Nusa Lembongan and Penida #HogsAbroad in Bali

I am finally back on mainland Bali- and therefore, back in the land of wifi. We spent the last two and a half weeks on Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida (mostly on Penida).The islands were great- lots of snorkeling and sitting by the ocean. Both islands were beautiful, but Nusa Penida was much less touristy.

loving the island life

On Lembongan, we met with a diving company to learn about local initiatives to preserve the reefs. There main one seems to be Lembongan Marine Association. They work with the Coral Triangle Center and do annual surveys of 20 areas to monitor the reefs and fish. We also spent the time working on our individual research projects.

After a couple days we island hopped to Penida, where we were based for two weeks. We stayed at the Friends of National Parks Foundation and volunteered for a couple of hours each day. Volunteer activities included working on a road, gardening and teaching English to locals.

view from Yellow Bridge at low tide (Lembongan/Ceningan)

I used this time to work on data collection for my research (also updating the research section in a bit). I collected over 75 surveys in about three days- one day spent on Ceningan (my favorite island!) and two spent on Lembongan. Interviewing business owners and managers and navigating around the area gave me a lot of practice with Bahasa. Ceningan, which is in between Lembongan and Penida for tourist numbers, was the best. I have nothing to back this up with but that I just loved walking around it.

Penida was also fantastic. We got to do some cultural activities in addition to our research- we went to a cave temple, and yesterday we went snorkeling at Manta Point. I saw three mantas- one was really up close! For me, the only negative was that I had a run in with a jelly fish. A couple of the other students were sea sick by the end of the excursion.

Jellyfish are bullies.
I have more of the same on the other arm.

Today, it was back on the boat and heading to Bali. We spent a couple hours in Sanur where we got gelato and ice cream galore. We are back at the center base now and working on putting together our research and preparing for our finals. We will have them all on Monday- and then go for a hike on Tuesday to finish out the program. I can’t believe that 5 weeks have already gone by!

Until next time.
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Claire Beach will be traveling to several countries during her International Service Learning Program this summer. Her ultimate destination will be a seven-week stay in Indonesia where she will be observing and conducting research for her project, Community Nature and Conservation, through the Honors College.

Beach is studying economics and international business in Walton College. She is observing and conducting research on the profitability of ecotourism business and environmental preservation in other parts of the globe, particularly developing countries. She will be attending the School of International Training. You can read more from Claire at hogtrailsandtales.wordpress.com.

Find out more about the SIT Indonesia: Community Nature Conservation in Bali (Summer) program at http://studyabroad.sit.edu/programs/summer/summer-2016/abe/