Virgin Cocoa: Luxury Five-Star Dive Resort in Maratua Atoll, Indonesia

In the first of two parts, Daniel Brinckmann is left suitably awestruck when he visits the remote five-star getaway of Virgin Cocoa in Indonesia

Photographs by Daniel Brinckmann

Looking up from the water, Alfi’s devilish grin speaks volumes. “Today the Express deserves its name, but the high tide will bring in clear water from the ocean and maybe more,” he says.

The serenity within the sheltered and pristine hard coral garden does not fool us. After all, a little red gorgonian on the fringe is fluttering like a flag in the wind.

As soon as we have reached pole position off the steep wall, the race is on. The resident school of bigeye jacks, surgeonfish, fusiliers and smaller dogtooth tuna effortlessly overtake us, just like two gray reef sharks.

Freediving fins or not, they do win the race against the camera, unlike the huge feathertail stingray that does not oppose a quick photo on my fin-by maneuver at 120ft.

It proves to be a stroke of luck, because I am soon to learn that even during pit stops at cleaning stations, biggies like leopard sharks, eagle rays, bumphead parrotfish, marbled and mangrove stingrays like to keep their distance and demand patience. Asian politeness?

When we get out in the lovely coral grove nearly a mile and three more dive sites further on, we can’t help but high-five on the surface. After all, the racecourse wasn’t a seamount in the middle of nowhere. It was the house reef.

If birdcalls serving as alarm sounds like something straight from an old Disney movie, well, this is merely reality when waking up on Virgin Cocoa.

Not that they don’t have alternatives to the rooftops for nesting and singing performances, with 300 cocoa palm trees spreading over the 15-acre island with its trademark lighthouse.

If birdcalls serving as alarm sounds like something straight from an old Disney movie, well, this is merely reality when waking up on Virgin Cocoa.

Not that they don’t have alternatives to the rooftops for nesting and singing performances, with 300 cocoa palm trees spreading over the 15-acre island with its trademark lighthouse.

Long before construction started in the mid-2000s, German operator Extra Divers, which runs about two dozen dive centers, resorts and liveaboards in Egypt, Oman, Tobago and Indonesia, decided that Virgin Cocoa and its two partner resort islands in the vicinity were to keep their (all friendly) wildlife and its vegetation intact.

Seven deluxe villas just off the beach on the lagoon side and nine superior villas on the western end sit between trees and palm trees, and yet, while being completely natural and stylistically in tune with Indonesian flair, their spacious 753 square feet interior shows the resort’s five stars.

The entrance area with coffee/espresso/tea station and minibar gives way to the main area with kingsize bed, aircon, fan, safe, armchairs and ensuite bathroom with rain shower and assorted toiletries.

Every once in a while, sizeable monitor lizards stroll the beach in front of the spacious veranda, complete with hammock, drying spaces, candles and mosquito coils (malaria is unheard of).

Once night falls, coconut crabs can be spotted in the palm trees, as no light other than in the restaurant and bar distracts from the starry canopy in the middle of nowhere.

Located four boat hours east of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, Maratua Atoll’s has benefited from tourism.

Since the inception of several diving resorts created both a source of income for local people and ecological awareness, fishermen tend to keep their hands off dynamite, shark fins and Maori wrasse.

Here and there, of course, it may happen that a virgin reef is being followed by a pile of gravel from sins past.

Still, it speaks volumes that no fewer than 872 species of fish, and 507 species of corals and invertebrates inhabit the sea between the 31 islands, sandbanks, seamounts and outer reefs that plunge directly into the deep Sulawesi Sea.

Given the tidal range of up to nine feet, which is enormous by Indonesian standards and can bring about unexpected currents and constant change, it goes without saying that even experienced dive buddies are not allowed to simply enter the water from the jetty without a boat in range.

Hours after big fish bliss, the water is calm as a pool, but murky enough to shift focus from blue water hunt to mesmerizing small stuff like candy and orangutan crabs, nudis, cowries and whatever else the Coral Triangle as ‘marine species central’ may bring about.

Certainly, the three mile long house reef, which connects the Extra Divers resort islands of Nunukan and Virgin Cocoa and extends beyond them, not only boasts big fish, critters and spectacular coral gardens in the shallows, but an outstanding topographical diversity with pretty much all the habitats a tropical outer reef can offer.

