[Password] brucelaura
[Position] 06 54.84N 073 13.82E
[Status] Lovely 23 mile sail to our next destination, an uninhabited island
in the next atoll to the south of Uligan. Uligan was an amazing experience.
It is a small island of about 350 (about 77 school-age kids). Our agent and
the immigration officer threw a fish BBQ on the beach for the four visiting
boats the day after we arrived. We were asking about the various Maldivian
dishes, which were all delicious, and the immigration officer, Niyaz,
volunteered his wife, Nisaha, to give us a cooking lesson! Their 'weedend'
is Friday and Saturday with Friday being like our "sabath". So, on Saturday
we went to his house in the morning and his wife taught us to make roti.
Hers were perfectly round and transparent-thin. Ours looked like Australia,
Africa, and Spain, befitting our international status! Then we sat around
the kitchen table and mostly watched as they prepared a feast and treated
us all to a wonderful lunch. Later in the afternoon Niyaz took us in his
golf-cart/truck (no cars on the island) to the local farm where we were
able to get eggplant, pumpkin, cucumber, greens, and chilis, cut directly
off the vine and still warm from the sun. We were overwhelmed by the
hospitality we experienced in Uligan. Oh, and did I mention that it is
drop-dead gorgeous here and we snorkeled off the boat every day? What an
incredible first impression of the Maldives!

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