Maldives Part Two - This is Why We Came

Our home for the next six days is a traditional Muslim inhabited island called Keyodhoo (of the Maldives' 1,192 islands, only 192 are inhabited). It is very small (500 meters x 250 meters), with a population of only 671 (675 for the next six days). The people here live primarily from fishing as well as some government employment, with tourism also gaining importance. There are only a couple of guesthouses on the island, plus a diving company.

There are no cars or motorcycles - just peace and quiet, accentuated by the sounds of children playing and the call to prayer several (five) times per day, plus the backdrop of the gentle hum from the diesel generator situated at the far end of the island. This is the sound of life in the Maldives.

We are experiencing the Maldives in a far different manner from most tourists. In the first 24 hours in this country, having stayed a night in Male and taken the slow boat here to this traditional island, we've probably seen more of the Maldivian way of life than 95 per cent of this country's visitors, who usually go straight from the airport to their resort island by seaplane and never leave the beach. It's neither criticism of them nor boasting from us - but we feel particularly lucky because this suits our way of travelling, we get a far richer experience in terms of exposure to local culture, and we get to do it at a much lower cost.

Included in the cost of our stay is a daily snorkelling or fishing excursion, so we were eager to go and explore the surrounding waters, which are purportedly some of the richest in tropical marine life in the world. Owen began the day by lowering the tuna population by one - this was not catch and release, as this critter would be part of lunch.

Hmmmm... which island should we choose?

I've got my eye on that one.

Well get in there and see what you can find, son! 

I hope you remembered to close the watertight seal on my camera, Daddy!

I could post hundreds of these shots - it's that nice. The waters in the reefs surrounding the islands are teeming with colourful fish, and the visibility was excellent.

Sorry, but you're not getting any names. I'm not up to speed on my fish species, so we'll just call him orange and blue stripey #1 (one of the kids' projects upon returning to Canada will be to go through photos and identify what we actually saw!)

This one we can identify - just a little darker but less fit than when he left home 3 months ago.

Big treat! Awesome cool ray #1

Seriously - shouldn't you be in school? (and a school of fish doesn't count!)

Owen's tuna makes it onto our lunch table - nothing fancy here but about the freshest fish you can get.

And as if the day couldn't get any better - we were joined in the afternoon by a school/pod of about 50 dolphins. Our skipper gently nosed the boat towards the dolphins and, sure enough, they were happy to come check us out - soon they were jumping, doing all sorts of acrobatics, as well as riding the bow wave of our boat.

My poor photographic skills could only achieve this slightly blurry action shot.

All in all, a fantastic first day in the islands, and we hope that it's a precursor for the rest of the week. We plan on basically the same routine each day - the snorkelling is one of the main reasons we are here. If it's like this each day, none of our group is going to get tired of it.

I'm posting several entries at once - if you missed our first Maldives post just click here