Part 1—Takaroa: It Doesn't Get Any Better

It's hard to even know where to begin when writing about our time in Takaroa.  After reviewing my photos, I still haven't captured the feeling of "home" that we all felt the minute AMARA entered Takaroa's atoll.

Takaroa is a small atoll in the Tuamotus Islands in French Polynesia.  The reason that we came to Takaroa was to visit our dear friend and neighbor back home, Joey Buchan, and visit his black pearl farm —Tahitian Pearl Farms.  While there, we met the Palmer family whose sons are business partners with Joey.  What we didn't realize is how wonderful of a stay we would have with this amazing family.
First, before I go further into our visit, I wanted to show an area view of Takaroa and where the town Teavaroa is located in reference to where we stayed next to Robert Palmer's home (not the singer).

Looking at where we had to enter, you can tell that it was quite tricky bringing a 56-foot long catamaran (that is 31 feet wide) into this pass.  The atoll's pass is known to be a bit dangerous as it is "L" shaped.  Boats can only enter  when the tide is slack.  Meaning, the water needs to be at the right height and current or it will run aground.

Martin and David studied charts and weather patterns for days trying to figure out when would be the best time to enter into the atoll.  On top of the pass being a bit sketchy, there is also the matter of having to deal with the numerous coral reefs AND tall the pearl buoy balls where pearls are being grown and harvested.  It's like entering a minefield if you don't know what you're doing.

Fortunately, we didn't have to worry too much because our new friend, Louis Palmer, and Joey came out to the opening of the atoll to meet us and to escort us into safe harbor and through the maze of coral and buoys.

When entering the atoll, the first building welcoming us was the red-roofed LDS church (Mormon).  This church is one of two located in the town of Teavaroa and was built by it's members under the tutelage of a missionary and was completed in the late 1800's.

The second LDS church building is much newer (5 years old) and located about 2 miles down the road.  Being that we are also Mormon, it was especially fun for us to come to a community that is heavily populated by wonderful and strong members of the church.

After squeezing through the opening of the atoll, and passing the red-roofed Mormon church, there are all the buoys that you have to contend with.  They look to be scattered everywhere throughout the bay, but Louis assured me that they are all on a grid system and if you know the "system" it is really quite safe.  To the untrained eye though, it looks like one is entering a maze.  They are everywhere.  The buoys mark the areas where pearls are being cultured and will be eventually harvested.

Our first view of the Palmer's home, located on the south end of the island of Takaroa and directly across the water (about 5 miles by boat) from the town of Teavaroa.
 
The satellite dish is a sure sign of life and and the hammock was calling my name.
Now for a tour of the Palmer's home.  This is not your typical home that we in the states are used to seeing.   The Palmer's home is an "open" floor plan.  Meaning they don't have any walls separating them from the outside.  That way, the breeze easily passes through their home and it also provides a beautiful view from every  direction.

First, there is the Palmer's open kitchen where we spent two nights sitting around their table enjoying Robert's stories and Myna's wonderful food.

Robert is a young eighty-year-old with an infectious laugh and full of stories that you could listen to for hours on end.

Now for Robert and Myna's home.

Their bedroom and sitting room.

Here you can get an idea of their open floor plan and their view.

This is a view from their home.  In the lagoon, you can see AMARA.

When Joey comes to visit, he stays in a little bungalow.  The bungalow is located off of the side of the Palmer's house.  It is quite cozy and quaint.

The nightstand in the bungalow.  I love the rustic look of using natural elements.

Joey showing us his "guest" bathroom and shower.

Meredith getting a coconut out of the tree next to the Palmer's home.

Success!

Joey explaining to Meredith the different ways to eat and shuck a coconut.


Of course, Lily found herself a comfy place to play.  She is always game for a swing in a hammock.

This sign is hung over the kitchen in the Palmer's home, reminding them of the Savior and who has blessed them with such bounteous blessings.

When we arrived, Louis and Joey jumped on the boat and Louis proceeded to show us how they harvest the pearls.  Above he is cracking open a pearl oyster.

Right on top of his finger is the pearl in its beginning stages.  Each pearl takes around 2.5 years to culture and then it comes out in the most beautiful colors.  Peacock/rainbow, fly-wing green and aubergine are the rarest of the colors and then they proceed down to a silvery gray (which I loved!).

Next, we went over to the pearl farm.  We got there during harvest season, so we were able to watch the harvesting in action.  Above, a worker is bringing in pearl oysters' shells directly from the sea, where they are organized so that the pearls can be extracted from the shells.

