Hello blog, this is John Gedney and Oliver Swift writing the blog. At the Good Karma Bungalows, our group enjoyed snorkeling, relaxing by the beach, and Bali Institute activities. On the first day, we traveled to the Good Karma Bungalows and enjoyed the rest of the evening relaxing and swimming, with Aidan’s birthday celebration! On the second day, we traveled about 10 minutes to snorkel an old Japanese ship wreck. The ship wreck was full of life and was very interesting. Afterward, we traveled back to Good Karma and ate lunch. We proceeded to have a discussion with this local NGO run by Peduli Alam that collects trash from the local community and disposes of it properly. They also turn plastic items in to purses, wallets, and much more. We made glass cups out of old wine bottles and water bottles. Our evening consisted of working on our SPM proposal. On the second day, we went snorkeling with an organization called Ocean Gardener and contributed to a coral nursery by planting coral in a reef to combat coral destruction. The amount of trash in the ocean was startling and unnerving, and we had a thoughtful discussion about more ways we can help our oceans over lunch. The Bali Institute took us on a farewell dinner with them because it was our last night all together. On the third day we traveled for the first half of the day to Lovina beach where we relaxed and played beach soccer for the rest of the evening to get ready for our SCUBA diving the next morning.
After we said our goodbyes to the Bali Institute we drove to Lovina and got ready for SCUBA Diving. The first day the open water and advanced open water groups split up, the open water group went to a pool and learned the basics of SCUBA diving. The advanced open water group went straight into the water and submerged to 30 meters (almost 100 feet). The next day the open water group went into the ocean. While diving we saw sea turtles, the reef, and exotic fish! The advanced open water group was able to take an excursion to snorkel with dolphins that morning and later go on a night dive John D was followed by a shark. The final day in Lovina the open water and advanced open water groups were reunited and went diving together off of Menjangan Island, the largest national park in Bali. Our main takeaway is that SCUBA diving is awesome and it was an unreal experience!
John & Oliver
