Water activities were the main attraction today. We were on the first sailing of the Zodiacs and it was a hoot. One sits on the pontoon and hangs on to a rope that rings the boat. Depending upon the speed the driver selects, it establishes the comfort level for the passengers. For our trip out to the sand atoll, we had a second officer from Holland as our driver. On the return trip our Captain was the driver. He thoroughly enjoyed doing this!
The snorkeling was okay. The coral is quite bleached and the water was only chest deep. I did see a starfish, many parrot fish and a number of others. The only shade was some beach umbrellas and it was mid 80's Fahrenheit. Given the right excursion, I'd certainly do it again!
After returning to the ship we showered the salt water off and ate some lunch before tendering to the island to walk around. There are no paved streets and a few minimart type stores, a generating plant, several schools, public administration buildings, and a huge mosque. There were no calls to prayer while were there.
We did inquire of a local artist about where people worked. He indicated it was primarily in tourism on surrounding islands which house resorts. We only saw 3 vehicles: an ambulance, a small work pickup, and a small van. There were a number of motorcycles with some of them being ridden by Burkha clad ladies.
At the opposite end of town from the tender pier, a man was building a 30' boat by hand and I watched him make his metal fasteners by hammering rods in a vise to flatten the end like a nail head. The rest of the boat is being built with an assortment of hand tools. It was impressive.
With the heat, we headed back to the ship by tender and we were on board by 3:30pm. We lounged around the rest of the afternoon until dusk and after we were underway. After a light Lido dinner, Ashok Ferrey presented a talk on vintage Sri Lankan furniture. BBC Earth II was shown on the main stage and it was accompanied by a live orchestra. It's really good and was worth watching again.
We lose a half an hour tonight as we head towards Columbo, Sri Lanka. Tomorrow is a sea day with Mariner Activities and a return of a favorite EXC In Depth event: story time at 9pm in the Crow's Nest.
No comments:
Post a Comment