Entry By : Eric
Country: Maldives
Subject:

Paradise!

Date: July 9 , 2006

We've been here in the Maldives for a week and we don't ever want to leave! If I could line up work in the dive shop, there would be no reason to. Alas, it isn't to be, but it's fun to dream:)

Velidho Island is a small island in the North Ari Atoll. You would have to have a pretty good map to find it, and even then it would likely be spelled differently than I have. Even within the country, the maps have various spellings for all the islands. It took Val and I less than 20 minutes to walk all the way around the island, and that was stopping along the way to admire the baby black tip reef sharks that live in the lagoon along one side of the island. The place is small, but it lacks of nothing. There is a small power plant, a salt water desalination plant, and a septic system that can certainly handle the waste from the facilities that do exist. The dive shop is world class, as is the diving. The staff are friendly to the point of family, and the boat crew get to know you so well, I have trusted them to take care of my equipment. This is not something I generally do!

As best we can tell, we are the only Americans on the island, and it seems it is very rare that they even see Americans here. 90% of the guests are German or from the UK with a couple from Austria and a few dive staff members from other countries as well. We have been welcomed by the guests as well as the staff to the point of being invited to visit people in 3 different countries when we pass thru Europe later on in the trip

Both of us have been doing serious work on our tans, and my logbook is getting thicker every day. Most people cringe when they hear the term 'shark infested waters', but to a diver this is heaven underwater. I have done dives where I almost had to gently nudge the sharks out of my way to photograph other fish. It isn't the right time of the year to see whale sharks on this side of the country, but I did get to see the only other animal I hadn't gotten to see underwater that I was hoping for. A few days ago, while on a dive near the outer edge of the atoll, I turned my back to the reef and looked out into the deep blue and spotted a pod of 10 dolphins swimming past me. They gave me a quick look and swam off. My heart was racing! I was so startled I couldn't even get my camera focused to take a photo. My dive buddy was still looking at the reef and by the time I got his attention, it was too late.

Many of the reefs were pretty hard hit by El Nino back around 1999/2000, but coral growth has come back since then. A few sights seem to have escaped the effects, including a wreck that we dove yesterday. Tons of soft corals cover this ship and it has only been underwater for 15 years. This is really a good indicator of how fast it can grow in these waters. Another thing that had some effect, but not much, was the tsunami in 2004. These islands are so low that there really wasn't a large wave at all, but simply a very high tide came in. There was some water damage, but not much and there are no visible effects at all.

We have four more days here and I've only got one more full day of diving left, but we plan to soak up as much sun as possible before we head for Egypt.

Before we left home, several people told us that when we were in SE Asia, we needed to take a day or so and really treat ourselves to a nice 4 or 5 star hotel just to remember what it feels like. Well, we found out that Velidho is considered a 3 star resort, but in my book it has been 4 or 5 star all the way, and this has been a perfect respite before we head back into the harried traveler mode when we arrive in Cairo.

That's it for now, the white sand awaits and we need to vacate the room for a while so our 'room boy' can make it up for us. Ahh, life is pretty good from where we're looking at it!

Eric

 

 

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