Monday, March 22, 2010

Nusa Lombangan ~ OR: Just another day in paradise!

We are currently on Nusa Lombongan, a small island off the coast of Bali. I think Glen is telling the tale of our journey, so I will just say this is a lovely village.  We are in a small cottage just off the beach.  We are on the West facing side of the Island, so the sunsets are incredible.
There are a lot more tourists here, despite the small size of the island, so the people are not quite as excited to see us, but still very nice!

We went on our first dives today, and the reef was the most incredible thing I've ever seen diving.  The visibility out into the deep was not great, but was fine for upclose viewing. Thousands of fish.  I was very excited to see clown fish (Think finding NEMO)   I guess clown fish are not that exciting really, but since I have only been diving in the Caribbean and  the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Panama, clown fish are new to me since they aren't found those places.  Also many different types of corals and some big blue starfish which were pretty cool.

The local economy here, aside from tourism & diving, is mainly the harvesting of seaweed.  Everyone has a long boat, which they push out to the reef with a pole (No motors) where they farm the seaweed.  They bring it in, and lay it on tarps to dry.  They then keep only half the seaweed, and tie the other half to ropes, which they take back out to water so the seaweed can re-grow.  Apparently, most the seaweed is sold to the cosmetics industry.  I was a bit worried when I saw all the seaweed being harvested, but when I learned more about it from a local lady who explained it to me, it seems it is farmed very responsibly, so that it isn't being depleted as a resource!

Not a lot to do here, but dive, read, and look out over the water.  Which is exactly why it is perfectly wonderful!
Cheery Wave,
Carrie

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