Calidex divers rendezvous in Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands on August 3, 2010 and board the "Bilikiki". Begin the 10-night dive/cruise in the Russell Islands, continuing on to the Florida Islands Archipelago and Marovo Lagoon in the New Georgia Group. For those who wish to dive until they drop, look forward to four or five dives per day including night dives plus great village visits and encounters with the melanesian Solomon Islanders along the way. Wonderful wood carvers, the local people are eager to share their crafts and culture with visitors. During WWII the Solomons saw some of the fiercest battles of the War in the Pacific, and fascinating relics of the war are sprinkled throughout the islands from the inland jungles to the offshore reefs. Marine life in the Solomons is incredibly varied, from a myriad of reef fish species to large pelagics, sharks, mantas and dolphins. Both soft and hard corals abound. Sea conditions should be calm with water temperatures of 27 or 28 degrees C (81 to 83 degrees F) and excellent visibility.

The Solomon Islands stretch approximately 900 miles from their northwest border with Papua New Guinea to the Vanuatu border to the southeast. Six major islands and more than one thousand smaller islands make up the archipelago, which has a mostly Melanesian population of approximately 500,000. Honiara, the capital town on the island of Guadalcanal, has a population of 60,000. Melanesian pidgin, 120 indigenous languages and English are spoken.

The major island groups that constitute the Solomons are the Santa Cruz Islands, Florida Islands, Russell Islands, Reef Islands, Duff Islands, New Georgia Islands, and the main islands of Guadalcanal, Malaita, San Cristobal, Santa Isabel, New Georgia and Choiseul. A small number of coral atolls are sprinkled among the much more numerous heavily forested mountainous islands. Rennell Island, an uplifted coral atoll, is UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of only three in the South Pacific. Island-dotted Marovo Lagoon in the New Georgia Group is the largest saltwater lagoon in the world.

The Solomons were first settled in the 16th Century by the Spanish, who gave way to the British who established the Solomons as a protectorate in 1893. Captured by the Japanese in1942, the Solomons became the theater for perhaps the bloodiest fighting of WWII. The U.S. Marines battle for Henderson Field on Guadalcanal was one of the most significant operations of the War in the Pacific. The Solomons gained independence from Great Britain in 1978 and are a member of the British Commonwealth.