We had a good sleep in and awoke today for the first time since we arrived in Bali to see the actual, full sun shining at us! Hoorah!!! We’re thrilled, and instantly worried that it would change again, so we rushed out and took a walk back to the beach. If you read our recent blog, you may know that two days ago we were horrified to learn about the “trash tsunami” phenomenon and how badly it was impacting Bali beaches. Even snorkeling yesterday we saw a ton of plastics floating by (and tried to remove as many as we could). Some of our friends were interested in seeing the impact of that plastic mounds so we went down to take pictures today, and lo and behold! There was a bulldozer on the beach pushing all the wood and trash piles into giant mountains and then hauling away one scoopful at a time. Yay! It was good to see cleanup progress being made, but at the same time we watched more plastics washing ashore as the bulldozers worked, and we can see why it is so hard for Bali to get ahead of this problem. And being on bulldozers, there was quite a bit of debris left behind, to the extent that the “improved” beach looks like what we would often start a community cleanup day with back in the States. Today we finally saw some people swimming on the beach by us, but I wasn’t quite ready to go that far so we just applauded the bulldozer guys and walked on by.

Mmmmm… Cuca lunch…

What a total delight! This is our last full day in Jimbaran, and we decide we reallly wanted to go back to the restaurant across the street where we had our fabulous tapas first night dinner, Cuca. Today we tried their lunch, and found it to be every bit as fabulous as their dinner. When they seated us, there was a VIP sign on our table that made us laugh. When we asked our server about it, it is the designation they give anyone who is a return customer, since it is an honor for them that you liked them enough to come back. What a sweet thought! Added bonus: as we finished up today’s amazing food, the chef came out to talk to us. He is a Canadian man who has studied all over the world (under some Michelin starred chefs), and he and his wife decided to come out to Bali 13 years ago and open their own place that had their own international flair. He said he wants his food to be playful and fun, but always and foremost be “yummy.” He said “A dish can be beautiful and memorable in presentation, but in the end, if it didn’t taste better than a hamburger, why would you go eat it?” That made me smile. This food was DEFINITELY “better than a hamburger.” My mouth is watering just loading these pictures. Amazeballs, and far less expensive than a meal of this quality back home. Happy tummies!

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to float in our pool and soak up the awesome sunlight that was still beaming down. I think I spent the afternoon in a lovely food coma. We didn’t do much from there- just do laundry, packed up suitcases again (moving to another hotel tomorrow on another part of the island), and had a small dinner at the hotel cafe. Tomorrow is our South Island tour of Bali- can’t wait!

Thanks for adventuring with us!