Jas goes snorkeling in the Gili Islands

We arrived in Gili Air, one of a small group of islands north of Lombok a couple of days ago. So far we have found the best weather of our trip here. Yesterday it was sunny ALL day long. Yeah you heard that, no rain all day. Which I guess I could have predicted since I finally got us rain ponchos and a solid umbrella that morning. Murphy's Law, if I had known it was that easy to get a super duper nice day I would have done it long ago.


Boat to the Gilis

 The downside to a hot sunny day... my back and shoulders would fit in nicely in a burn ward. I even used sunscreen, I guess just not enough or frequent enough. Oh well, it should cool to a nice tan in a couple of days.

But it was so nice to finally have a full on hot sunny beach, swim in the ocean day. Since traveling with Jas I have had to exist at a slower pace and so we swam in the ocean, build sand castles, swam in the pool and spent the afternoon watching Dora the Explorer.


Breakfast on the beach



I should probably take this moment to wax poetic about Dora the Explorer. After considering many options back at home (and asking Jas what she wanted to watch) I ended up downloading a season of Dora the Explorer on iTunes, since my netbook doesn't have a dvd drive. I know that there are better ways to do it but it was easy for my techo-challenged brain to figure out. And it has been the best thing ever. The hour or two each afternoon that Jas watches Dora is the only quiet alone time I get each day. I go for a walk or take a nap in absolute SILENCE. So much so that when I met another single mom traveling with a 4 y.o. I let her copy it and she as so grateful, because she knew it mean some alone time.

Today I got to go diving. It was pouring rain with alot of wind when we got on the boat so I almost canceled. I am so glad I didn't. Jas stayed on the boat while I dived in the morning and fell asleep due to the rocking waves.

Ready to snorkel w/ our awesome Divemaster, Chloe.

Then in the afternoon we went snorkeling together in a place with no waves and the weather improved alot. And it was AWESOME. Jasmine loved it. She couldn't really fit the mask but I would hold it to her head and she would look at the fish in the water. We even saw a turtle (a big one). Finally I was cold and asked her if she wanted to get out and she said "No, I want to see more fish". That child is a waterbaby through and through! Not bad for not yet being 4 years old.

End of the day "OKAY" w/ Mt Rinjani in background