Lovin' it!

We've been here about 36 hours and we've gone snorkeling, diving, been interviewed for the Tahitian paper, had no less than 7 local kids on board and Andy has gotten to try out one of the local outrigger canoes. We are loving this place. Our plan for a tuamotu a week is slowly going out the window.

Getting through the pass was a bit tricky but I think it's only because it was our first one. It was fairly easy and non eventful and once through, we had clearly entered paradise. This is exactly what we all had pictured. Even better, as we got to the anchorage in front of the village, we saw our Dutch friends Fluer and Yella (I have no idea how to spell it so it's phonetic here).

Yesterday, we snorkeled around the boat and a few reefs and we took a little dinghy ride to a nearby beach to explore the lagoon there. But basically we stayed on the boat and just enjoyed the view (and calm anchorage) and ended our day with cocktails on the bow with Fluer and Yella. Today, I'm not sure what came over me but I did about 8 loads of laundry, 3 loads of dishes (throughout the day) and 2 batches of bread. Then after lunch, we went for a dive with our friends (I GOT TO DIVE while Andy and Jake snorkled). In the middle of all that, we met Coreen, the local journalist and were interviewed for the Tahitian paper. The boat was a wreck, so I'm pretty sure if any pictures make it to the paper, it will be of our laundry.

As we were coming back to the boat from our dive there were quite a few kids on land yelling at us. I took Jake in the dinghy to shore and we met about 7 local kids. In they're broken English and my non existent French, they managed to ask me if they could come to our boat. I was hesitant, but honestly, I wasn't sure how to say no...literally...without sounding rude. So off we went. About halfway, I started to wonder what their parents might think, but out here, I don't think it's really much of a consideration. I mean, they were jumping off the pier into shark infested waters with no supervision...what's a little boat trip going to matter?

The little cookie eating, juice drinking, bow jumping munchkins stayed about 30 minutes before I made them jump back in the dinghy and go ashore. It was total chaos but fun for everyone. We have some fantastic pictures I can't wait to share. We've been invited to go ashore in the a.m. to visit the school and watch some sort of play they have going on (we think...some things have gotten lost in the translation and we don't know if we're going in so Jake can play or if we're going in to watch a play...we'll see). So tomorrow morning, bright and early, we're all heading in.

I could go on and on, but I won't. I'll just end by saying that we probably won't be leaving here any time soon...too much to do and too many things to learn (for example, there are 5 pearl farms here...how does that work?).

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