We have been exploring this atoll paradise since Sunday morning and are still loving it! We are currently enroute from the southern side of the atoll back to the north side, traveling inside the lagoon, a lagoon which is over 1000 sq km- it feels like an enormous lake! The marine life here is simply unrivalled. Fakarava is known as one of the best dive sites in the world (and a UNESCO Biosphere Zone) and the snorkeling has been fabulous! In fact, we're loving just watching the variety of life right off our boat- fish aplenty, sharks, rays and
turtles. Sharks are ubiquitous and we are all a little more comfortable in the water with them after a few days of seeing them swim around the boat and us, black and white tip sharks, and "silvers"- all of which are known as "friendly" sharks (a relative term, I know).

We did a "drift snorkel" through the southern pass yesterday where you are dropped off by a boat and then you drift in through the pass with the incoming current. We saw more sharks, fish, and vivid coral gardens in an hour's time than in weeks worth of snorkeling in the
Caribbean. By far the best snorkel we've ever done. It was a cloudy afternoon but the visibility was fabulous. We will post some photos from the Go Pro when we get decent internet (which will hopefully be in Tahiti) on our blog.

We are heading north today to north Fakarava and then onto Toau tomorrow. We're having a ball traveling with several World ARC boats but I need a quiet, stay at home night soon! Hannah is in heaven as there are 9 other "twenty-somethings" traveling with us at the moment. The wind has shifted around to the north, an unusual direction for the wind in the South Pacific, and it's less than ideal as most anchorages have little protection from that direction. The next two anchorages should be calmer than where we've been for two nights. There's a rendezvous in Papeete on April 28th so we have another two weeks to poke around here, not nearly enough time to see what we'd like but the Tuamotus are definitely on our "must come again" list.