Moving From The South Ari Atoll To The Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives
Moving From The South Ari Atoll To The Lhaviyani Atoll, Maldives
We had to stay an extra week at our resort in the South Ari Atoll.
It wasn’t our choice, as we had booked another, smaller resort, but we were not allowed to go on to our next resort because a person had tested positive for Covid at our resort.
This person spent a week in isolation and then another test was done, which to our delight came back negative.
This meant that we were finally able to leave the island and move on to our next resort.
We were able to get a full refund from the resort in North Ari Atoll which we were not able to go to, and we moved on to our last resort in the Lhaviyani Atoll.
The resort in the Lhaviyani Atoll is an adults only resort, and it is the smallest and most beautiful of the four resorts we booked in the Maldives.
We were so excited to be able to come here.
We love everything about this small resort.
Every room in the resort is a small villa with a beach front deck, or is an over the water villa with direct access to snorkeling in the warm blue ocean.
The guests are mostly from Germany, with a few guests from eastern Europe and Russia.
The resort feels quiet, well maintained and very nice, with very kind and friendly staff.
Our seaplane landed in front of Kuredu Resort, one of the biggest resorts in the Maldives.
A speedboat was waiting for us at the jetty and we were quickly taken to Komandoo resort.
It is such a delight to stay at a small island resort with plenty of shaded spots to rest in the afternoons.
The food is good, but we have not been able to stick to our diet on this diving trip.
The salads and vegetables that they make have too much oil and we did eat too many desserts, which we are never tempted to do while we are at home.
We promised ourselves that we would do better when we return home.
The dive center is small, with only three dive instructors and two boats.
But there are almost 50 dive sites in the Lhaviyani Atoll, with lots of coral reefs and deep channel diving to see sharks and rays.
I signed up for diving as soon as I could.
I was told that currently the resort has about ten guests who do scooter diving, and one boat in operation.
This means that they take the scooter divers to the deep channels which might not be suitable for normal divers.
Scooter diving is something that I had never done before.
The scooter is a battery operated, torpedo shaped green device with no emissions or environmental effect on the ocean.
It has a strong propeller that allows divers to dive in sites that are very difficult to navigate with only fins.
The current is very strong inside the channels that run between the atoll and the deep blue ocean.
The sharks, dolphins and rays love strong currents, and they usually congregate where the currents are very strong.
I asked if it would be possible for me to learn how to use the scooter, and I was told that they teach it only to advanced divers who have dived at least fifty times.
Since I am an advanced diver with more than 150 dives,
it would require a lesson and then one shore dive, to teach me how to do scooter diving.
But the dive shop was so busy, that they did not commit to when I could learn how to scooter dive.
Meantime, I signed up for the two tank morning boat dives, and had a really great time exploring the dive sites in the Lhaviyani Atoll. On the day before our last day, I finally did get a chance to scooter dive.
I feel so alive when I dive.
I love this life in which you spend your days in bathing suits, swimming, snorkeling and diving daily.
We walk barefoot everywhere, because even in the restaurant, lobby and bar, the floor is white sand from the beach.
I guess even other guests felt our vibrancy, because some people came over to tell us that they thought I must be a famous movie star, and that we looked like a really cool couple.
It was such a nice compliment, that I was blushing with gratitude.
In the next posts I will add more photos from my dives.
Sending you love and a blue light,
Tali
