Below...our ship and our private 1st class cabin!
Our island accommodation was a simple non-AC bungalow (there were only 20 in total) under the palms on the ocean facing west. The tricky part for us was managing a clicking ceiling fan, open windows for the ocean breeze, and the absence of window screens to keep out the mosquitoes during sleeping hours. We are learning the art of compromise as John seems to need cool more (prefers open windows) and Lori has a tougher time with mosquitoes (prefers closed windows). Actually, it seems like one of the reasons why John doesn't care so much about the mozzies is it appears that Lori serves as a natural bug repellent (from John's perspective). John lies there near naked with no blanket sweating and all he needs is Lori beside him who attracts all the mozzies towards her!
A great perk at our hut was the delicious hot masala tea delivered to our door each morning at 7:00. (Mom and Dad would love the tea - lots of milk and sugar ;D) It is such a treat to sit on the veranda watching the day awaken. It was very peaceful. Again the food was great - it is amazing how varied the vegetarian dishes are. Suffice it to say, when you have 3 all-you-can-eat meals a day, it is hard to restrain oneself! How did we manage to swim without sinking???.
Below...home sweet home and one of many ocean views.
As small as this island is, it is well inhabited - very little land is free of a home, small building or tiny garden. There are approximately 6500 people living there in very small dwellings. There is one main road running the length of the island and it was hard to count more than 3 cars/vans on the whole island. Their source of income is coconut coir and fish. This they sell on the mainland and are able to purchase rice, veggies, fruit, etc. There are also many goats, chickens and a few cows which are mostly free to wander about...the goats are oblivious to our speeding minivan as they lay on the roadside! Coconut coir is the use of the coconut fibre for making such items as rope and mats. We toured a coconut plant where we learned how much can actually be made and used from a coconut. You have coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut meat, portions used for cow feed, portions used to make coir as well as dried shells used for cooking fires. All from one fruit!. The photo below shows the women separating out the good strands of coir fibre before they are spun into a binder twine style of rope.
The island is completely covered by coconut palms, the ground is all sand everywhere (or old coral) and there is just a few occasional plots of land where some veggies are grown and a few fruit trees manage to live. Electricity on the island is provided by a very large solar panel array, and apparently they have no problems with water supply with the ground water level just a few feet below the sand surface.
One side has a large coral lagoon which was unfortunately bleached by a 1998 El Nino. There is evidence that the corals are coming back - but it will take quite some time to restore it to what it once was. Despite this, there is much aquatic life! Within swimable distance from the beach just outside the coral reef, we saw turtles, unicorn fish, tiger fish, parrot fish, needle fish, clown fish (nemo) and countless others of varying shapes, sizes and abounding colors for which we do not know the names.
As you can see from the photo below...the beach around the resort and the water was about as perfect as you can imagine...and there were barely 50 people here so long quiet walks in scenes like this were part of the daily routine.
....The water was unbelievably warm (like bath tub water) and clear... and the conditions for afternoon napping were excellent.
We were brought on a tour of the island and, on the most southern tip, was a beautiful beach where there was evidence of a turtle's nesting. We were also fortunate enough to spy a few baby turtles making their way to the ocean - they were the size of the Canadian toonie! It is exciting to watch their pace quicken as they sense the closeness of the ocean. The turtles seem to be coming ashore and laying their eggs all around the resort area, so it is not uncommon in the early morning to see some little fellas scurrying about.
One day we went out by boat snorkeling just outside the reef about 1 km from shore and there in about 10m depth of water spotted 4-5 huge (1m diameter) sea turtles swimming about or lying on the ocean floor...truly a cool experience to see the graceful way they seem to glide through the water. I hope this little guy grows up to be big one day!
The vast majority of the other 25 -odd people on this trip were young Indian couples, 100% of which were honeymooners. Slowly we got to know a few of them and by the time we departed the island, they all wanted to have their pictures taken with us!.
Well, we deliberated a lot about whether to extend our stay. 2.5 days on a ship for barely 3 days on the island was a drag. But extending would mean that we'd have to wait for the next ship...5 more days and although in many ways this island was near perfect....it just didn't seem like the right thing to do. John would have liked to have taken a scuba course, but it was 50% more expensive to do it here and the corals were mostly all dead...so it just seemed like it would be better to wait for another time/place that would seem better suited. So it was with a lot of regret we bid farewell to a near perfect tropical paradise and headed for the bustle of the rest of India....
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