The pearl oysters are marked and used again.  The worker above is actually taking tiny little beads and placing them in the nucleus of the shell so that the oyster can do its work again.  The pearl will be ready to harvest again in another 2-3 years.

A close up of the beads that are being placed in the shell to help the oyster to start creating the pearl.

This worker is extracting the pearls from the oyster shells and dropping them in a bucket where they will be cleaned and polished and readied for market.

At the end of the dock the oysters are brought in from the sea and placed here to wait their turn to be pulled and then harvested.

Joey showing us all the pearl oysters.

Louis brought over an example to us, showing us how the pearl oysters are beaded onto a rope and then he drops them systematically back into the ocean.  Louis does all the pulling and organizing of the shells at the bottom of the ocean floor himself.  He says it is too dangerous to let workers keep diving up and down and not having them decompress.  To cut out the chance of a worker getting hurt, he just does it himself.  Meaning he brings up and plants every string of oysters himself. In fact, Joey had to bring him a pair of new fins because last week he was pulling up some boxes of oyster shells and a shark came up and bit off his fin and swam away with it.  How is that for hard work?

Piles of Buoys

These are a precious commodity for pearl farmers.  Buoys help mark the spot of where their boxes of pear oysters are located under the sea.

…And the end result.  Let the shopping begin!

We could have sat there all day trying to pick the ones that we wanted to take home with us.    It was quite gratifying and so fun!  Here, Meredith is holding the pearls up to her ears and asking us, "This one… or this one?"

This is my kind of shopping.  My happy place.  I found a few that suited me.  The more the pearl is symmetrically shaped and colored, the rarer it is.  I didn't care, I chose the colors that I liked.  My favorites were the silver and beige ones, but I also got two very rare ones because I wanted a keepsake of this special time here in Takaroa.  Thank you, Joey and Louis for such an amazing experience and for your generosity.

After "shopping", Joey took us over to an old ship wreck that had been there for a 106 years.

Sue walking beside the ship.  
Martin and Joey enjoying a stroll on the beach while Meredith, Lily and I hunted for shells.

Meredith checking out what's inside the shipwreck.

After our tour we had a good hamburger at the one (and only) restaurant on the island.  Wait… I think Joey said that there was one more but it is rarely open.  I loved the remoteness of it all.
P.S. The hamburgers were pretty good!

Next, we took a tour of the town and went and saw the old Mormon church.

Then, we got a special treat and went to the post office where there was the possibility of getting online.  There, we got to duke it out for bandwidth between the four of us.  Everyone gets very serious when the word "Wi-Fi" is mentioned.  "No talking!"

Martin coming out of the Post Office with Lily.
Stay tuned, for Part 2 of our visit to Takaroa.

Making Friends and Memories in Fatu-Hiva

Luck was on our side today.  As soon I awoke this morning, I saw a dark, heavy cloud looming over the mountains of Fatu-Hiva.  I wondered for a moment if we should just stay onboard and not go out since it was obvious that the rain was going to come at any minute.
However, what seemed like another rainy day in paradise actually worked in our favor.  We decided to venture into town anyway and see what we could see before the rain got too heavy.

 

AMARA parked in the "Bay of Virgins" at sunrise.

We took the tender into the small town of Hanavave in Fatu-Hiva to explore the small village and see if we could find an adventure.

I seem to be very serious about something.  I'm probably just thinking to myself, "Don't wreck the tender.  Don't wreck the tender…!"  

Lily enjoying the rain.

The Frey's standing in the rain for a family shot.

Fatu-Hiva is a little town that basically consists of a catholic church, a school, a small health clinic, an even smaller grocery store, one waterfall, two petroglyphs and a population of around 500 people.
From all our choices, we decided to shoot for the waterfall.  However, while on our way to the waterfall, we got caught in the middle of a torrential downpour.  At that point, we decided to just find shelter and wait out the storm.

Just a little rain.  No biggie.

We sought refuge in a small makeshift grocery store where the owner welcomed us in with open arms.  We sat in there and talked to her and she spoke back to us using her best broken english.  Just as the rain was going to let up, in comes our new friend (though we didn't know it yet), Augustina.

