Today we went on a kart tour around the island. The karts look almost like dune buggies and are fun to drive.
We drove for quite a ways along paved roads, getting a good look at some of the villages around the island. The towns we passed through consisted of a shop or two, a large church or two or three, several homes, some large, most small, most needing work. Most of the land along the road was cleared, with little wild vegetation. Continue reading
Last night we had agreed to head over to a couple of islands farther down the reef, where we could see more birds and snorkel. We met at 10:00 and loaded into John’s boat. It was low tide. When we passed Monkey Island, we realized that the “reef” around the motu was actually the island itself submerged by high tide. Oops. We paralleled the reef around Suwarrow the entire ride, and it looks like the reef is a solid land mass that can be easily walked in low tide. Later, John confirmed that you can walk around the whole island on the reef (except for the passes).
We passed several small motus (islands) before John stopped at a larger one. There were a lot of bushes and trees around. The ground was rocky with chunks of coral and shells.
There were several white tropicbirds and boobies flying around and a couple of babies on the ground.
The adults walked the length of the motu while the children fished. As we came into view of the next motu, we could see Continue reading
(continuation of the day we arrived in Suwarrow) We were excited to be on land and decided to walk around the island. Like the Tuomotus, some of the shoreline was dark, jagged lava rock, some was rocky broken coral and shells. There were a few small stretches of white sand with the small bits of shell and coral. The foliage was thick and went all the way to the edge of the water in a lot of spots. We spent most of our time walking in the water, sometimes as deep as Christi’s mid-thigh.
This morning we met the tour guide at the gas station in town at 0830. He is a Polynesian fellow named Vincent. Vincent was driving a four wheel drive pickup with benches in the bed, which seems to be standard for tour companies in these parts. We loaded into the back and we drove for a ways. The road parallels the water, with scenic views of the lagoon. Most of the area around the bay had development of some sort on it, mostly houses. Of course, it was very green and lush.
We pulled into a church parking area where another 6 people were waiting. Once everyone was loaded into the bed of the truck, Vincent gave us the stats of the island 5,000 people, main industry vanilla farming, etc. He showed us on a map where we were going and told us what we would be seeing. Then he played Continue reading
Today we rented a car and took a tour of the island. Our car was brand spanking new we were the first ones to ever drive it. Eric did all the driving. It is the first time he has been behind the wheel of a car in two and a half months. A friend of ours put us in touch with a local on the island he knows. The local is named Peter and Peter and his wife (whose name we cannot pronounce, let alone spell) were kind enough to escort us on our tour of the island.
The sun was shining and it was pretty out, but it was kind of cold. Christi actually put on a jacket. The road around Tahiti parallels the ocean the entire way. Our first stop wasMaraa Grotto, a series of caverns with pools of water at the bottom. The caverns are right off the main highway, in a small, pretty park dripping with a variety of foliage. Check out the giant, funky looking bird of paradise. Continue reading
