Cost of tour: 350,000 IDR per person including equipment Tour Length: Three hours The tour visits four locations: —Manta Point —Cristal Bay —Gamat Bay —Wall Bay The owner of Organica explained that while there are a number of tour companies available on the island, he feels that the operator he works with offers a superior quality of experience. The groups are usually a maximum of around 12 people per boat. We met in the morning at Organica and were brought to the boat site where we got on board with the group and were offered our choice of snorkeling gear (snorkel/goggles and fins). The gear was in decent condition though there wasn’t a huge selection of sizes and so some people had to settle for gear which was a bit too large/small for them. We went to Manta Point first and on the way a few of our boatmates told us that they had been out a couple days earlier and the mantas hadn’t shown up. Luckily, shortly after we arrived our boat operator spotted some activity and frantically told us to get in the water. The mantas were out, and there were many of them! The experience was exciting but also somewhat overwhelming as there were over twenty boatloads of people snorkeling in one small area. Our guide stood on the boat and pointed at mantas passing nearby, sometimes blowing a whistle to get everyone’s attention. This was helpful but also contributed to a frenzied vibe with hundreds of people swimming in the same direction between anchored boats. The mantas themselves were beautiful, majestic and huge. The remaining three snorkel sites were all more relaxing experiences with schools of rainbow colored fish, healthy looking reefs as well as some huge (>1m) tuna. Many of the people in our group were satisfied by the mantas and didn’t do much snorkeling at the other locations. The boat rides between snorkeling points were beautiful as they offered a view of some parts of the Nusa Penida coast—tiny remote beaches, caves and cliffs—which we would have otherwise missed. Our guide was friendly, helpful, and seemed concerned with our safety. The experience was a good one overall and despite the masses of people in the water we felt lucky to have met the mantas. Local guides speak some english but most do not speak other languages. Our one issue with the tour was a big one. When we asked the other people on the boat how much they had paid for the tour (booked through their individual hotels), they all said 150,000 IDR. Organica charges 350,000 IDR for the same tour, which seems hard to justify. That said, we had a great time swimming with the fishes!