Day 21 - Laamu (Maldives)

Boy … what a “turtlely” awesome day! A day full of new life … new marine life that is. No Groundhog Day with today’s activities.

Breakfast as usual … except I should have known today would be juiced up when I started with Rocket Fuel! What is Rocket Fuel? Oh man … it’s “fuel” all right. It is a feat if you can finish a small glass as the main ingredient is apple cider vinegar. I added some sparkling water (Mike’s suggestion and a good one!)

In case you want to go to the “moon” …

Rocket 🚀 Fuel Ingredients:
Apple cider vinegar | Onion | Orange | Lemon or lime | Fresh ginger | Fresh turmeric | Garlic
| Fresh herbs (like thyme, rosemary, or tarragon) | Bay leaves | Black peppercorns | Optional: raw honey

While it tasted horrible … it may have been what I “needed” to survive another snorkeling event.

Today’s snorkeling was off the House Reef, guided by two marine biologist interns. Easy enough, I thought! Group snorkel … close to main hotel area … what could go wrong? 😑

Well nothing really went “wrong” but let’s say the route was much further out than anticipated and beneath me was dark blue abyss. Add in a choppy day with more aggressive ebb and flow waves vs outside our villa … I got a wee bit nervous. Then when my snorkel pinched (I assume that is what happened) and could not get a breath from my mouth and nose… it was on. Poor Mike. He’s so calming and patient with me. Good news is I finally swallowed my pride and took a rest on a floaty they brought out, gained my composure, solved my snorkel issue and went on to see a black tipped shark, Green Sea turtles 🐢 (one snoozing on a reef) … lots and lots of fish … so
worth it! Always is!

The sea amazes me … the world under the big blue ripples is so untapped and the symphony of life that happens down there is remarkable. This trip has taught us much about ourselves as we journeyed in these foreign lands but to learn about and experience the marine life here at Six Senses Laamu is irreplaceable.

We kept the learning going by doing a SHELL tour of their research facility. Can’t lie … it was a snore fest. Lots of info and all good stuff but he literally read off the information that was there. Nothing new or exciting nuggets for us. But guess we are still glad we did it. It can’t all be amazing, right?

Mike and I are on the countdown to returning to reality (Btw … Mike is doing ok with that 😉) and a prayer of mine to the man above while we’ve been traveling is for Him to show me/us what I/we need to see. He sure delivered today.

Today we not only witnessed the release of the fertilized eggs from the coral spawning event that happened the night we arrived at
Six Senses Laamu but we were able to witness the start of many baby turtles journey to the unknown … from nest to ocean. Serious Nat Geo stuff! The babies will have a full life of plush sea grass or will be nourishment for birds, crabs or fish. Of course … 🙏🏼 for sea grass!

Quick background … when we arrived, we were told there was a turtle nest on the island that they were waiting to hatch. They thought it hatched two days ago in the middle of the night and today was to be an exploratory excavation to see if any baby turtles didn’t make the climb out. Instead … the nest explodes with babies! There is a video where my new marine biologist friend (who loves turtles) explains it all. What an event! Everyone was literally rooting for them as they scurried down the sand slope and made it to the water.

After the last baby turtle made his/her way into the ocean and things died down a bit … I captured my new friend having a moment by herself. She stood at the water’s edge … her back to the sand and just gazed off into the sunset. I can only imagine the thoughts and emotions that were flooding her. And I even teared up a bit witnessing her passion and love for those little tortugas. To be so young but so clear as to what she is passionate about … I envy that!

Me? Lately I’ve been passionate about my ice cream selections! 🫩 Maybe this is a nudge to get serious and find my passion. And it’s not ice cream! Even though … I do l-o-v-e it!

Which reminds me … ice cream “fit” today:
A — Chocolate and Strawberry x 2
M — Blood Orange + Pomegranate | Coffee + Mint Chip

After all that excitement, we enjoyed what was left of the sunset at the Chill Bar before dinner.

Dinner tonight? Italian! See menu pic. The head chef for the resort is a fellow Italian so we knew we were in good hands. I’d say it was theeee best risotto I’ve ever had and the Tiramisu was unique and super delish as well! Main courses were exceptional too but these two were HR’s for this gal.

After dinner … bedtime for us! Fully bellies! Full hearts!

Hugs! M&ARead more