Good Morning, Maldives!

panoramic view from our deck

Nice view to wake up to!

Our plane arrives in Male late at night, and we have just a 25 minute speedboat ride to our resort.  It's the only thing on the entire island (that's common in the Maldives).  After our welcome drink of passion fruit mimosas, we settle in our villa and go to sleep. This is our biggest time change yet in our travels around this side of the world - it's three hours difference from Singapore, and four from Tokyo - so it's 2:00am to us.

Our "hut" is in the middle!

For the first time, we stay in an over water villa with our own infinity pool. It's breathtaking!  Supposedly there's only a few places in the world where they can build these rooms, because of currents, waves, etc - usually in Oceania, like Bora Bora.  [They've just built the first ones somewhere in the Caribbean (I forget which island) but they start at around $2500 a night.  Ouch!  These are expensive, but not that bad.] 

Most of the time we're here it's windy (gusts are probably in the 30 mph range), and you can actually feel the room move a little when a big blast of wind comes.  Steve likens it to being on a boat, except you don't rock up and down in the waves.  No seasickness here!

Another view from the deck...and the sun bed, where I plan to spend a lot of time!

It's also my first time at the Indian Ocean...or is it really the Arabian Sea?  Wikipedia says the Maldives are in the Indian Ocean, but Google names the body of water the Arabian Sea, so I don't know where I am (a common occurrence, if you know my sense of direction).  Either way, it's beautiful. 

That's our island!

Zoomed out a so you can see where we are in the world.

Steve wastes no time hopping into the water.  We haven't had our island briefing session yet, so he isn't aware of the currents, tides, coral....or sharks, who luckily don't make an appearance at this time.   I wonder how fast he would have returned to the deck if he had seen a black tip reef shark?

Look, no hands!

Breakfast with mango (Sheila) & watermelon (Steve) mimosas!

After our breakfast at one of the hotel restaurants we have an orientation on the snorkeling around the island.  The island has a its own "house reef," with hundreds of species of fish, turtles, manta rays, eels, clams and yes, a couple of types of sharks.  Lara, the marine biologist (and our snorkel guide), says the sharks won't bother us (the joke is that they are vegetarian), but we'll probably see them.  She points out 50-60 animals we're likely to glimpse, along with the different vegetation and coral.

It's like my own private aquarium!

Lara then takes us for a 90-minute guided swim around the house reef.  I've never observed so many different fish, and I think we see almost all the ones she highlighted during the talk.  This location has the most variety that we've ever spied while snorkeling.

What kind of fish is this?

Diving deep to see what else is visible.

Pooping out sand!

 Lara tells us an interesting tidbit - the white sand that the Maldives is famous for is actually fish poop!  Parrotfish eat the coral as they look for algae, and then excrete it out as sediment.  It's estimated that 85% of the sand is generated by the fish.  (FYI - they say Hawaii is the same.)

colorful parrotfish

Southern Blue Devil - I like him!

Sweetlip and mystery fish

Trumpetfish, grouper, and mystery fish, playing together.

He'd make a tasty dinner!

Yes, you do here the Jaws theme song in your head when you see him.

Yes, we do spot black tip reef sharks! I see one (you can't tell them apart - their markings are all identical) four times. At one point he's only six feet away from me. But Lara is right - they don't pay us any attention. 

Um, Steve, maybe you shouldn't
go chasing after the shark.

I also learn SPF 8 is not strong enough for 90 minutes of snorkeling when you're at the equator. Luckily the backs of my legs are just pink, so it's not too bad.  It doesn't stop me from relaxing in the lounge chair after we finish snorkeling!

Obligatory toes enjoying the sun photo.