Day 4: Lovina, Bali

Tuesday, May 24th, 2016

Today's highlights:

-Canyoning down Kerenkali

-Arriving in paradise

-Angie sleep talking... Twist!

Robbie here. Well, today was mind-blowingly beautiful, every bit. I wish I was as good a writer as Angie so I could paint you a picture. Even the photos don't do this place justice. Anyway, here's what went down.

For our am-venture this morning, we went canyoning down Kerenkali canyon with a company called Adventure and Spirit. It was AMAZING!! It was an all-day party that started at 6am when they picked us up and drove us to the center of the island up the windiest, rollercoasteriest road I've ever been on. Neither of us ever get motion sick but we were holding it down on the way to the peak of the mountain.

We drove to the top of that far right beast. 

After we arrived we met the group we'd be hiking with as well as our guides. There was an Aussie, a German, two Filipinos, and three other Americans as the hikers and three hilarious Balinese dudes as our guides. So we were an awesome group! We all put on full dry suits, hopped into the bed of a pick up truck and we bounced to the mouth of the canyon. From that point on it felt like we had died and gone to heaven. It sounds cliche to say that phrase but it really felt so surreal there. It was like we were dreaming and entered some enchanted land. The canyon was unreal: huge waterfalls, deep pools of cool water, beautiful flowers, swarms of bright butterflies, bright green plants clinging to the walls, vines for days, and awesome company. Angie and I couldn't help but stare and just say "wow" around every new corner. PLUS we got to add in all the action: the 30 ft cliff jumps, 60 ft waterfall rappels, and scaling the ledges of the moss covered rock walls. It was just the best day you can imagine.

We are ready to fight crime... And climb a mountain.

We would hike for a minute or two, wading through the water or hopping from boulder to boulder, then we would arrive at some kind of descent. Rinse and repeat. Each leg felt different and new somehow. Sometimes it would be rappelling, where you trust your life in the climbing equipment as you lean back over the edge and walk down a waterfall. Other times it would be cliff jumping into a small but deep, cold pool. Angie would scream every time she jumped, almost as loud and high pitched as one of our guides, Anga. He was awesome! One of the best descents was a rappelling and ziplining combo. 

Angie killing it, as usual. 

That's my wife. 

Me soaking in the view. 

Rappelling a portion of the way down then ziplining the rest of the way. Ain't no thing. 

In between each descent we would get to know each other and get some travel tips for stuff to see in Bali. We got to know the German girl Kata especially well (she acted impressed by all the German you taught us, Russ). She was awesome--a world traveler and in each country she sees, she collects local beers and brings them home to her father. How German is that? Haha!

So after 4 hours of canyon bliss we got back to home base, struggled to remove the dry suits, pulled off some hungry leeches (luckily none were on Angie and me but a few in our group had some leeches attached) and scarfed an authentic Balinese lunch: soy bean bunches, krunduk (rice cake things), barbecue chicken, green onion broth, sautéed greens, and a mound of jasmine rice. It was so good after an exhausting hike.

After saying goodbye to our group, we drove to our next destination, Lovina. The last town we stayed in--Seminyak--was busy, crowded, and pretty noisy most places. It was a fun and exciting place for sure, but Lovina was so amazing in the exact opposite way-a quiet beach town tucked into the line of palm trees that run along the shore. When we got to our hotel we were floored again by how beautiful it was. As we walked around the grounds, I was feeling pretty proud of myself for booking this one, and Angie fully agreed saying, "You have never done anything more right than this!" We were immediately sad that we only get to spend one night here. That's when you know a place is good. Here's a taste (again, photos don't do it justice):

This is our front porch looking into the courtyard. Amaze ballz. 

The walkway to our restaurant

One of our two pool areas. 

The cabana-bed next to our little pool. 

So as you can tell this place is paradise. After we got here we swam in the pool, drank fresh banana pineapple papaya smoothies, read in our cabana beds, and just relaxed for a couple hours.

At 7:00 Angie was ready for bed due to severe jet lag and a horrible sleep last night. Jet lag is real, people. It is very real. So to keep ourselves awake we went for a walk down the small street towards the beach. We found an awesome "warung," which is kinda like a mini-restaurant. It has an open kitchen and 4-6 small tables and they serve fresh Indonesian food. So we sat down to eat at this place and 5 minutes in, Angie starts falling asleep in her chair, sometimes in between bites of food! She was like a 2 year old nodding off in a high chair, it was the best thing ever. At one point, I asked her if we could ask for the check at the same time as ordering dessert (because we clearly needed to get out of there fast, Angie couldn't control her sleepiness), and Angie replied "No I don't think so..." Boom! She slurred the word "so" and she was asleep in her chair and I would immediately bust up, her eyes would open, and she'd be confused. This happened probably 4 times during that dinner. So that's the closest Angie will get to the standard sleep talking stories that seem to keep popping up in our blog posts. Haha! I love this woman.

Tomorrow is more Lovina!