Today we went into the town to Arutanga to check in with the authorities. All our guides said that they would come to us, but they don’t. Paperwork had to be filled in and our passports got stamped. We changed money at the bank next door and sat down to wait for the Health inspector Mataiti to come. He was a jolly guy and told us about how abuzz Arutanga was about all the Americans already here and more due to come in two weeks. The next version of the T.V. show “Survivor” is going to start filming in two weeks.
After check-in Susan and I went shopping for groceries and Steve went off to find out about diving. If we thought supplies were expensive in French Polynesia, we were wrong. We decided several of the things on our list could wait until Roratonga, which is supposedly much cheaper.
Steve ended up renting a car and we toured about every inch of the island, including driving through the Survivor Base Camp with stern lecture about not taking any pictures. We didn’t. Lots of work is being done in preparation for the show. We finally found the Marae, or ancient holy site. The tourist maps they hand out have roads on them that are no longer used and it was down one of these we went. Adventure ensued. We got thoroughly stuck in the mud. A very nice local man pulled us out and refused all attempts to compensate him.
One of the highlights of our day was the Aitutaki Marine Research Center. In large tanks, they had thousands of giant clams in various stages. The center is trying to re-populate the lagoon. The clams have been decimated by humans picking them for food. In another tank were several small honu (green sea turtles). They were so cute. I’ve never seen them so small. They probably weighed in at less than a pound. The ones I baby-sit up at the North Shore of Oahu are from 150 to 300+ pounds.
Tonight we’re having dinner at Tauono’s a place where much of what’s on the plate was grown in the gardens surrounding the restaurant. The fish is local too. It should be a treat. The seating is outdoors and very charming.
We also made reservations for tomorrow night to see the Island Nights show. It moves around from place to place each night of the week. We will see it at the Samade on the Beach “resort”. It’s a little place with bungalows and the tables are in the sand right on the beach. We stopped at several of the hotel/bungalow places and many are very charming. We ate a nice fish and chips lunch at one call Te Vaka. The British are the main influence here. They have crumpets in the grocery, raisins are called sultanas and many other thing from the U.K. are on the shelves of the store.
Tomorrow we hope to get in some marine adventures. Susan and Steve are diving. The dive is a wall dive and deep, which Im not quite ready for. Ill run off in the dinghy to find some snorkeling.
Thanks for all the well wishes coming our way. Howard has been keeping us up-to-date with headlines. Just headlines. They re very funny and we enjoy them tremendously. Steve bought a paper today only to find out later that its a week old. Oh well, we didnt read the news from then either. In reality, its been a very nice thing to not hear about all the messed up places in the world.
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