Gorontalo

Gorontalo gets skipped on most Sulawesi itineraries. The province sits between Bunaken and the Togeans, and the flights into Jalaludin Wolter Monginsidi airport (GTO) feel like a stopover by accident, which is the mistake. The town has the most reliable whale-shark site in the country and a wall reef most divers have never heard of.

Botubarani village, twenty minutes east of the city, is the encounter site. Fishermen drag-net rebon shrimp inshore from January through about September, and a small population of juvenile whale sharks turns up to feed in waist-deep water. There is no boat needed; you wade in.

The dive scene is small and the wall at Olele is the headline — a sheer drop with the famous Salvador Dali sponge at 25 m. Three operators run boats; none of them are slick, all of them are honest.