Walls, canyons, deep outcrops with fans and soft corals, small caves, sandy areas, rubble fields and areas covered by plateshaped red algae. And not to forget… turtles. More than ten hawksbills and green turtles during the same dive are not unusual at all.

After all, Maratua Atoll, on whose southern edge Virgin Cocoa is situated, is considered the most-important nesting area for green turtles in Indonesia and the second largest in the world.

Adding to that, staff from the neighbouring resort island of Nunukan relocates the eggs from turtle nests to protect them from predators and eventually releases more than 1,000 baby turtles per day.

While the house reef can easily keep a photographer busy for a week, it is the half and full day trips that take the cake: Big Fish Country off the partner resort island of Nabucco is a wide channel mouth that is home to the largest school of barracuda – estimated at about 50,000 fish – that can be reached without liveaboard throughout Asia.

On the other hand, the soft coral cushions off Southern Maratua are home to a multitude of macro gems, while the walls of neighbouring Muaras Atoll boast most shark and ray encounters in the area and yet is largely undiscovered.

Then, of course, there is Kakaban Island with the country’s most-famous jellyfish lake and a fair chance to encounter thresher sharks during early morning dives. In short: there’s no less than 70 dive sites registered on Virgin Cocoa – the five-star diver hideaway without an actual dive center.

“That’s somewhat true,” says Swiss-born manager Yvonne Blatter laughing, “the entire operation happens backstage and the place itself by the jetty is basically the meeting point for our guests, who find their wetsuit laid out for them while their equipment waits kitted up on the boat and will get disassembled, washed and sorted for the next dive.”

Being a five-star place, she vows, not only means exquisite food, room service twice a day and sweet indulgence, but to cater to individual guest wishes as much as possible.

“Let’s say some divers want to do a cozy shallow dive and others want to go into the current on a standard house reef trip, both parties may dive with different guides at different spots and the boat will pick them up after another à la minute.”

Sitting by the freshwater swimming pool – one that gets eco-friendly cleaned by copper ions despite being located on the edge of the world – SoCal resident Patricia Allison can’t help but agree.

“You would not believe how long we have been looking for a dive resort in Asia that offers great diving and yet loving care for our five year old daughter when we’re out at sea,” she says while her husband and two friends are sipping their après-diving cocktails in the bar close-by.

“It was definitely worth the trip from LAX to Singapore and beyond, this place slows us down so much from the daily grind, we’d actually wished we could extend our stay!”

It’s hardly surprising, the yoga sessions conducted by an experienced teacher make the second most popular activity on spot. Make no mistake, unlike in many high-end resorts, scuba diving remains number one.

“We certainly do our best to have every guest staying at least a week experience all the highlights of the region,” Yvonne underlines. “Good point, by the way – next up for you is Kakaban and the day after we will introduce you to Nabucco’s barracuda – trust me, your journey has only just begun.”

Daniel Brinckmann continues his epic odyssey based out of the remote five-star getaway of Virgin Cocoa in Indonesia

Sunbeams straight from the jungle canopy brighten up the purple, yellow and red sponges on the mangrove roots. In this enchanted shallow water forest, tiny seastars, pipefish and gobies are both survivors and teachers of a masterclass in evolution theory.

Their kinds are relics from the Holocene period that adapted to the ultra-slowmotion transition from saltwater to brackish floods, as did thousands of tiny box, parasol, moon and mangrove jellyfish, whose stingers have long lost their ability to penetrate human skin.

At about 12 acres and 210ft depth, Indonesia’s most-famous jellyfish lake reduces its host island of Kakaban to a narrow ring of jungle hills.

It’s merely 53 steps up and 56 down from the inland jetty and an eye-opening snorkeling trip sandwiched in between three dives from Virgin Cocoa’s boat that awaits moored at the outside jetty just off the spectacular drop-off.

Now VC would hardly be a five-star-resort if the chef’s packaged mozzarella-basil-tomatosticks and club sandwiches for your lunch break did not draw envious looks from other divers on the jetty.

Yet what could be better after an early morning encounter with an elusive thresher shark and several tuna at Kelapa Dua and a sweep-by at (in)famous Barracuda Point with pristine leather corals, blacktip reef sharks, plenty of turtles and a school of bigeye jacks that just about fills the frame of the fisheye lens at 100 feet distance.

Now the bad news – when it comes to saltwater pike and giant schools, the real deal happens at namesake Big Fish Country, just off Extra Diver’s partner resort island of Nabucco, which is another half/full day trip offered on Virgin Cocoa.