Augustina had come to the store to buy bread.  Later, I found out that she was a retired school teacher. When entering the store, Augistina went directly over to Lily and started loving on her.  It was so sweet.  That's when she told me that she was a teacher and had six children of her own.  She said that she just loved little children.  So much so, that she is watching her seven-year-old grandson and her one-year-old grand-daughter full-time since the parents work on different islands and are only able to come home for holidays.  
When Augustina walked up to Lily, she immediately noticed that Lily was delayed and asked me in plain, clear english, "What's wrong with this beautiful little girl?" I explained to her that there is no diagnosis for Lily, that she can't walk or talk and we aren't sure if she ever will.  Then she said something that both Martin and I have shared many times before about Lily.  Augustina said, "Oh, but she talks so clearly with her eyes!"  Of course, I teared up by her remark.  I love it when someone notices Lily and can see how expressive she is with her eyes.  It is true, Lily is very disabled.  Lily isn't able to express herself like we can, but she does talk with her eyes and lets us know often what she wants, how she feels and where she wants to be—just by using her eyes.  Augustina sensed this the minute she walked up to our beautiful little angel.

After that encounter, Augustina asked us what we were doing in the store and if we wanted some fruit from her home.  I caught myself saying, "Uh, YEAH… we'd love some fruit from your house!"  Martin politely asked, "Could we come with you and see all your fruit trees?"  Luckily Augustina had come in her truck.  So, we all piled in and she made room for Lily and me inside the cab and we headed to her brother's home.

Augustina's husband showing us the right way to split open a coconut to get to the water.

Augustina's grandson was also there and she promptly told him to, "Get in the car and take care of Lily."  I stayed in the car for a little bit while everyone started picking fruit because, between you and me, it was a little more rainy than I would have liked. (shhh!)

Soon guilt got the better of me, and well, at that point they were cracking open coconuts.  Who doesn't want to watch a coconut get cracked open?  So I got out and started enjoying the fun.  Rain and all.


Meredith has been asking for a coconut the entire time she has been with us.  Well, today, she got her wish.

Note: The flower in Meredith's hair is called a "Tiare."  It gives off the most beautiful fragrance  (smells like a gardenia and is from the gardenia family).  Tiare's are often the main flower used in leis.  These flowers were growing wild everywhere.  I could even smell them from the boat as we entered the harbor the night before.

Coconuts for everyone.  

The coconut water was so good!  Once we finished drinking the water, we scraped out the coconut jelly/milk and ate every last drop.  (Note to self: Get rid of the hat!)

David and Sue enjoying the coconut jelly.  You scoop it out like ice cream.  Take it from me, it was really good!

 Meredith and Augustina picking oranges and pamplemousse (from the Grapefruit family).

David gathering oranges while Augustina's son shakes the tree with a long bamboo stick.

After we got all the oranges, pamplemousse, coconuts and bananas that we could eat we headed for the truck to get back down to the tender.  Augustina's husband casually mentioned that he had just gotten a new outboard engine for his boat and wanted to show it to Martin and David.  He was so proud of it.  In passing conversation, he said that his one setback was that he didn't have the right stainless steel screws to mount the steering wheel on his boat yet and he was trying to figure out which screws he needed and how to get them to him since there are no Home Depots or West Marine stores for about 3,000 miles.  Martin and David's own "wheels" started spinning.  They both knew that they had just the screws that he needed to mount that steering wheel back on AMARA.

After staying awhile and enjoying Augustina's family, we loaded the fruit into a huge grain sack and had Augustina take us back down to the dock where our dinghy was tied.
When we got back to AMARA, Martin and I quickly loaded into a bag a large bag of M&M's, a French chocolate bar, and David and Martin found the exact screws that Augustina's husband needed.  We even threw in a little cash for all the fruit that she gave to us, even though she had no intention of us compensating her for it.
Once we gathered everything up, Martin and I drove the dinghy back to the dock and saw Augustina and her grandson.  We were so excited to give her the treats and especially the screws to help out with her husband's dilemma.
Note:  What you may not realize is that Fatu-Hiva is in the middle of no where.  It took us 7 hours to get there by boat and there are no airports in Fatu-Hiva.  Augustina's husband would have had to wait for weeks to get the right screws delivered to him.
Augustina was soooo appreciative of our gifts and wanted to give the money back to us.  We said "no" and told her to use it to get something special for herself.

Bananas fresh from Augustina's banana tree.  

It's necessary that before bringing bananas on board, you have to dip them in the sea so that the salt water kills all the critters that are crawling around on the vines.  That way, it keeps you from bringing bugs onto the boat.
What a wonderful day!  It turned out to be just the kind of adventure that Martin and I are always looking for.  We will remember this day for a long time, along with the kindness of our new friend, Augustina from Fatu-Hiva.

Tomorrow's adventure waits...

AMARA at sunset.