October 7, 2011
New Caledonia, Papaya Trees & Blue Lagoons
Well it’s tropical all of a sudden. Coconuts, palm trees, searing temperatures, beet red face, that sort of thing. Still I was the only one in the pool this morning. I’m Canadian, after all. To me the water is warmer than the public pool on Salt Spring. Not to the Aussies. I am the only Canadian on board that I know so far. Today we were in New Caledonia, the largest of the Loyalty Islands and this is Micronesia. I vaguely remember taking an archaeology course about Micronesia. Can’t really remember much about it really. New Caledonia is a French territory. I did well being from Canada. I can speak French. I met the nicest people. Honestly, so incredibly kind. They worked cooperatively with each other to show me a lot of amazing trees, a grotto, blue crabs, how to hunt.
I danced with them. They were just so warm hearted. The women wore missionary dresses in bright colours with headdresses made of what looked like chicken feathers. The boys did dances for us. A lot of them had white paint on their cheeks. The ocean of New Caledonia was well, incredibly warm. Almost bathtub warm. I thought I saw a manta ray. Tomorrow I might be seeing fire walkers, not sure. The internet connection is abysmal and expensive, by the time I load a page from Google it costs me an obscene amount of money. If I get this up it means the connection is better. Vive la France.