We bid a fond farewell to the beautiful island of Takaroa this morning after 3 full days of exploring and great times. We leave with generous gifts, full bellies, and some wonderful new friends. Nothing could have made our stay more enjoyable.
We were very very fortunate to have met Luo, Jeanlou, Vehia, and Hinanui on our very first day in Takaroa. They are four friends, all our age, who come to Takaroa for one week a month from Tahiti to work part time on Pearl farms and installing solar panel systems. They did not hesitate to pick us up just hours after we rowed ashore as we were hitchhiking a few miles around the island to see a shipwreck that we had heard about. They were excited to see other people their age and told us that we were the 6th cruising sailboat to visit Takaroa this year! They gave us a grand tour of the shipwreck and we all instantly bonded. In no time we had made plans to move the boat across the atoll and they invited us to dinner at their house.
That afternoon we moved the boat to the east side of the atoll. This was another first for a cruising sailboats since the coral heads are very dangerous. Luckily we had expert local guides to get us snugly in some shallow sand. We spent a few hours just talking and sharing pictures of fish we had caught and some of our travels. They fed us a great dinner and then after sundown we all walked across the narrow strip of land to the ocean side to go lobster hunting! Wading through the shallow water with spears and buckets we had no luck but Luo said that this is how he has caught dozens of lobsters on a good day. Afterward, we were shown our "guest house," a normal looking house with kitchen, living room, and wraparound porch except that it is built entirely over the water right over the coral on stilts (as was their own house) with a pier walkway out to the front door. They build the houses over the water to keep down mosquitos. We had a fresh water shower and mattresses! There were mosquitos but we all survived the night.
The next morning we woke up to see black tip sharks, octopuses, rays and fish of all kinds right off our back porch literally! After we all ate breakfast it was time for some spear fishing! Luo is an expert spear fisherman and almost every time he went down he broke the surface with a yell "yipee!" and had a huge parrot fish on his spear. Will didn't have quite so much luck but did claim to have made a glancing blow at one point. All told we had 20 fish about 10 inches long average. Just four of them made for a great feast of a dinner that night along with clams and rice. I spent a lot of time that evening building up a Tahitian dictionary. Hinanui, who speaks French and very good english but not Tahitian helped me translate Vehia and the others and everyone was excited to tell me new words and I wrote as fast as I could. Since I have family that live in Hawaii and have visited there many times, I picked up a few Hawaiian words which came in very handy as the pronunciation and spelling of the polynesian languages is all very similar. Talking to our new friends, we also learned a lot about the Tuamotus islands and Tahiti, pearl farming, fishing, marine life as well as what it's like to live here. Once again we stayed in our guest house and woke to another breakfast.
On our third day Vehia, Luo, and Jeanlou had to go to work but Hinanui offered to accompany us on a tour of the village on the other side of the atoll where we first landed to show us the work of a local Takaroan artisan who sells hats made of palm fronds and other decorations for weddings and festivals made of shells and pearls. We were taken to the home of Tave and Maui. Tave is an expert local crafts-woman. Her palm leaf crafts which are called "rimai" in Puamotu (the Language spoken on Takaroa) are very popular on Tahiti and some of the other islands and she regularly sells out on her hats or "tapos". The conversation turned to language and I found myself once again furiously writing in my journal new words, this time in Puamotu, which Luo and the others are not as familiar with. Many of the words are similar but not quite enough that a Tahitian speaker could communicate with a Takaroan or a Marquesian for that matter. My favorite Puamotu word so far is the word for moustache or "umiumita" (pronounced oomy-oomy-ta). Before we left, Tave insisted that we should have palm frond hats and offered them as gifts to us that we should pick up before we leave. She had us try on one of her hats to get an idea of our sizes.
After returning for the evening we washed up and prepared for another dinner this time with a neighbor of our friends named Robert, but everyone calls him "Papi" (like grand-dad). He lives here with his wife but they travel a lot. He grew up in Tahiti but stowed away on a ship to Australia when he was just 16 and learned to speak English and has many many great stories. Like 90 percent of Takaroa and many others in the French Polynesian islands, he is a Mormon. He exclaimed that, "we don't drink wine, but we DO EAT! They had prepared for the 7 of us a feast that rivaled some of the thanksgiving dinners I have had. It was incredible. First, there was bread, Taro, and fish seviche from the fish that we had caught. Then came fried fish, more bread, and rice with a barbecue sauce that was good on everything. THEN fried chicken, spaghetti, and for desert! ICE CREME...with chocolate syrup! They also had some of the best tasting water which they collect during the rainy season and filter. Only sometimes do they need to buy water from Tahiti. After the meal we talked and talked over bowls of hershey's chocolates and pitchers of ice cold water. They were so nice and we were sad that we could not stay and spend more time with them on Takaroa.
I stayed up with our new friends until about midnight showing them many more pictures of our trip. They were particularly interested in pictures of the Panama Canal, the fish we had caught, and of other countries in general. Remarking, "cool, they have coconut trees also." I burned them a CD with all the pictures we had taken hanging out with them over the last three days and they made each of us a pearl necklace to take as souvenirs. Pearl necklaces worn by men have just one pearl not a long string or them. We stayed up late and then all fell into deep food coma still stuffed with that delicious dinner.
This morning all of our friends work up early to see us off. Hinanui and Jueanlou even motored ahead of us in their boat out of the anchorage to help us spot coral and make sure we got out safely and once clear of the reef, we stopped at the dock to meet Tave and Maui who had followed through on their promise of new hats. We received three beautiful new palm leaf hats which we have been sporting ever since. Thank you very much! Merci Bocu! or "Maitaki!"
Now underway for Tahiti and back out to sea for another few days, my thoughts and maybe even part of my heart are still very much in Takaroa. The last three days are certainty some that I will never forget and we will definitely keep in touch with our new friends. I hope that I can one day fully repay their incredible hospitality.
-Alan