Paradise, part 1

The Maldives is an island nation consisting of a group of atolls south of India in the Indian Ocean. There are 26 atolls that make up 1,192 islets with 250 being inhabited. Oh so technical for such an absolutely amazingly beautiful, pristine area.

We arrived on a Monday after an extremely long travel that started on Saturday. The flight plan was Pittsburgh to NY's JFK to Dubai and then to the Maldives. We almost missed our flight between Pittsburgh and JFK. We literally ran through the NY airport, but you all read that earlier.
When we arrived the company that we booked through, Atoll Paradise,was waiting for us with this bottled water, a package with info and a smile! We had three bags total, two dive bags and our clothes bag. Unfortunately, the two dive bags were missing! AGH, why couldn't it have been the clothes bag! One they could locate, and we received it on Tuesday, but the other, at first, was lost! Luckily we received it on Wednesday afternoon. But bags or no bags, we could always rent the equipment and nothing could spoil this place. Anantara Resort is located in the South Male Atoll. It has two islands with bungalows on it. Ours had 50 over the water suites and the other one was a bit larger with various accommodations. I preferred the quietness and smaller island. We could eat a the restaurants on either island, but tended to stay more on our own.I loved the small details that this resort incorporated into their every day routine. This Christmas tree greeted us upon our arrival.They gave us this glass of lemonade, we filled out some guest cards and then were shown to our over the water bungalow!
I hate to drag this out, but it will be even more fun for all of you over these next few days! Stay tuned tomorrow for the bungalow!