Spicaaaaaay! Waffles.... dun dun duh

Another day in Paradise and I simply can't get enough of Bali. This island really does have it all. This morning we woke up at 7am ate quickly and were picked up by the driver. He drove us down to the southern most tip of Bali called Nusa Dua. It is the "ritzy" part of Bali and where all the really expensive hotels are. Nusa Dua is well known for their water sports. You can do everything there from "chubing" (tubing) to renting jet skiis. Today we had a great time with a glass bottom boat ride out to the reef where we snorkled. The fish were brilliant! They would school right in front of you and our boat driver gave us food to feed them. They would swarm around you as you ripped the bag open. It was amazing. Mina found a starfish and dove down and picked it up off the bottom. It looked fake but it was completely real. Being the Nerd that I am I had to look it up to see what kind it was. After a bit of time with Google I discovered that we had found a Horned Seastar. I included a picture of it. You can't really tell but the spikes are a dark purple. It was bizarre looking but fascinating. The reef was full of life including several varieties of parrot fish. I even happened upon Gil from Finding Nemo! Several blue goby fish were hiding among the coral as well. It was so neat to see them all. We had an underwater camera so hopefully some of the photos turned out. I'll be sure to put them up on facebook.

After Snorkeling we went to the Turtle farm. That was totally eye opening. They had several species there and all ages of sea turtles. The main species there were Loggerhead, hawksbill, and of course the Green Sea turtle. They were beautiful animals. We got to pick them up and hold them. Of course some were far too large to be held so we posed next to them for pictures. The turtle farm also had a few other critters. Don't worry none of the animals are abused. They are rescued from slaughter houses or taken off the reef and can only stay at the farm for 5 months before they are released into the wild again. The baby sea turtles that hatch there are kept for a year to grow strong and then released into the wild. We got to see some turtles that had hatched the night before. There were some large fruit bats and some cheeky monkeys too. The monkeys were fun to play with and they would grab at the straps of our cameras or my hair tie around my wrist. Definitely excited to go to see the monkeys up north.

After playing with the turtles we got back into the boat and went to go do the flying fish. I did it with my dad after Mina and Jared went. You get about 30 feet up in the air and hold on to these hand holds while standing on a platform beneath you. It is great! The staff guy helped to balance out the weight and really get us soaring. More pictures of that to come. We decided not to go rafting because it is the Dry season here in Bali and so the river that is normally roaring is nothing but a stream now. It was a great day though and we were tired by the time we ate lunch and headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow we are switching hotels and going up north to Ubud. We are probably going to the largest Hindu temple here in Bali in Besakih. I included a picture of it for you all to see. I am way excited to see it. We are also going to the Elephant Caves and surfing in the morning. It is shaping up to be a busy but great day. Hopefully Wednesday we are going to go climb the volcanoes and see the waterfalls. As for the title of this post you may be wondering about it. Jared has an obsession with waffles right now and so we say "Waffles... dun dun duh" a lot. Spicaaay is from an SNL Sketch that we all love. It means something is cool or sexy or just whatever we feel like. Well, Bali is beautiful and I really will miss this place.

Random Fact: In the early days, temples were used as banks and the first loans were taken out against rice.