Arriving in Sri Lanka and Catching a Wave in Arugam Bay

Sri Lanka is a country with so many delicious foods!

For me it started with incredible food on our Sri Lankan Airlines flight: cashew nut upma, chana dhal masala, and broccoli tikki---yum!

Plus, the ceylon tea was so good I didn't need sugar or cream!

In Arugam Bay we had rice and fish curry at The Food Hut. The humble space housed incredible flavors!  This one entree consisted of 7 plates of food, including marinated and cooked beets, an amazing eggplant dish, dhal, and white fish.  It was much more than we could eat for 1100 rupee (about $11 USD). 

Driving from the airport across the island to Arugam Bay, I enjoyed the common sights of this beautiful country. Buddhist flags and paper lanterns from Buddha's triply blessed day decorated many homes. 

Buddhist shrines around bodhi trees (ficus religioso) could be sighted nearly every kilometer. Hindu temples were harder to spot until I learned that what I identified as Buddhist temples housed both Buddhist and Hindu shrines.  Mosques and even a few Christian churches also punctuated our drive. 

Rambutan and durian are in the height of their seasons. I spotted many trucks and tuk tuk laden with pink and yellow rambutan. I later learned that almost all other fruits are available year round, which explained why fruit stalls were so abundantly stocked. 

There are also mouth watering pastry trucks which were more appealing than ice cream trucks. 

We passed a tank, or ancient man-made water reservoir, which I mistook for a natural lake. The landscape was filled with rubber trees, tea bushes on the hillside, rain forests, monkeys on power lines, peacocks in rice paddies, iron wood trees (Sri Lanka's national tree), and golden cascade trees. (Which I had previously called yellow Dr. Seuss trees. It turns out that it is Thailand's national tree.)  The steep hills and deep ravines ensured that the roads were winding.  Cows, goats, traffic, and pedestrians ensured that our driver, Prash, was always alert. 

From the car I got to see boys flying kites in the street (everywhere else the sky was too crowded with trees), girls gathering flowers, and a game of cricket in a school yard. 

Our first morning in Arugam Bay, I enjoyed waking early and watching the thunderous waves and a cloudy sunrise. Then I watched in awe as 15-20 surfers maneuvered Arugam Bay Point.  

 

 

Since the shallow, rocky waters were not for me, I found a surf instructor, Raheem "Mr. Take It Easy."  And soon we were heading to Whiskey Point. 
 

 

 

Here the waves were kind to me and the soft sandy bottom was very forgiving.  For me, the surfing was fantastic. I was able to stand up right away, and my "Mr. Take It Easy" instructor had me working on how to turn right (turns out that right turns are challenging for me, while left turns are challenging for Derek Zoolander).
 

 

 

 

 

 

A diving dismount

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And after two hours and a few wipeouts like this, I was tuckered out. 
 

We returned to our laid back resort and our no fuss cabana for a relaxing afternoon of swinging in a hammock and reading. 

The Maldives are Amazing

An incredible piece of geography. 

An incredible place. 

 

Our room was the farthest left in the photo above.  At the end of the dock with the best view!

 

Walking to our room we saw baby reef sharks. Then we saw sting rays and beautiful fish--neon blue, bright green, sunshine yellow, pale silver, light blue, dark purple, white, black, and brown.  This beautiful view on our short walk to our room was a fitting start to the wonder we would witness here. 

 

On amorning run around the island (literally), I chased crabs the color of sand and interrupted a lizard homicide. I enjoyed the breeze but mostly spent my time trying to impress on my memory the incredible turquoise, teal, light navy, and rich blue colors of the Indian Ocean on all sides. 

Each time we walked to and from our room we got to see beautiful creatures: unicorn fish (their spike really does look like a unicorn horn on a fish), butterfly fish, bright parrot fish, pretty grouper with yellow side fins, a small squid spraying his ink, trigger fish (who chased a much larger shark away--the shark knew he was poisonous), slender needle fish, banner fish that could be their own yellow, black, and white flag, and more.  We could see these fish from above and in the water since we could snorkel from our deck. On our last snorkel we saw a huge white-silver fish and a very peaceful looking yet poisonous lion fish. 

  Almost ready to snorkel the house reef.

Snorkeling on the "house" reef I loved seeing an octopus employ his camouflage as he moved from a solid colored coral to a dotted piece of coral.  Surgeon fish were beautiful with their rich blue bodies and yellow accents.  Yellow and black banner fish and elegant Moorish idols were incredible contrasts to the blue and brown.  The Picasso trigger is appropriately named since it looks like a piece of modern art. 

From our deck, we had steps that lead into the Indian Ocean. 

During the day this was our snorkeling starting point. At night we turned on our floodlight and watched reef sharks, the occasional ray, and lots of jack fish--both gray and blue.  Since fish and animals are pretty consistent, we decided to try to see the jumping jack fish and reef sharks the next night at the same time. We were rewarded for our attempt by lots of jack fish and even more black tipped reef sharks!  Neil bravely worked as videographer, even though the sharks took distinct interest in our neighbor's GoPro, which they were dangling from their porch by a rope. 



 Shark!

A few sharks ventured very close. Later six sharks swam by and another four or more (only spotted by their fins above the water) swam past in the distance!

We went on a second snorkel excursion by boat to the "long" reef. It could have also been called the deep reef because the reef wall was so tall and the ocean floor so deep, we couldn't see the bottom. 

Here the bright fish continued to amaze.  Many looked like they were designed by imaginative young artists and looked like they couldn't possibly be real. Two surgeon fish chased each other in tight circles, nose to tail, and then reversed the chase. Thread fin butterfly fish (they are super thin), Moorish idols that look elegant with their long top fin, oriental sweetlips (with a tiger stripe and leopard spots), chunky box fish, impossibly neon colored parrot fish, regal angel fish (beautiful stripes with a bright blue edging)...and so many more fish I haven't yet learned to identify in beautiful colors--deep violet, pale turquoise, egg yolk yellow, and more. 

Schools of fish moved so gracefully along the edge of the reef wall that their movements looked choreographed. 

Neil had been hoping to see a sea turtle and he was rewarded with not one but two.  The first was nestled a ways down the reef wall, well camouflaged until he began to swim leisurely down and away. The second was near the surface of the water very near to our snorkeling group. It was beautiful to see up close!  While we were gawking at the first turtle, a rather big white tipped reef shark swam by a little ways away!

When we weren't snorkeling we were enjoying the view from our deck, playing tennis, or going to the driving range. 

 

We took a sunset cruise on Wednesday, and although the sky looked a bit cloudy, I was excited.  Neil and I said the only animal we had been hoping to see but hadn't so far were dolphins. I said that wasn't a problem since we could try to see them in Florida some other time. Less than ten minutes later, one of the crew spotted a bottle nosed dolphin. We followed what I thought was a small pod of four to five dolphins for over a half an hour. Sometimes they swam along our bow, other times they swam near the two other boats from our island. Then one was really playful and did a few jumping spins (FYI, I am very skilled at photographing the splashes AFTER such jumps).  Later we were surprised to see at least 12 dolphins swimming together.  Amazing!

As the boat pulled back in we were given another surprise--a beautiful sunset.