In English: Sorry that you have not heard from us in a while but we have spent the whole week on Gili Trawangan doing.. Diving! Yes, we have taken a dive certificate :). Both of us are now PADI Advanced Open Water Divers and can dive down to 30 meters. So awesome!
We started our week with four days of theory, practices and open water dives and already on our first day we did our first dive down to 12 meters. A bit intimidating of course but so much fun! Our Swedish instructor Christoffer and his trainee Lauren were amazing and we felt completely safe in their care. Down to 18 meters we got to see Sharks, Turtles, Nemos (Clownfish), Puffers, Stingrays and lots of other colorful fish. Magical!
We could not stop there though! Oh no.. With another two days of theory, practices and diving we are now certified for diving down to 30 meters and we have added another five open water dives to our previous four. We have for example done a night dive and a wreck dive. A Pygmy Seahorse (smaller than a pinky finger nail), Seargentfish, a Lobster, a Moray Eel and Unicorn Fish are just some of all additional species we have seen.
For those of you who are curious – yes, we have felt some aftershocks and yes, we have seen the damage from the severe earthquake outside Lombok that occurred in August. At our hotel for example, 40% of the buildings are still being repaired, and around the island there are plenty of damaged and abandoned buildings. For a long time it was unclear whether or not we would be able to go to the island at all, since the Swedish Foreign Departement said no to non-essential trips to the Gili Islands, but with two days left to check-in the recommendation changed. Awesome timing or what?!