Gili air-July2014-C

Yay, after for days of trekking I'm on a beach in paradise.  I scheduled a scuba for tomorrow, ate a great meal (after pretty decent, but still camp food), and snorkeled all around.  The beach here is gorgeous and I saw a ton of different types of fish while  snorkeling.  The coral its not that nice unfortunately, but less than ten minutes in, a huge turtle swam under me, came up for air and swam beside me.  I was squealing so much, the guy next to me started laughing. 
I'm going to try to kayak, sup,, and scuba tomorrow before I head to gili t!

 

I got up ready for kayaking and totally excited.  The weather was perfect and the sea looked calm.  I was determined to go around the island.  I didnt see any other kayakers, but there were a lot of boats out that I could have flagged down.  I did the east side of the island no problem.  THere were these amazing schools of little silver fish that would all jump out of the water and the birds would get them from above and larger fish would get them from below.  It was amazing to see.  Turning the corner to the north there were a couple of reef breaking waves, but I went through them fine and I was feeling a little bit cocky.  I continued on the north and the waves were now coming parallel to me, so  for every big one, i had to turn the kayak.  I was still going on pretty well and then I saw the north east corner.  There were so many waves breaking in so many places.  I started to get a little nervous, but I really thought I could just round the corner and be fine...no, I got my ass handed to me.  Igot hit with so many waves, just dumping water all over me.  So I beached my boat, turned around, walked it a bit and then got back in.  I had to go against the current until I got back on the east side of the island where it was really calm.  I was exhausted AND my phone got wet even in a plastic bag in the "dry area".  Hopefully this is not the end of the pictures for my trip:( 

I rested for the afternoon and then went scuba diving in the afternoon.  We went to Turtle Heaven and saw so many turtles and fish.  It was so full of sea life.  The coral was ok, but the turtles were the real draw, there were swimming turtles and sleeping turtles.  I loved this big daddy one that was sleeping in this tiny corner of coral pretending like there were ten or so divers staring at him.  People really kept their distance on this dive which I totally appreciated.  I dove with just the divemaster and on other girl.  There were a ton of people doing their certifications though.  We also saw an octopus.

On the dive boat I met the sweetest girl from S Africa that I went to dinner with, its amazing how much you can enjoy a person that you just met!  Also, I had switched from my HORRIBLE "hotel" to a brand new hostel on the island.  I shared a room with 6 others and it was such a typical hostel feel-very easy to meet others.  THere was a guy from Longmont in the bed next to me and another from the Netherlands that joined  Steph (S Africa) and I for drinks.  If I go back to Gili Air I might stay there again.

BUT...I left the next day to head to GIli T...