Bilikiki just came back from another great 10 day trip. This trip was, as with the previous one, a whale watching, bird watching and snorkeling trip! Dr. Charles Anderson stayed onboard and was joined by Mark Carwardine and their their guests from different parts of the world: Canada, Belgium, Australia and the UK. 
During this trip we did have better weather conditions than the previous one (yay!.) So our guests got to enjoy tropical sunny days and not so rough sea conditions. Thanks to that we could travel to the Western Province, all the way to Kula Gulf, a chance to visit new places like Rice Harbour and the village of Jericho. 
Our route this trip also took us to Uepi Island and we would like to thank Grant (owner of Uepi resort) for letting us anchor close by at night and enjoy their amazing house reef to snorkel the next morning, what a beautiful place you guys have!! Thank you!!! 
We took our guests to enjoy the carving markets at Mbili & Luten's village, and we also visited Karumolun Village, in the Russell Islands. There our guests really enjoyed the traditional singing, dancing and the pan pipe show they put together for us. Walking around the village and asking questions about their customs and way of life was also a great experience. Another highlight of the trip was the floating markets! They took so maaaaaany pictures!!! Our guests always like to see where our fresh fruits and veggies come from and how good it is for both the local communities and us to do such markets. 
On our search for cetaceans and dolphins we had beautiful and unforgettable encounters with pantropical spotted dolphins, spinner dolphins, IndoPacific and common bottlenose dolphins, sperm whales, an orca and short finned pilot whales. 
Some of our guests were into bird watching too and they had a great time! They were able to spot 18 different species!  Here's few of them: the Pacific baza (picture below), the island imperial pigeon, the Sanfond's (or Solomon's) sea eagle, of course the Blyth's hornbill (we saw some very close in Mbili village), beautiful beach kingfishers while snorkeling in the early mornings, the eclectus parrot, cardinal lory and crested tern, amongst others... 
The diving and snorkeling sessions were also very much appreciated by everyone, as always! It is just impossible not fall in love with the beautiful and colourful underwater world in the Solomon Islands!  All those tropical fish everywhere swimming amongst the stunning and healthy coral reefs and gardens! A true delight! We even saw a crocodile from the surface while cruising around the famous Pop Corn Passage! What a wild life watching cruise it has been! 
Thank you to our guests for spending their holidays with us, it was really nice to have all of you onboard!
A big thank you, once again, to our incredible crew for their hard work, for taking such good care of all of us and for making this Bilikiki experience an unforgettable one!  
Pato&Fernando