Day 6 - Soaking in Ithaafushi

It was another beautiful morning. We slept in until after 7. It felt great after yesterday’s unintentional early morning, but also meant we missed the best of the sunrise. It did feel good to sit out on our deck and enjoy the early morning calm. 

Alison loves to take pictures of me taking pictures

Alison went to the gym while I continued to lounge on the deck. When she got back we took a bike ride around the island. It was a beautiful island. Today I took my big camera on our bike ride and tried to capture some of the beauty. 

Alison's preferred bike speed is fast

Eric's preferred bike speed on the island is more leisurely, which is why Alison usually leads our rides

We had another great beachside breakfast. I felt adventurous and avoided the buffet. Instead I ordered a handful of items from the A La Minute menu. I ordered a Maldivian omelette. This omelet is made with Moringa leaf, chunk tuna, onion, Maldivian chili and curry leaf. It was a little on the spicy side, but I quite enjoyed it. I also ordered the Signature Waldorf Astoria Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, and I finished off my meal with a crepe along with fresh fruit and Nutella. We tend to eat a large breakfast because we often won’t eat another meal until dinner. Alison had poached eggs with avocado toast and French toast. It was an excellent breakfast. The weather today could not have been more perfect. When we finished our meal we sat there for a few minutes sipping fresh fruit juice and taking in the view. 

We lounged at our villa all day. We just wanted to soak in every second of this magical place. That meant much of the day was spent floating and swimming in our pool. When we weren't in the pool we were lounging in the sun. We had perfect beautiful sunny weather all day. We broke out our speaker and listened to music while we lounged. It was fantastic. 

This may be my favorite island view. I love the contrasting colors of the water and the beauty of the palm trees and the pergola over the water. This photo captures the colors exactly as we would see them from our deck. 

We also went on a couple of long snorkeling sessions right off our villa. We swam up and down the reef. The water was extremely clear today. We saw so many colorful fish. We both commented that we have never seen so many fish while snorkeling, and it’s literally right off our deck. There were some large fish as well that were so many colors - they looked like the rainbow and had eyelashes, so they looked quite feminine. Alison’s other favorite fish had orange and yellow stripes with purple fins. And she also loved the blue and yellow tropical fish. It is amazing that such great snorkeling is readily available whenever we want it. 

We snorkeled over to the wedding pergola

We went to happy hour again today. They were serving sweet and spicy pecans. I also downed a couple of very refreshing watermelon juices. We enjoyed sitting in an open air building enjoying a few beverages and listening to piano music. After happy hour we returned to our villa to chill. 

Tonight we had dinner at Terra. This is the island's signature restaurant. It is designed as a dining experience in a treehouse. Each table is situated in an open air pod. Since we arrived first we got to pick from any of the pods (there were ~7 pods). We chose one of the highest pods. It was 10 meters tall and had great views of the island. The weather was great when we started eating. As with many meals on this island, this was a multi course experience. We have really enjoyed the the way they make dinner an experience here. We enjoyed a number of appetizers. The presentation was top notch and the food was delicious. 

As we were preparing for the main course the weather took a turn for the worse. We have learned the weather can turn quickly on this island. One of the risks of eating in an open air restaurant is that poor weather makes the experience less fun. Once it started raining the staff moved us into the Rock. This is a cave like area that houses a wine cellar. They served us the main course and dessert in the Rock. This was one of our favorite meals of the trip. 

After dinner we headed back to our villa. It was hard to believe it was our last night in the Maldives. We double checked to make sure we had everything we needed to get into Turkey. It was good we checked tonight because Turkey added a new form starting today that everyone entering the country needs to fill out. We also set an alarm for 12:55am to wake up and check in for our flight (available 24 hours in advance). We had some trouble getting checked-in. Turkish airlines doesn’t have a great app/website, but we eventually figured it out. We are sad our time in the Maldives is quickly coming to an end, but we are so grateful for our amazing experience on this island.