Maldives Republic

Today was pretty much a repeat of our previous days here, except the guys didn't go out in a boat, they just snorkeled around the home reef. But, I have other interesting stories of village life for you.
As we walked around the island, we had noticed some of the palm trees have boards fastened to their trunks to form ladders. Great idea, right? I had Don try one out so I could get a photo. Right after that, we ran into the man who was using them as intended. He climbs the palm, makes a cut across a flower stem? or new leaf? and fastens a plastic bottle to it. Then he covers it all with some cloth wrapping and climbs down. He empties the containers from his previous trip, which maybe is 3 times a day, but for sure twice a day. The sap that he collects is then boiled down to make syrup. Voila! Palm syrup just like maple syrup. We had heard the description of this from Harshi in Colombo, but this was the first time we got to see it in action.

Don demonstrates ladder

Man collecting sap

Height of palm

Man at top of palm

Another interesting bit as we walked past the boatbuilders was one of them was making copper nails to use on the boat. As we stood and watched the process, the man offered Don a turn and he managed to pound down the copper to make the head of the nail fairly successfully. It was pretty cool to see just how they did that.

Don pounding the head of the nail

This morning was a repeat of yesterday's, the guys went out on the boat to snorkel and I sat in the shade and stitched and read. But after lunch, when they returned, it got more interesting.
Don and I were sitting in the shade by the ocean, reading, when Rob came by. He was walking around taking pictures and he reported there were a group of women who were weaving. That got me interested and after a little bit, I wandered over to see what they were doing. They were weaving palm leaves to make palapas thatch. They don't seem to use it much on this island, their roofs are all metal or cement it seems, so maybe they are something they sell to other islands. So I took a picture and was asking them about how they use it, but English is pretty limited here. Unless people work in the tourist industry, they never use it, I think. Then one of the women gestured to me and had me sit in her spot and try my hand at weaving thatch. Well, it was hilarious - the young woman who had the best English asked for my camera so she could take a picture of me. I could hardly get down to the little stool the woman was sitting on and I found out later she is just a year younger than I am. Then it was lead me step by step, pretty much doing it for me, until I had added one double row of leaves to the thatch. At that I gave up and let them get back to work. Lots of fun and they had lots of laughs at my expense. Don wasn't with me and I think the woman felt freer without a man watching, they sure had fun!

Making thatch

My turn to try

Kids acting for the camera

More kids

Catching tiny fish

Bottle of fish

Don and Rob went off on a snorkeling trip with another fellow, Tom, from Germany. The trip was about 2 hours and went to a reef away from the island. Apparently, this is called a "thila". "A Thila is an underwater island that can be both, so small that you can dive it all around or so big that you'll manage to see only one side during a dive." They had a good time and enjoyed all the coral and fish they saw there.
After they left I went over to the school to see if they wanted me to speak with any of the students, the way I had on Dhangethi. It turned out the principal was away on leave, and the vice-principal(?) was afraid to do anything out of the ordinary. So I said if you talk to the principal and want me to come just contact the guesthouse.
I walked over to the windy side of the island and found a lazy chair in the shade. As I walked I passed a woman harvesting some fruit from a net-covered tree. I asked her what kind of fruit it was, but her English wasn't up to answering me. However, she gave me a fruit to try and motioned for me to eat it. It was delicious - sort of a pear-apple flavour. We still don't know what it is called...

Mystery fruit - I just found out they call it a wax apple

Tiny palapa at the restaurant

Don exploring some of the shady island

The dining area at our guesthouse

We packed up this morning and said goodbye to Eric, who was going off on a dive to hopefully see Manta Rays. We went to the dock to wait for the ferry and were entertained by kids swimming off the dock. There were also fish in the water to watch. I saw my first cuttlefish, which is a strange looking fish. A guide caught a couple to use as bait for the dive trip. We also saw a school of eelfish, which travel en masse all the time.

Eelfish school

Girl on the dock

Cuttlefish surrounded by the ink they extrude

The public ferry arrives

Notice where his foot is

Making a sharp turn to get out of the harbour

More steering

This morning, Rob, Don and Eric went out with Nish on a speedboat to go snorkeling with the whale sharks. They just found one, but they are so huge and impressive that one is enough. They said they had to swim as hard as they could to keep up to the shark. It is so large that even though it was hardly moving, it was hard to keep up. The boat had a rope hanging off the back that they could hang on to and get a ride farther along to catch up. They were all pretty pumped when they got back, just before noon.

Nish and Eric on the whale shark trip

Tea at the beach