Merry Christmas!
The island has been without power since about 6 pm last night and is still without power as I write this at 6 am on Boxing Day. The hotels are keeping things going with a massive generator but they are all being pushed to their limits. A number of places have already had to close and their guests find other accomodation. Our hotel has been managing the issue really well shutting the generator down every 8 hours and following their engineers instructions – the hotels that have lost their generator haven’t done that.
Stu went for a run with Sarah this morning from the hut next door to ours. She and her husband David and their 3 kids are here for the UK. After their run we all headed to the hole in the wall where you can buy real espresso and had a coffee. As I said before the coffee is nice – this time though the milk was warmer which was nice.
We got picked up at 10 this morning to go snorkelling (thank you Mum and Dad for part 2 of our Christmas present).
What a way to spend Christmas Day on the water next to the beautiful Nusa Penida. On the way around the island it poured rain but when we got there the rain had stopped. The first stop was Manta Bay. I tried to snorkel but with my cold I couldn’t breathe with the snorkel on so I just swam but it was a bit rough so went back to the boat. Stu said I didn’t miss much was just rocks. We were later told it isn’t manta season.
On the way to the second stop we got to take photos of an island with a hole in the middle.
The second stop was too cloudy so they changed to an area where there is a drop wall – I floated with the group using a life jacket and didn’t think to wear my mask. Stu saw a bamboo fish which he said was beautiful.
The third stop was just off Lembongan at Mangrove Point. The coral has really recovered here and the fish were amazing – I remembered my mask this time. I saw a brain coral that looked like a turtle so was a little excited until I realised it was the sea grass that was moving and not the “turtle”.
Christmas lunch was at Ginger and Jamu an amazing little place by the sea. I had an amazing chicken satay burger with sweet potato fries and Stu had a mahi-mahi taco and we shared a Tempe salad.
We got caught in a heavy rain on the way back to the hotel which hit as we were sitting on a deck over the bay eating gelato.
We had a quiet night last night and had our Christmas Pudding after dinner and shared it with Dave of next door and his son Louis. Below is a photo of some amazing geckos we saw when we were out looking for somewhere to have dinner.
davstuholidays 