Eastern Gateway Hotel Majuro

For the past 4 days I have been in Arno, a small outer island located 2 hours by boat from Majuro. Life there is much slower and I really enjoyed it. There are beautiful white sand beaches and lots of shallow coral reefs to explore. We also visited some local women who make hadicrafts like purses and grass mats. Overall our visit to Arno was my favorate part of this research trip

I did two scuba dives Today and they were great!

Both dives lasted about 50min and we went down to about 75-80 ft. They were drift dives so we basically let the current push us past beautiful coral reefs and lots of fish.

On the first dive some speical things we saw were 2 turtles and a huge napolean ( 4-5ft) wrasse.

The second dive was also great because ...

We visited the giant clam farm and saw where the clams are raised. These clams are an endangered species in the wild, but because they are so beautiful they have a high demand for aquariums. This farm raises them and sells to the aquarium trade. They take decades to become large and are very hard to take care of.

When we are snorkling we often keep an eye out for them but rarely see them because they have a very small wild population.

Today was a day off and our group was invited by Mr. Kramer ( An American who has lived in Majuro for 40 years) and his family to accompany them to their private uninhabitated island. The family is well known in Majuro and we were very grateful to be invited to join in their Sunday ritual.

The island is located about a 30 min boat ride from Majuro through the lagoon. When we arrived on their large boat ( 54ft) we were all amazed by the gorgeous white sand ...

Today we spent the day learning about the Marshallese culture. We went sailing in traditional wooden canoes which were really cool. I have included a few pictures. We also learned about how the naviagate the ocean by using stick charts.

We also ate a tradtional lunch of breadfruit, tuna and coconuts.

Today we decided to go snorkling on the ocean side of Laura, which is the northern most tip of the island. The surf looked pretty rough but our local didving instructor assured us that the waves were "medium sized" and fine for us. We has to walk across the coral reef ( yikes!) to be able to get into the deeper ocean.

This proved to be difficult for a group of 20, and it took along time for all of us to get into the water. Basically we went one by one which ment that we were ...

Yokwe! ( Hello) Everyone,

I have been in Majuro for 3 days now and it has been quite exciting. The culture is very different than the US. It has taken some getting used to! But overall I am really enjoying myself and think that we are going to do alot of great things for the Marshall Islands during our research.

We have been snorkling alot and starting to do coral surveys which will help future groups ...

... protektorat, det er jo bl.a. her at Bikini atollen ligger. Men det foerste baade Mathilde og jeg lagde maerke til var at her bor man ikke i palmehytter, men i "rigtige" huse og saa gaar man med sko paa. Jeg synes faktisk at det minder ret meget om Filippinerne. Naa, men jeg maa til at slutte for nu, er ved at loebe toer for minutter. Pas godt paa jerselv indtil at vi ses igen, hvilket jo er snart. Knus og kram fra Eva Maria

The trip from Honolulu to Pohnpei started out as any normal trip. Luckily the plane was not full. Passengers moved around so no one was sitting next to me. I was in an aisle seat. When we landed at Majuro in the Marshall islands, the experience was no longer normal. Of course the people with a final destination of Majuro got off the plane. Then we were told that the passengers on the right ...

Nothing much happened today except I got some shower shoes and Mom, Dad, and I went to the other end and the tide was out so in our shower shoes we went out a long way. We started on our way back, when the tide started coming in. On our way back it started to rain hard and guess who got drenched? Me! I went to a handicraft shop and bought Miss Glassford a gift. We had dinner at Oscar's house. Also we slept there again.