An island in the middle of nowhere. 400 residents - Nov 29, 2011

A beautiful day in Maldives. We woke up to a rainbow over our special island. Seems the captain was a busy guy this morning as he went fishing and caught 2 blue fin trevally, 2 blue fin tuna and 2 barracuda with teeth as large as a small shark. A Quick breakfast of fruit and toast and we are off to a day on dhiggaru island. I napped next to the fish on the way. We changed and jumped in the dingy to have a morning snorkel. Wow. It was truly an underwater city for fish. Schools and schools of beautiful fish. We saw a sea turtle dart down to the ocean bottom, and a bunch of fish feeding off a jellyfish. The reef was large and the snorkle was about an hour. To the left within 5' there was a black tip reef shark just looking at us. First intro to a shark for me. Its the first day it is 100 % humidity and about 90 degrees and no wind to speak of. The afternoon snorkle a 6' napolean fish was spotted. Amazing. We docked in the islands marina and explored our first inhabited island. There are about 400 residents. First and second schools, a hospital, and a store. There are metal roofed tented structures where men gathered to watch tv. Women fully clothed in burka's were with the children.there is a soccer team on the island who play 4 other teams from the other islands. There are police and an ordinance that runs the island. Being Muslim, call to prayer happens every 4 hours. The kids were super cute and happy to see us. There is a dance tonight on the island that we are attending. The dancers arrived On a boat playing the bongos and other sorts of morrocos. The island is really clean minus the end where the rubbish is. There are little streets made of sand and a protection wall surrounding to support for tsunamis.The southern most atoll is south of the equator. There are a total of 25 atolls and the country is approx 515 miles long. There are a total of 1190 islands. 200 of them are inhabited. Tonight we went to the island again to view the traditional maldivian dance. There were about 3o men playing the bongo drums and using their voice to make music. It was very interesting to see. We all danced and had a good time. I must say however the 90 degree weather and the smell under the tin roof bar ( we named the place as bars, clubs and alcohol are all illegal in Maldives) was less than desirable.