Do you ever ship things to the Maldives? The quick answer: NO.

The less quick answer: I did take a parcel of jet fuel and diesel to an island chain south of the Maldives. Check out the Chagos Archipelago. There is a tiny island there called Diego Garcia. Sadly, I called on Diego Garcia pre blog. I say sadly because this is hands down one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. I created a powerpoint slideshow that I converted to an adobe pdf and emailed to friends and family just so I could show off my pictures. The beaches were straight out of a movie. Crystal clear aqua blue with perfectly soft white sand. Beautiful beaches? Sign me up! In addition to the beaches Diego Garcia has a very unique history which made it a very fun place to hike around and explore. The very, very, very cool thing for me about the voyage to Diego Garcia was that I crossed the equator. This is a milestone in any sailors life - I had been sailing for five years before receiving my shellback! (Sailors who haven't crossed the equator are pollywogs and sailors who have are shellbacks.) My crew had a shellback ceremony for me and some of the other sailors (we had a 12 man navy team aboard and some of them didn't have it). It was awesome! I had to crawl through garbage and suck a cherry out of a belly button....yummy.

Wow! Remembering that trip makes me slightly nostalgic and makes me think that I better write a post all of its own about visiting Diego Garcia...even though it was years ago!

(since this trip was pre blog....it was also pre big bertha, my trusty camera sidekick....the photo quality is a little low, sorry.)