge - This is something we actually deal very little with. When the surf does come up, we can almost always find shelter on the other side of the islands from which it is coming. We sometimes deal with it while doing our safety stops on top of a point, which are invariably an entirely different ecosystem from that over the edge where we have spent the bulk of our dive. Should you choose not to deal with it, you can always move out into the blue for your safety stop.

Water temperature - After 30 years of Hawaii winter waters, I find I deal with the Solomons' huge sauna very easily. Water temps generally range from 82F (27 C) to 86 F (29 C); I generally dive in just a bathing suit, occasionally donning a polartec or a shorty after several consecutive dives or if the day is cloudy and or windy. I have, on occasion, experienced water temps in the upper 70's, and once in awhile on a deep dive dip into a colder upwelling.

Visibility - Like the Galapagos, because of the rich planktonic life that supports the wondrous variety of larger marine life, the visibility can vary quite widely with the site, terrain, currents, and upwellings. Within a single dive it is possible to go from crystal blue vis well in excess of 100 feet to 50 feet in a planktonic bloom. Bottom line, always keep in mind that what divers often refer to as "poor vis" is in reality a rich buffet that supports what they came to see!

DIVE SITES

I feel privileged to be diving in areas where I know no one has been before. It is a very special feeling. When I were there on holiday, my specific quest was to dive as many new and varied sites as possible. It will take a lifetime and then some to exhaust all of our options. The diving so far has explored bits of Ngatokae, Minjanga, Sanihulumu, Totolave and Karanjou Islands. Let me take you on a bit of an underwater tour.