Woke up at 5.30 involuntarily, gobbled down the breakfast that was delivered to our door with the wake up call. We were brought by taxi to the harbour were we took the Dhoni to the airport. Checked in our luggage and were brought to the Maldivean Air Taxi. Seaplanes are the primary mode of transportation in the Maldives, 150 flights per day with 22 planes. The planes they use are Haviland Twin Otters [1] [2] modified for sea usage. The pilots are known as the “bare foot pilots” (See pictures for evidence). These planes at off and land on a very short stretch of water so the more or less fall from the sky close the the island. The take of and landing were remarkably smooth. Cruising speed it 150 knots (~280 kmh), we flews at 500 meters high which provides great views of Male (capital with severe space shortage) and the Atols in between Male and Medhufusi Island Resort on Meemu Atol. It was true a great way to start this leg of the trip On the apoach we got the first glimps of our island. It was pretty warm and we were welcomed with a nice drink and we shown around the island and our watervilla. Very very nice! We did some paddling on a canoe and allthough it was clouded the Sun was rather intense and we got a nice sun burn. In the afternoon a big Ray was awaiting us at our private water exit on the watervilla enough to give Ilona a good scare for the next day snorkling trip.
[Lots of pictures (on request) here]
