4 May

Latest update from Callisto:

We left Takaroa two days ago after having spent the weekend. Sunday was interesting and Ron and I thought we would check out the Mormon temple which is the most imposing structure on Takaroa. They allowed us to enter the temple which was very plain on the inside and the congregants (all Men) were dressed in white shirts, dark trousers and ties. The only thing missing was the name tags. The main dude was French but every one else was Polynesian.
There was no Sunday service just a sermon /pep talk from the French guy and then the three Polynesians. No singing at all. This was followed by Sunday school for the boys and Sunday school for the girls and ladies went on in another building and still no singing.
Nothing else was open on Sunday and we spent the afternoon diving on the reef at the entrance to the pass in Takaroa. I have never seen such water clarity any where you could see at least 90 feet, with marvelous coral formation and thousands of fish various species. Also looked to get a tour of the pearl farms but nothing was available.
We are are now on Aratika, another atoll 65 NM south of Takaroa. It was not in any of the travel books or cruising guides and we thought we might want to see a completely unspoiled and remote island. This certainly is it, well past the back of beyond.
The pass into the lagoon was very narrow, perhaps twice the beam of the boat, enclosed on both sides buy coral reef and breaking waves. We managed to get in without problem and anchored up in sand over coral in about 30 feet of water. This place is quite beautiful and looks just like picture postcards of the south pacific appear except that they don't do it justice.
There is also marvelous water clarity here and we will do some more reef diving today.
We went ashore to find not very much at all. Most of the natives do subsistence fishing and copra farming and there don't seem to be many of them. There is one tiny road and and an airstrip but mostly for freight and a ship comes in one a month with supplies. We found one tiny shop after two hours of searching and walking that had nothing fresh except a few bulbs of garlic. The bread was brought in once a week by plane and kept in a fridge as there is no boulangerie on the atoll.
We'll spend another few days her and then go on to Fakarava which does have a tourist infrastructure and the Rangiroa and on to Papaeete by the end of the month.