The Miracle, The Maldives

We arrived early morning in Male from our overnight flight through Qatar. Though we were completely wiped out, it was almost immediate: the recognition that we had arrived some place truly special. The Maldives is a group of 1,200 islands that make up formations of a number of atolls that cover 35,000 square miles. In conjunction with a few domestic airports, the primary mode of transportation is by boat – expensive fast boats for visitors, and domestic slow boats for locals. The Maldives export nearly nothing (aside from papaya, other small amounts of fruit and fish) but their main 'export,' tourism, is just huge. Of the 1,200 islands, 10% or so are used for very spendy resorts – and account for 90% of government tax revenue. The resorts are not a slice or portion of an island, but rather the whole thing. Each subsistent on their own, they all make their own power and water and must ship everything in, and also everything out – all waste, trash, and the huge amounts of yard trimmings from the immaculately kept grounds – it's just a massive undertaking. Due to all this, I don't know if I've ever seen a more expensive place on earth; you tend shrug it off because you are in absolute paradise, though it's hard to get over a $30 hot dog.

We spent 11 days on the island of Kandooma, taking advantage of all things tropical. We dove a good amount (the reefs and fish here are beyond amazing), surfed, sailed, snorkeled, fished, beach walked, read, relaxed and just enjoyed each others company. We, unfortunately, got more than our fair share of tropical weather that, for the majority of our trip, threw the surf off (from a surf perspective the trip was more or less a bust), but the wind and rain didn't disturb the underwater world too much, so we ended up diving most days. The storms were frequent but it never got cold or miserable. If either of us was in need of a recharge, sitting under cover as tropical squall after tropical squall passed would have been the ticket, but Kristin and I tend to recharge on activity, so the activity of inactivity was somewhat lost on us. We certainly made the most of the circumstances and with our final day here, we'll get in one more, final dive, a snorkel & a sail, and if the wind backs off I think I'll give the ankle-slappers one last surf, just to say I did...

We will miss the miracle of The Maldives (Kristin is currently off saying goodbyes to individual corrals, fish, hermit crabs and possibly grains of sand), and we look forward to a return visit, someday – with hopefully bluer skies. 

We've arrived – 30 hours of travel and we are lucky to pull up to Kamdooma

Not our shot, but a nice one we inherited of the island of Kandooma from the air

With a spectacular view from our beach-side room

Yep, that's a $30 hot dog, not including the 18% tax...

Let the activities begin – Kristin getting her gear sorted for her first warm water dive

Gorgeous – it really does look like this

Treated to a beautiful full moon that rose overhead during my first surf plunge 

View of the moon from the beach in front of our place

Got out to this left-hander by boat for most of my surf sessions

A shot from the boat at Tucky Joes – only a few in the water and one on the wave

Another left handed at Tucky's

Studious Kristin, working on homework for her advanced open water

More diving fun

K's post dive fishy face

Found some interesting things to look at both in the water and on land

Nick, the Aussie braving the storm on the way back from some surf

But the weather looks like it's changing for the better

More sun & relaxation than we know what to do with

Then changes for the worse – storm cell approaches the harbor at Kandooma – a view we became quite familiar with

But as quickly as the storms come, they go – here, Kristin standing on a jetty after the rains have passed

Our little beach on one of the many beach walks we took, circumnavigating the island

Beach walk fun

With all the wind, I even got out for a windsurf – after a 10 year hiatus it managed to come back to me

Kristin and I venture out on a little hobbie

We enjoyed the strong winds on the water

Back for some backside fun at Tuckys

The fast left over shallow reef

And even managed to catch this little tuna on a hand line trolling home 

The little guy made some fantastic sashimi for our final meal on the island – a true treat to send us off

We were exhausted before we even started the 30 hour travel home

Hours Turn To Days?

All the relaxation in Uganda couldn't have prepared us for the stress we'd encounter just trying to make our flight out of Kamapala. 

We jumped on the road a few minutes late but with plenty of time to spare to make it safely to the airport for our flight. Unfortunately about two hours from the airport and four hours from our flight time, we started to get a terrible vibration from one of the front wheels. Benson determined that the remaining distance was too far to keep going so we 'bout faced and headed to the closest town looking for a garage. Within 15 minutes the brake drum was sitting on the ground amidst a mound of lug nuts and miscellaneous bolts, and the pivoting axel arm was removed from the main axel. To me it looked like a two day problem, not a 30 min one. But miraculously the three mechanics had the whole thing back together in just under an hour and a half. Unfortunatley time was ticking for us, now with under three hours to make a two hour drive to catch an international flight. I had to overt my eyes from the mayhem of the accelerated drive, but we screached into the terminal with just an hour 'till takeoff to find the books closed on our flight. 

We ran circles around the unmarked airport and desks until we found the Qatar desk where we learned that the next flight we might possibly get booked on was likely 2-3 weeks out. Weeks!?!? After some begging and pleading and many phone calls to the flight desk, we ran downstairs to meet Fred, our expediter who would do his best to break rules, get us checked in, get luggage to the plane, and whisk us through customes – all in under 35 minutes. With a whirlwind of passport examining and thumbprint scanning we slipped Fred some crisp green-ones and arrived at the gate minutes before boarding started, while our bags were escorted on one of the giant plane movers to the loading ramp. Phew, to say the least. We are en route to The Maldives!

Even for our final hours in the car the animals continue to give us a good show 

And even a peep show

Not the view you are looking for en route to an international flight

K is blissfully unaware of the situation

Of course the time proven method of whacking the crap out of it

And the view gets worse

But Kristin finds some local kids to play with – not surprisingly

This is Africa

Three hours to wheels up

Back on the road to discover we are not the only precious cargo out there