Triton Bay v Cendrawasih Bay

Hello everyone,

I am planning another trip to Indonesia in July but I dont know where to head to.  My top choices are Triton Bay and Cendrawasih bay.  I have read some great reviews of Triton Bay posted here but I cannot find much on Cendrawasih other than whale sharks and WWII wrecks.  I really like macro photography but do like to shoot wide every once in a while and like the "fish soup" descriptions of Triton Bay. Any thoughts. 

I haven’t been to cendrawasih but in triton u have a lot of good macro mixed with wide, I don’t think you would be disappointed. 

I was there 2019 in February.

A little over a year ago I was also trying to decide between Canderwasih and Triton. Picked Triton, and it turned out to be a wonderful trip. Some wonderful wide angle opportunities, plus whale sharks, plus amazing macro. I think Leeza is still running the operation there.. she's wonderful!

I don't do too much wide angle photos, but you can get a sense of the macro from my trip report.

Best

Ajay.

Triton Bay is an amazing area. Macro is awesome on nearly every dive. However the visibility can be an issue for wide angle at many times. They do run boats further south and it gets better there.

Whale sharks are fairly numerous around the fishing rafts, but the rafts have been known to move overnight to the south. Leeza runs an amazing resort in an extremely remote location. All the diving was well organized with good guides.

Leeza has good relations with the locals, but they aren't always all that friendly to divers or even to each other...West Papua has had some unrest lately.

Triton Bay. Many whale sharks and you even get pods of dolphins from time to time.

Canderwasih markets itself as whale shark destination but its a tricky area. Some liveaboards dont even go there anymore as locals can get both greedy and hostile.

Canderwasih Bay is relatively shallow, unprotected and prone to rough waters.

It is good for whale shark encounters, other wise there are better places.

We dove it several years ago and after the whale sharks, diving was some what poor until we steamed west and turned down into Raja.

Others may have different experiences; i.e. "you should have been here yesterday!"

When we dove Triton, it was at the end of a plankton bloom and vis was low; but was still good for macro and CFWA!

We would return to Triton, but not Canderwasih 1