Just another day in paradise...

It seems sinful to be enjoying ourselves so much.

Yesterday, Andy, Yella and Fluer got up early to go dive the pass. Jake and I stayed back and cleaned the boat, did laundry and got some school work done. They came back after a hair raising experience getting back in the lagoon (so much for local knowledge on tides and currents) with tales of "the best dive I've ever done," and that was Andy talking. So naturally we had to go back so I could do it. Only this time we were going to park the dinghy in between the motus and walk to the outside to avoid the dangerous dinghy ride back. We lugged all four of our tanks and all the gear across the motu and then we realized there was a big surf. Andy went and scouted it out and the final decision was that it was too dangerous. Getting out would be ok, but getting back in would be hairy. If one of those waves knocked us over we could potentially rearrange our faces on the coral. So back to the boat we went.

It was only a few minutes before all the kids on shore (about 8?) were screaming and yelling our names and waving for us to come over. We pretended we didn't understand and just waved and smiled. I wasn't really up for 8 kids on the boat again. Well, whether I was up for it or not didn't really matter because in no time at all, they were all in the water either swimming or paddling on their make shift styrofoam floats...all the way to our boat. They stayed an hour or so, jumping off the bow, drinking more juice boxes (Jake doesn't really like them anyway, but it's funny how that's the first thing the kids ask for), and playing with Jake's toys. They were all very polite but I swear I'm not cut out for that many kids. I don't know how you moms do it in neighborhoods where you have a ton of kids EVERY DAY. I would go nuts. But I digress. Just as I thought I couldn't take it anymore (they were getting salt water on my freshly hung laundry), a big speed boat pulled up and ordered all the kids on. All the boys, that is. There were two girls and for some reason, they didn't have to go. So we waved by and started making supper.

I'm going to spare you the details (Andy gave the girls Wasabi while he made sushi, very funny), but the night ended with Yella and Fluer having a sushi dinner with us and Christoph, the brother of one of the girls on board, joined as well. We had a great time talking and playing with our new pet hermit crab (totally different story).

This morning, the kids all came to the pier with their floats and watched with disappointed faces as we pulled up our anchor and headed to the east side of the island. We heard it was beautiful over here and of course we're not disappointed. After navigating through the coral heads and anchoring a few different times (for some reason we kept dragging when I put us in gear), we finally found a beautiful spot right in front of our own private motu. We explored the lagoon, cracked open some cocounts, and even pestered an octopus before watching the sunset. Tomorrow we'll get up and maybe head to another spot to try our luck at fishing. Ciguatera (a nasty toxin that can build up in reef fish) is high in the Tuamotus but local knowledge says the fishing is good over here and is ciguatera free. We've really enjoyed the tuna so far, but are looking forward to a nice fat grouper.

We still don't know when we're leaving...we're pretty sure no one would ever know if we decided to stay. Since we don't have internet, I can't call home, so Happy Mother's Day to all of our moms! Without you, we wouldn't be here today (literally)! And a Happy Mother's day to all the other moms out there as well. I hope you all have a wonderful day... free of dishes, laundry, cooking and cleaning... Full of chocolate, champagne (if that's your thing), bubble baths and chick flicks.

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