Yellow Backpack Adventures

Here are a few more of the good times we had the month in Bali.    Swimming with dolphins. A highlight. A narrow Asian style wooden boat with floats on the sides. You hang on to a trapeze like bar with a snorkel on and he would drive through the water while you hung on for dear life as he chased the dolphins. Some of it I almost felt bad, because we literally were following the dolphins everywhere and it felt like we were chasing them. But it was epic to see them jumping all around the boat and see 30+ swimming underneath you. Lots of little babies jumping and swimming right beside their mammas. Also getting stung by little jelly fish all along the way. A coffee plantation visit with coffee tasting. We even tried Luwak coffee. It was pretty good coffee but just the thought of how its made is gross.   Nimas turned 4 at the baby home while we were there. One of the volunteers made banana bread in a cake and brought it back. One time someone had brought a store bought cake a...

Our Street My 4 friends and I arrived in Bali on the 4th after traveling for  30+ hours. Somehow we lost January 3 at some point in our travels. We arrived at 7am. We took an uber to our villas which are an hour away. Our driver offered to stop and let us get breakfast if we wanted which we did of course. We have the cutest villas with a bedroom and bathroom. An outdoor kitchen is ours to use as well. It is about a 6-7 minute walk to the Baby Home where we will be volunteering.     We dropped off our luggage and headed down to the black sand beach that is nearest us, about 15 minute drive. Just keeping it real, there was a lot of trash and garbage on the beach. There are stunning beaches on the island, we just aren’t in the tourist area. We walked down aways to a little outdoor coffee shop and cafe. $1-2 for iced coffees and matchas that are incredible. We stopped at a night market for street food and fruit on our way back. We had pineapple and pork skewers and fried...

  Lisbon Portugal. We started our day with matcha and breakfast at the cafe that is under our hostel called Hygge. The matcha came with cold foam and fresh flowers on top. We then walked toward the old town, stopping at thrift and vintage shops along the way. We decided on a whim to go into a random clothing store we seen in the distance in case they had some linen dresses. It had more linen clothes than I had ever seen in one place. We may have came out of that shop with bags full. We stopped at Copenhagen for margarita pizza and more matchas. We continued walking and shopping and looking at the old buildings. I love the style here. There are a lot covered in beautiful painted tiles. We saw where the tram crash happened a couple weeks ago. There are several tram lines left with the original yellow or sometimes red tram cars that run on tracks around the old part of the city. The inside is cute with stained wood trim. A couple weeks ago one derailed and smashed into the building. F...

  We had hoped to do more hiking today but it was pouring rain. We had breakfast at a cafe nearby, then headed for Funchal, the city to see the old town. This side of the island is usually sunny and does not get a lot of rain. We went through a museum with the history of the island. The island was discovered around 1420. By 1490 it was a major manufacturer of cane sugar. Most of the work of the roads, terraces, farming, etc was done by slave labor. It was a very well to do island with lots of mansions and very rich traders. They were known far and wide for their sugar, and it was known to be better than any other place. We went to some shops and talked via translate app with the sweetest Czech lady who had a pottery studio. I got the cutest mug from her. We had delicious seafood for lunch and also took the tram up and down the mountain over the city. We grabbed yummy coffees and met the sweetest couple from Denmark. They were so friendly and we chatted about our travels. They asked...

  We flew from Sevilla to Lisbon, then to the Island of Madeira. With the wind currents it is not uncommon for the pilots to have to attempt the landing more than once. It used to be infamous because the ocean is on one side and the island on the other with the runway being very short and ending in the ocean. It’s the 9th most dangerous airport in the world and the pilots undergo special training to land here. However the flight and landing went smoothly even though Lluvia was hoping something more exciting would happen. We got our car and drove to the far end of the island to the natural pools. Along the way we went through at least 20 tunnels. Also the roads here are soooo nice. Not a pothole to be found. The main roads are wide. The back roads and city roads are extremely narrow though with places only 1 care can fit through at a time. They have kept the pools as natural as possible with a sea wall to keep the waves from crashing in. The black volcanic rocks stand out of the wat...