Octopus

I absolutely LOVE octopuses.  The first ones I saw in the wild were in Panama, and later, Hawaii.  They are such brilliant, fascinating creatures.  I have never been able to eat them, and frankly, I've never understood why anyone else can either.  I remember being physically ill in Madagascar watching people eat a chunk of an octopus arm.  Although I really want to see sharks and other tough to see marine creatures as well, the octopus is probably the most thrilling thing I've seen yet and I am always hoping for one.

Luckily, in Raja Ampat, one of our guides found an octopus.  They have such great camo they can be tough to spot.  He actually spotted a couple others on the trip but they went into hiding or were too deep for me to see, so this ended up being the only one I saw. 

  

I can't free dive, but my husband does - so he got a closer shot:

 

At one point, my husband dove down, and the octopus flashed a super cool burgundy color as he got closer to it - but it didn't hide (and he wasn't that close)

We stayed as long as we could with this octopus - and I would have liked to stay longer - but everyone else, including both guides, was already pretty far ahead and it isn't a good idea to get too spaced out....so we had to go.  What a great sighting!!!!