We're in love with Rangiroa! It's what I always imagined the South Pacific would be like: a coral atoll, palm trees, unbelievably clear and beautiful water, relaxed but sophisticated population.

What a BEAUTIFUL place!

Rangiroa, in the Tuamotu Archipelago, is the largest atoll in the world at 100 miles in circumference. You can't SEE the other side! There are two main passes and there are 12 km of roads between the two, and that's IT. No more. It's the only Tuamotu that has a sizable tourist trade, mostly European: French, of course, but also English, Italian, and some Asians. It's still hot and humid, but lush and green.

After our hair-raising experience last night, we had to make water since we were out, eat a quick dinner, then we all dropped out for some much needed sleep. We we were up at 0700 and started our day's activities, mainly visiting the Gendarmerie where we checked in to the lovely island. We motored to shore. looking for a place to land, and came upon a local dive shop that was kind enough to allow our ratty old dinghy to pull ashore. They had to fetch customers at the Gendarmerie themselves, so they gave us a lift. Very nice.

Check in was fast and courteous, of course, and next door was the Gauguin Black Pearl farm. Wow! We spent several hours with a guide, a lovely Tahitian woman with excellent English skills, as she explained the process of growing their pearls. What a complex, expensive operation! They have a lovely showroom with incredible pearls and great prices. Chip bought a LOT of stuff and we bought Conni some earrings made from two select pearls, and a single for a necklace. Not cheap since they're pearls but much cheaper than anywhere else.

To make a pearl:

Start with fresh water mussels from the Mississippi. Yep. Send the shells to Japan where they're made into small spheres. Buy 3 yr old black lipped oysters from local growers and have skilled workers open them a centimeters (don't want to kill them), open the appendix, and insert the seed and a tiny piece of "lip" material from a young oyster. This "graft" provides the tissue needed to get the process going and provides the black color. Clever! Drop them back in the water for another two years, removing them every 2 months for shell cleaning (dirty oysters don't grow). After two years, remove the oysters and have them gently opened and pearls removed. If they're GOOD pearls, insert another and larger seed and repeat the two year growth, cleaning every two months. After another two years, remove and remove pearl. If they're GOOD, insert a larger seed and repeat. Can't do more than that since removing larger pearls kills the oyster. So, these pearl surgeons work through 1 cm-opened oysters, slice the appendix, and do the work. Yleld is 25% survival. Grade A pearls, round, no flaws, are 1% of those and command a premium. This place has run for 26 years and they've found 2 natural pearls, neither is round or flawless but they're priceless.

They provided a shuttle to the other end of the road where we had a fantastic lunch at Lilli's Cafe: my meal was mahi-mahi in a vanilla sauce. Wow! What a meal! Lilli is a lively and lovely import from Madagascar, another French island but from a long way away. Order and Lilli dances back to the kitchen to prepare each meal.

We strolled by the local store for some French bread, then strolled (in the heat) back to the Top Dive shop and motored back home.

We're charging the batteries now and plan to leave tomorrow for Tahiti. It's about 200 nm so about 2 days from here.