In the distance, Ocean Divine, my "home" for a week ... (Maldives, February 2014)

Maldives nostalgia

Maldives - February 2014

Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation of an article originally written in French. I apologise for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have resulted. If you read French, click on the French flag below to access the original, correct text:

I'm craving. Of light and tropical heat, of islands and salt water, of bubbles and coral... I am already nostalgic for the Maldives.

CLARIFICATIONS: in April 2014, I interrupted my series of articles on the MaldivesI found it difficult to continue to praise the beauties of this Indian Ocean archipelago (and thus to encourage people to go to the Maldives) when the regime had tightened its application of Sharia law, after my stay in February 2014. Not respecting human rights, the Maldives had to leave the Commonwealth of Nations in 2016. But in september 2018, things have changed, with the surprise defeat in the autocratic president's elections Abdulla Yameen supported by Islamists and now prosecuted for corruption, beaten by Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, an ally of the democratic camp. Then in april 2019, the party of Mohamed Nasheedformer president of the Maldives (2008-2012), several times imprisoned by the regime and main opposition figure, won the first legislative elections since Yameen left. The Maldives return to the path of democracyThis is great news!

Turquoise blue panorama

It's been more than a month since I came back from the Maldives... Five weeks and four days have passed since I left the turquoise blue horizon of this coral archipelago on the waterin the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Time flies and I'm just starting to explore the images stored in the back of my hard drive... I just found this little panorama that I had forgotten, made with my iPhone, with the nice app Dermandarfrom the bow of the boat, the aptly named Ocean Divine.

We were in front of Dhingurah Island, one of the stopovers of this fantastic dive-cruise which took me from Malé to Ari Atoll...

Want to leave

The desire to go back to distant horizons nags me again.

The shark passes, the fragile beauty of the islands, the intense blue as far as the eye can see, this magnificent boat and the company of other passionate divers... I already miss it all.

A huge spotted skate let me approach, time for a photo ... (Maldives, February 2014) — A huge spotted ray let me approach, the time of a picture... (Maldives, February 2014)

In the passes, white tip sharks of good size pass and repass ... (Maldives, February 2014) — In the passes, nice sharks come and go ... (Maldives, February 2014)

Gaëlle poses in front of a school of blue-striped snappers. (Maldives, February 2014)

Nemo chose an anemone with a fuchsia dress to hide. (Maldives, February 2014)

View from the bow of the Ocean Divine. (Maldives, February 2014) — View from the bow of the Ocean Divine (Maldives, February 2014)

I am nostalgic for the Maldives.

😎

Maldives - February 2014