The latest update

This is one of the nicer hotels where we go to use the internet.

This particular blog post has gone through quite a few iterations.  Some of them too negative, some of them too positive…so I’m trying to walk the middle line here.  Partly because of the way we got here – we were robbed, we weren’t allowed to go to many of the islands we planned (in Kirabati), we motored the whole way, I got sick the first few weeks were here (by a darn bug no less), the constant rain, and now I’ve got a cold – you can see how I might be a little grumpy.  As a matter of fact, this is the grumpiest I’ve been since leaving San Diego almost two years ago (did I mention I’ve gotten fat too and have really bad hair?  That never helps the old mood).  The other reasons for the discrepancy in the various versions of posts is because we haven’t seen the outer islands yet and I really do like being the glass half full girl, so I’m holding out my honest opinion.  And lastly, as every cruiser with a blog knows, you have other cruisers reading your blog and what you say might affect when and where they go.  I would hate to think that someone nixed an entire part of the world because I was having a bad hair day.

So, with all that said, I’ll start with the logistics…

I guess I jinxed us a bit in the last post. The Japanese job fell through.  It turns out there were only two people flying in and they new nothing about diving.  They were under the impression that they would be able to just put on a scuba tank and off they go (to 150 ft).  The dive master and captain of the boat they were taking put a nix on that, so…we’re off to Kwajalein.  We’re to arrive on the 17^th, so as soon as we fill up with diesel, get the rest of our packages, and buy a few groceries, we’re out of here.  It’s only a 2-3 day trip so we have some time.

We’re also waiting to get our permits for the outer atolls.  You’re required to get a permit to visit any other atoll outside of Majuro.  All that really involves is filling out a form for each island and getting it approved from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  Sounds easy, but in reality, it’s election time and all of the folks in the Internal Affairs office have been busy counting votes so they haven’t been there to hand out the forms.  We got them late last week and Andy returned them in on Monday.  They said it would be a few days…we’ll see. We have a lot of requests.  It seems you need to request permission to visit any atoll you’re even thinking about going to (there are something like 29 here?), otherwise you won’t be able to stop.  There are lots of other details around it (fees, other permissions, etc.), but getting those papers in our hand is all we need to actually leave here.

This is where I do my laundry once a week or so.

On to some thoughts on Majuro…  The biggest positive that I can say and I honestly mean this, is that the people are very nice.  We’ve made friends with the ladies at the various restaurants we go to.  The grocery store clerks know us.  We’ve even gotten the same taxi driver a few times.  The guy at the hotel with the bathroom key knows Jake well… While they’re not extremely chatty (in reality, I don’t think the older folks speak a lot of English), there is usually a smile on their faces and a sense of being at least mildly welcome. 

This morning I realized I had taken very little pictures here - not really seeing any reason to in my negative hole filled with darkness - so today I snapped away.  I decided to let the pictures speak for themselves.   We visited the place where they make the traditional canoes today… I’ll do a post on that all by itself.  It was quite interesting.

Enjoy (and be nice, I took these, not Andy)!

The largest supermarket here.  Not too far off from something at
home, other than the expiration dates.

The local theater...notice the marquee

This is another little restaurant where we get wifi.

Andy and Jake stuck in their electronic world