Saturday June 9, 2007 We swore we weren’t going to do it. But we just couldn’t resist. They were just too cool”¦.

Today was going to be uneventful day of getting the boat ready for sea. But mid-morning, a flat bottomed boat with a large outboard motor pulled up with some locals in it. There were two men, a woman, and a 3ish year old with dark skin and blonde hair. Given all the groceries in the boat, they had to be on their way back from the market in town. One of the guys asked if we wanted to go and see a pearl farm. We said sure. We had read in lonely plant that the hotels offered visits to pearl farms, but they cost money. While we were kind of curious about what they did on a pearl farm, we weren’t curious enough to spend money on seeing one. So, we were excited about getting a free (at least we hoped) tour.

We hopped in the dinghy and followed them. Our little 6 horsepower motor wasn’t keeping up with their 40 horsepower motor very well. After a few minutes, they stopped and indicated to us to stop, too. They ushered us into their boat, then loaded our dinghy into the front of their boat, then took off with all of us inside. It was hilarious. We are sorry we weren’t able to get a decent photo.

We rode up along the west shore of the lagoon about 6 or 7 miles. The rest of the land we saw looked much the same as Tatate. Narrow strips of land varying in length with lots of palm trees, a couple evergreens, and the unknown bushes. A few small bungalows in clusters and a dock with a building at the end of it, but lots of distance between the clusters of bungalows. Low spots in between the land masses where the ocean meets the lagoon.

Our end destination was the northwest tip of one of these strips of land. We were greeted by six dogs, all eager for attention. Coming in with the residents sure does change the demeanor of the dogs. This set of dogs were our instant best friends. Reggae music was blaring. Today is Saturday, so everyone was off work. No one was around. The couple took off. On the ride up, it was clear to us the man who had asked us to come visit, Jean Paul, was our host. He is an outgoing and gregarious guy, chatting animatedly the entire boat ride in broken English.

For a minute we were disappointed. This guy had clearly just brought us here to buy pearls, not to see how the farm operates. And we had no interest in buying pearls at all since Christi isn’t into flashy jewelry. He took us into his work shop. It turns out he is an engraver and he hand engraves these beautiful, intricate designs into the lower quality pearls. Almost all of them were different, and it is amazing how he incorporates flaws into a gorgeous design. He is incredibly talented. Then he takes the pearls and weaves them into necklaces made of coconut fibers. He told us that he soaks the fibers in the ocean for a couple of weeks to make them strong. It looks like there are at least a dozen fibers woven together. Most of the necklaces have just a single large pearl, but there were a few that had two or three pearls, and a few that had a mother of pearl design in addition to the pearl. They are really super cool. They are simple, yet very intricate and classy. They were way too unique to pass up.

We looked at all the necklaces he had ready to sell and picked the one we liked best. Then he took us into the little showroom that was adjacent to his shop. The showroom looked like a regular jewelry store. Here there was a variety of pearl jewelry, from necklaces to earrings, some set in precious metals and some set in coconut fibers. There were mostly perfect pearls, with only a few engraved ones on display. We decided we still liked the engraved one we had already picked out the best. Some of the jewelry in the case was unique, but none were as special as the one we had chosen. To our delight, he even carved Christi’s name in the clasp, which is a shell fragment, and wove it into the necklace for her.

We hung out and talked to Jean Paul for an hour or so. He is really fun to talk to, even though we didn’t understand a lot of what he said. He told us all about his family, the pearl farm, how bitter he is about how much they pay in taxes to France, his trip to America to visit his brother, an upcoming trip to Hong Kong, and on and on. We were almost sad when it was time to go because we were enjoying his company so much.

We headed back to the boat. Christi gave Eric a haircut and it didn’t come out too bad for her first try ever. Since the SCUBA gear was out, Christi grabbed the hooka hose (when you SCUBA in a very small space you can leave the tank on board and breathe through a hose instead of strapping the tank to your back. Obviously, the hose vastly limits how deep or far you can go) and cleaned the bottom of the boat. Being under the boat was really kind of freaky at first. Rather than just plunging underneath, she went up and down the length of the boat getting a little further under with each pass. Unfortunately, it started to get dark before she could finish, so the rest will have to wait for another day. The good news is that the grass is only at the water line and the rest of the bottom was not too bad. We spent the rest of the evening getting the boat ready to head to sea tomorrow.