Thousand Islands Trip (Pulau Pari)

 A couple Saturdays back, we woke the kids up nice and early (around 5:30 a.m.) to go on a day trip with some other families from church. We rented a speed boat for 45 people and split the cost between us all. You never know how long it will take to get around Jakarta, even so early in the morning, so we left nice and early. We ended up being the first ones at the dock.

 We found this little map hanging of all the islands and how to get there from Ancol dock. We went to Pari Island, about a 60 minute boat ride.

The boat ride was SUPER bumpy. Poor Belen had a real struggle, as did the other 3 and 2 year olds on the boat. While bumping around, I somehow made it to the back of the boat where the bumps weren't as strong and that helped a little. I had to peel her hands off of the seat in front of her once the bumps subsided, she was gripping it so tightly. 

 All was okay in the end.

View from the front before we got going.

 Our view from the back of the bumpy boat.

 Between this sign...

 ...and this sign below, we had to walk for 10 minutes through the little island town. I wanted to take pictures to remember it, but would have felt weird snapping shots of people outside of their homes. It was cool to see what living on the island looked like. Lots of chickens strolling the area and kids playing, riding bikes, and even mopeds (as in, driving them). 

The beach was amazing. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

 Shae spent a good bit of time doing some shell hunting.

  Tried fried bananas for the first time. Belen picked the banana out of hers saying, "I just want the donut part." 

While there, we took a little boat tour through a mangrove forest.

 This boat trip was brought to you by, the letter E (found in the ocean).

This tree was incredible. 

 Coconut water: looks good, but does not taste too good. Makes for a a good beach photo shoot prop though:).

Before heading home we grabbed some of the ash that had been floating to the shore. There was a person on the island sweeping it up and told us that it was ash floating in from Mt. Krakatoa, the volcano that erupted a few weeks earlier. Maybe we can stick it in a jar or something?

We got back to our apartment just about 12 hours after we left. The perfect day trip. A trip that I very much needed.