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| Underwater police - this reef shark was definitely on duty! |
First things first - the crystal clear turquoise water. Yes, it really is the way it looks from magazines and the internet. Bleached coral makes up the sand on shore... it's a bright whitish sand making its reflectivity high and even... so it's like the sea is lit up from below.
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| From the air... yowzah!! |
The atolls that make up these islands boast some of the world's healthiest coral reefs... for now. They're home to more species of aquatic life than can be named, as evidenced by the +300 page books on the topic.
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| Topside |
We approached the water from both sides - top and bottom! We swam, snorkeled, boated, free-dived and Scuba-dived - we just couldn't get enough, and the price was right - it was mostly free!
Maldivians are, collectively, not a rich people. The 5* island resorts in magazines in no way represent 'real island life' or 'real island people'. Staying on a populated island brings together a useful trifecta - people, island economics and local traditions.
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| Everyday people do everyday farming on Thoddoo - here are some papayas on the road to the beach |
Our local host, Majeed, 'hooked us up' left, right and center. On many occasions, from the goodness of his heart. He took us shark-watching one evening and then fishing for our breakfast in the morning - a wonderful friend to have made.
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| Majeed is on the far right - our chef, Maria, is beside me as well as Usman, our Maitre D' - super casual |
Without further ado, let's get underwater!
Free diving
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| FREEDOM!!! |
Add to that the fact that they compete at holding their breath whenever they're in a pool, and you have the right ingredients for some free diving!
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| Plentiful sealife |
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| Parker actually managed to smile for this one! |
New-age snorkel gear is great but it's also bulky and so packing it is not doable for lightweight travelers.
This new gear eliminates the awful "oops-I-forgot-to-clear-my-tube" saltwater throat/nose burn of traditional snorkel gear by adding a check valve - you get incoming air, not water.
We tried it in Hawaii while snorkeling there, and liked it... but you still have to clear a foggy mask every few minutes, which reduces the elegance of the solution because clearing a flooded full face mask is more of an ordeal.
I suppose you could rub the inside of the lens with baby shampoo before hitting the surf, but nothing beats the convenience of strapping on a set of pool goggles and just diving in - no breathing apparatus, no bulky tubes, no heavy gear.
Defogging is easier- just flood, empty (1sec total) and continue enjoying the sights! Plus, swim goggles fit nicely in small baggage ;)
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| You don't have to be deep to enjoy life underwater! |
As a result of wanting to stay immersed to watch a cool fish or swim with a sea turtle, the kids have trained themselves to hold their breath - sometimes for +30sec.
This allows them to get up-close-and-personal with wildlife while enjoying complete freedom of movement.
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| Nathan diving in 3M of water to checkout a purple ripple-lipped clam |
It just so happens that Cheryl and I both prefer the no fuss nature of free diving too!
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| We swam with this guy a lot! |
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| Sweet camo! |
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| Abundance |
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| Vivid colours |
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| Bogies everywhere! |
We've visited many Maldivian and Hawaiian reefs this way... it's perfect for 1-5m of water - you just have to be careful to equalize your ears as you go down so as to avoid ear squeeze while under pressure.
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| Just chillin' with our friends! |
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| Dory?! |
All of the reefs we visited in the Maldives were, literally, teeming with fishes. Even shallow coral was home to schools of +100 fish at a time - Parrots, Tangs, Narwhals, Sharks, Tuna, Stingrays, Eels, Mantarays, Turtles... wait - SHARKS?! TUNA?? STINGRAYS?!?! TURTLES?!?!
YES! We saw, and swam with, them all!
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| Up close and personal |
Though landlubbers (like us!) tend to find this edgy or even irresponsible, the incidence of diving and/or snorkeling wildlife injury is very, very low.
Locals chuckled (repeatedly) when the kids fessed up to their fear of sharks. Majeed, our host-with-the-most, made sure the kids swam with sharks and stingrays to help them get over their Hollywood-based fears!
The kids (and us) especially loved swimming with turtles - we all found them incredibly graceful, beautiful and "chilled out". People seem to keep a respectful distance so as to not interfere. What a joy these creatures are to swim with!
Snorkeling in the Maldives is truly amazing.
Scuba Diving
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| Scuba let's you go farther and see more |
I decided to get my SSI Open Water certification because I found an excellent shop-in-progress on our first day on the island and wanted to experience the renowned ocean depths around Thoddoo.
My teacher, Michael of malledives (see what he did there?), gave me a ton of leash as I worked through the program. The debate was PADI or SSI... Michael offered both, but preferred SSI, so I went with that - online training is better for those travelling light!
I was so impressed by the quality and rigor of the curriculum. I had 1-on-1 instruction most of the time... and doing the training in the Maldives meant inspirational training dives too!
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| Mantarays passed overhead |
My deepest dive was to 20m... and it was spectacular. I swam 20ft from 5 4-6' reef sharks. I went eye-to-eye with a gigantic sea turtle, I swam just a few feet away from a 6-8' Moray eel. I watched a Manta pass overhead and boy did I see fishes! It was, truly, spectacular.
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| 18m down |
In summary - you can't go wrong with a Maldives getaway... the people are great, the sea is alive, the sand is white and the price is right on populated islands!
As always, I hope you enjoyed this post - fire me some comments about what you read here or about anything else that comes to mind.
Amazing pictures Mike!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rose... it was tough to pick a few to post here... it was so much fun to experience all these creatures that deep-down I wanted to post 100 pictures with now words to describe them ;)
Deletedid you find much bleaching of coral?? i know we saw lots of that from rising ocean temps at the great barrier reef. what about jelly fish? that was always our biggest fear and we wore "stinger suits" to protect us! would die to go here.
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DeleteHi Katrina! So no jellyfish in the Maldives for us to worry about... at least not around Thoddoo. The suits are wise for sure for dive locations where they are endemic! Great barrier reef must have been awesome snorkeling/diving! We wanted to go there while we were in Australia, but couldn't make that fit with our schedule - I'd love to hear about your trip there! Don't die - just go to the Maldives ;) Combined with a trip to, say, the middle east, India or Sri Lanka, the flight cost gets "distributed"... then you can let island economics work their magic while you relax - great for travel with kids too ;) Thanks for the comment!
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