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.

... was basically a reef shelf which we had to climb up onto to get out of the ocean. Of course the coral is sharp and we didn't really want to touch it because broken coral takes many years to grow back. However the swells were huge and we basically had to body surf on to the shallow coral reef to get out. Body surfing on the coral proved to be very difficult as most of the students were covered in scrapes and bruises, many with a few small battle scars on their wetsuits. I on the ...

... s so thin that I can stand in the center of the road and see water on both sides. There are some things to do, we have been thinking of going to see star trek at the movie theather and there is bowling.

I have taken some pictures and will get them posted in a few days.... if the internet allows. The connect is very slow ( 30min for an email!).

I am well and I will talk to all of you soon
Love,
Court

... time. Vi skulle flyve kl. 15.30, saa vi ville vaere der ude kl. 13.30, hvilket betoed at vi skulle fra hotellet i god tid, altsaa kl. 12.30, men for chauffoeren betoed det aabentbart kl. lidt over et, saa vi sad og ventede lidt over en halv time. I Lonely Planet stod der at lufthavnen i Tarawa i 2005 havde haft verdens billigste toldfrie butik...ja det havde vi lidt svaert ved at tro paa, da der slet ikke var nogen ...

... of the plane must also deplane for inspection. I was on that side of the plane, so I got off and dragged all my carry-on luggage with me. I exited the stairs at the front of the plane. Continental Micronesia airline had a luggage cart (like the luggage handlers use) waiting for our carry-ons. We then walked on the tarmac to an open air waiting area. This area was already crowded with ...

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.