A reef hook is mandatory for diving the channel mouth, but one of Asia’s largest schools of chevron barracudas that may form a fish skyscraper from 160 to 30 feet as main course is well worth it, with an armada of jacks, patrolling grey reef sharks, single eagle rays and the occasional scalloped hammerhead making much-welcomed side dishes.

Now given the Swiss management, there is no way the divers don’t arrive back on Virgin Cocoa in time for the ‘apéro’.

The traditional Swiss get-together equivalent of tapas and sundowner sees the few guests gather in the open-air restaurant and bar overlooking beach and lagoon, well before dinner is being served.

“It’s satay BBQ night, better bring your camera,” says resort manager Yvonne Blatter and sends me running through the coconut tree grove.

Not that the usual five-course à la carte dinner with delicacies like king prawns and imported Australian beef would not spectacular enough in the middle of nowhere…

At least it’s just as spectacular as the giant coconut crab spotted by a staff member, who is eager to show the 20lb beast to each guest after dinner.

For all luxury, the island hideaway with the enigmatic lighthouse is still a haven for nature, albeit one for only a few guests at the same time.

The latter easily goes as well for the uninhabited and still barely explored atoll a one hour boat ride to the south, Karang Muaras. Hardly ever visited by other divers, we count 11 turtles after 30 minutes, about halfway into the dive.

Actually, they do look over from the shallow staghorn coral-filled lagoon as if I was the mother of all tiger sharks incarnate and all but one escape at 15 feet distance.

However, after our first dive at Pala Pala – a wall littered with pink soft corals and huge organ pipe-style sponges – our mission for Turtle Point is spreading out and drift with the moderate current to seek out what hardly anyone is looking for in Indonesia – leopard sharks and marbled, mangrove whiptail and feathertail stingrays that may reach more than six feet and indeed all make the show.

Veterans of Grand Cayman’s Stingray City and the Bahamas’ Tiger Beach may think ‘Hold my fins’, but quickly have the regs dropping from their mouths at the first sight of the backdrop.

The reefs around the Derawan Islands of Maratua Atoll consist of about eight times the coral species compared to the entire Caribbean.

And while traces of past dynamite fishing are clearly visible at times, bleaching is almost non-existent and the vast amount of reef tops and outcrops look as untouched as a day after their creation.

This also goes for large portions of the shallows of Virgin Cocoa’s house reef, which simply is a daydream coming true for snorkelers. What hides inside the nooks and crannies of the submarine gardens is yet another topic.

Dive instructor and co-manager Alfi Latumahina, who hails from macro hotspot Ambon, is gifted with eagle eyes and a vast knowledge on where to find what in specific habitats.

Under his tuition, critter hunts along the house reef and especially the soft coral meadows in South Maratua spots such as Bantukan turn out very rewarding.

Still, don’t expect to get bargibanti pygmy seahorses, rhinopias or shaun the sheep nudi on demand – despite its richness within the center of the Coral Triangle, it’s not a tick off your bucket list destination.

Rather, the atoll and Virgin Cocoa in particular shine with a diversity in between XS and XL that is almost unheard of for any land-based operation in South-East Asia.

And yet even the day trip destinations hardly take longer than an hours’ boat drive,which leaves enough time to unwind and enjoy the amenities in between the yoga parlor and the pool with an Italian Espresso in hand, or go for a walk on the quarter-mile jetty that used to bridge over to neighboring Nunukan before a winter storm struck a gap.

After all, for all the resorts’ personal VIP service and delicious cuisine, what could be more luxurious than laying in your hammock and enjoying the breeze of 300 palm trees while gazing at the sun setting over the lagoon’s mirror waters?

FAQ

Where is Virgin Cocoa located?

Virgin Cocoa sits on Maratua Atoll in Indonesia, surrounded by pristine reefs, coconut groves, and rich marine biodiversity.

What diving can you expect at Virgin Cocoa?

Guests can explore house reefs, see barracuda schools, reef sharks, rays, turtles, and even snorkel Kakaban’s jellyfish lake.

Is Virgin Cocoa suitable for families?

Yes. The resort offers five-star villas, childcare options, yoga, spa facilities, and easy snorkeling for non-divers.

How do you get to Virgin Cocoa?

Fly into Balikpapan or Berau in Indonesia, then take a four-hour boat transfer to the island.

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This article was originally published in Scuba Diver NA#18

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