The sea: underwater passion || Etp Hotels.com ||

THE SEA: UNDERWATER PASSION

Away from schedules, from the traffic and from meetings. Only the extreme contact with the most real. If when closing your eyes, pausing from your job or from your day-to-day business, you feel suddenly taken to the deepest blue sea surrounded by a surreal silence, then it means you are ready to experience the fantastic offer of the most spectacular deepness on earth.

Maldives: a journey into the deepest blue

The Maldives are a perfect destination to experience the embrace by the sun, the coral beaches, the palm trees bent almost touching the waves and the exuberant undersea life spotted by a carousel of turtles and colored reef fishes: they are 1192 small and flat coral islands grouped in 26 atolls.

For divers the Maldives are always the symbol of important meetings thanks to the numerous species populating the submarine life: from mantas to whale sharks, from tuna fishes to sail fishes. In the straits (kandu in Maldivian, meaning the communicating channel between atoll and the open sea where they meet the ocean pulled four times a day by the tides and from the monsoons) the great marine predators and the divers meet. It is enough to let oneself go with the movement of the sea currents to swim side by side with the sea eagles and with the sail fishes of Guaraidhoo Corner, on the atoll of Malé South or to watch the sea fans of Fotheyo or the sharks and the turtles of Rakeedhoo, both in Felidhu.
These are only a few of the most exciting dives in the world: the itineraries are infinite, shown only by the sea and from the available time.

In 2001 the Maldivian government has drawn-up a Report on the Environment introducing strict rules and prohibitions to discipline tourism, protecting the habitat and the threatened species: interdiction to export bait-fishes, to fish among the rocks in touristic places and protecting threatened species like sharks, turtles, giant mussels and black corals. Furthermore, 25 protected marine area have been established between 1995 and 1999.

Red Sea: spectacular nature

The Red Sea offers some of the most spectacular seabed of the world: extraordinary coral reefs, underwater relicts, thousands of fishes and sea water of an extraordinary transparence.

The best equipped places are doubtless Sharm El Sheikh on the tip of the Sinai Peninsula and Hurgada, along the Egyptian oriental coast. For solitaire diving go to discover the South area of Egypt and the coasts of the Sudan. Small islands like Zabargad and Rocky Island can be reached by getting on a boat at Ras Qulan, 4 hours drive away from Hurgada, and present unique dives among the fishes in still unspoiled areas of the sea.

Going even further South, until Sudan, in Sha’ab one can try a shivering encounter with the sharks: indeed, here lives a small colony of white fin and gray sharks and they can be approached in exchange for bits of fish spread-out on the water by a diver guide.

Other than those big reef predators, the area offers another unusual show: on the seabed, approximately 17 meters deep, metal “eggs” are laid and they look like space ships outside of their course. Today they are invaded by sea fans and grouper fishes, but were earlier a real underwater city: it was built by Jaques Cousteau in order to study man’s capacity of survival.
Other classic destinations for diving are the Sanganeb lighthouse, outside the Sudan port. Surrounded by a spectacular crown of corals, the lighthouse stands alone in the middle of the water’s deep blue.