Uluwatu-> Nusa Penida

Today we had an early wake-up call - we had to be ready to go by 7:00am (although our driver showed up at 6:35, so we ended up rushing!). We said goodbye to Leanne and her mom, and loaded 6 people and all of our luggage into a not so big vehicle. We somehow managed to get everything to fit and were off! It was about a 45 minute drive to Sanur. We arrived around 7:50 - and the docks were packed!! SO many people everywhere! Thankfully our driver guided us through the crowd to the correct boat company that we had reserved.

We paid for our tickets, and then had to put bag tags on our luggage to mark the right boat. We then were off to the actual dock. We followed the crowd and were directed to our boat! We handed our luggage off and then boarded the boat ourselves. We all fit in one row. We enjoyed the breeze coming in from the front and cruised 45-50 minutes to Nusa Penida (a small island off the southwest side of Bali)!

Once we arrived we got off the boat and collected all of our luggage. We google mapped it to our AirBnB and took off walking. It was about a 20 minute walk. One of Mom’s luggage wheels broke, so we ended up having to carry it, but we eventually made it! Once we arrived we realized we had ended up coming into the wrong port. We were on the 8:30 boat rather than the 8:00 boat which took us to a slightly different port. Had we been at the correct port it would have only been a 3 minute walk….

We got settled into our rooms (3 separate rooms with a shared kitchen area and another pool right on the north coast), and then after talking with the host, we booked a tour of the west side of the island for the afternoon! We quickly grabbed lunch across the street, and then met our driver just after noon.

Our first stop of the day was Kelingking Beach - wow the views were incredible! There were MANY people, but the color of the water and the rocks (that look like a T-Rex) were stunning to see. We took some beautiful pictures and then were off to the next stops: Angel Billabong and Broken Beach.

Angel Billabong is an area with massive waves crashing up onto the rocks creating beautiful small pools. The broken beach included a neat arch that we got to see and walk across. While exploring Broken Beach we also got to see a sea turtle swimming! We were trying to guess how big he was based on how far away we were and still seeing it quite clearly!

Then we headed to our last stop: Crystal Bay. Here we were able to go swimming! After a long, hot day the water felt so, so good. We all swam and relaxed on the beach. Then we headed back to our car with Gede. Gede was such a great driver! We were lucky to have him as our driver all day. To top it off, he drove us to a place on the beach for dinner so we could watch the end of the sunset.

Finally we made it home at the end of a long, full day, and are all exhausted! We all showered, settled in more and are ready for a good nights sleep. Tomorrow’s adventure: snorkeling!Read more