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