Pictures FINALLY! Check out the last 10 posts for even more pictures of pardise!

Teaching English in Fakarava

The fam at Controleur Bay

Ancient Tikis on Nuku Hiva

Pearl Farm tour bus with all the cruisers

Kids on the outside of the Atoll Kahuei

Malachi at anchor, Fatu Hiva

Lots of fruit!


Jocelyn's 16th BD celebration

Girls on the beach at Kaehui

Kids in phone booth at Fakarava

Dave, Kyle, Jay & Steve at Fakarava

Jay, Fatu Hiva

Jay playing with the boys at Fatu Hiva

Cruisers at Kauehi Airport during pearl farm tour.

First Yellowfin Tuna! Nuku Hiva

Girls atop Nuku Hiva

Fakarava

16 degrees 30 minutes south, 145 degrees 27 minutes west

We're in Fakarava and the anchorage here is crystal clear and warm and the underwater visibility is 60 feet plus. It's warm and rainy today but the winds that we've been experiencing for the past several days have finally died down.

We have been snorkeling/diving every day through the pass where we entered into this lagoon. We go at slack as the current is changing to flood, so that we drift into the lagoon rather than out to sea where there are big breakers! The coral is beautiful and varied and we've seen loads of fish. Our favorites are a huge parrot fish and the sharks, which were a little unnerving at first. Those of us who snorkel, have seen a maximum of 10 sharks at one time, while those who dove to 75 feet swam through schools of sharks too numerous to count! Jay reports that at 75 feet he looked up towards the surface and saw the dinghy above with crystal clear clarity. Most days, our adventures take between one and two hours, it's something everyone is really enjoying.

Yesterday, we had lunch at the little Pension here (small hotel with food service) and enjoyed pan fried Parrot fish and curried chicken while sitting at the table on deck while sharks circled us, it was especially entertaining when we scraped our scraps overboard the the sharks fought for a bite! It would have been our desire to linger a little longer over lunch then walk around the tiny village (approximately 40 people) but as in typical South Pacific fashion, a squall snuck up on us and the wind shifted so we rushed back to the boats to make sure everything was closed up so we wouldn't get soaked and to stand anchor watch to make sure we didn't end up on the beach, fortunately the squall never amounted to much and everyone was fine. Last night it rained all night and this morning the skies are overcast and still drizzly, feels like BC! (only much warmer).

Tuamotus

We spent our final days in Nuku Hiva anchored in Daniels Bay, one of the home beaches for Survivor season 4. It was there that we enjoyed a nice easy hike/walk to a cascade tucked away amid high sheer rocks. We had to cross rivers and creeks to get there and followed the cairns placed by previous explorers until we reached an almost surreal landscape of ground growth somewhat resembling perriwinkle. We followed the narrow path through the lush growth until we came upon numerous cairns and the sun was lost behind the high rocks, this is where we found a somewhat small fresh water pool at the base of the cascade. The cascade could barely be seen from the shore, but Jay and the girls swam across then climbed over the boulders on the other side and were able to swim in further to where the water was falling from very high, down a chimney into the back pool, they said it was very cool.

We spent four days and nights travelling between Nuku Hiva and Kauehi where we are presently anchored and have been enjoying swimming and snorkeling in the clear blue warm water here. On Tuesday, everyone from all of the boats in the anchorage (I think there were 10) met at the local Magazin (store) to take a tour of a pearl farm. The Tuamotus are know for their black pearls and we got to see how they are harvested and were treated to a lunch of oysters (unlike the ones from home)marinated in lime juice and salt and served with coconut bread and coconut juice served in the coconut. Everyone had a very nice time.

We were invited by a local couple to go fishing and eat a lunch of our catch, so this was the adventure on Wednesday. Never in a million years could we have imagined such a nice experience, we lingered over poisson cru, barbequed fish, rice and coconuts for four hours while the kids played on the beach and in the water. As an expression of our gratitude, the crews from the four boats involved provided a potluck lunch for the couple aboard O'vive and again we enjoyed a wonderful four hour visit, it seems as though that's the minimum allotment for any activity here.

Shredding Coconut for lunch