Hotel Marshall Islands 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

... saw a giant clam and a black tip reef shark.

The coolest thing though happened during our surface interval. A large school of dolphins came up to the boat and were sailing through our surf, they were jumping and moving about the waves.... it was really special.

I am going diving again tommorow afternoon so I shold have more stories and pictures to show then :)

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.

... hand go a bit more beat up that everyone else. I ripped a 4" hole in my 5 mm wetsuit, and also ripped other various smaller holes, cut my hands and caused a huge bruise on my ribs and hips which really hurts. I'm okay, but very sore.

The entire experence proved to be very humbling for our entire group and really taught us how powerful the ocean can really be.

We did have fun however and there is something about a tramatic experience which helps bring a group togther.

... more about the change in coral communities. The reefs are gorgeous and have a large amount of fish life, they are also very shallow. Tommorow we are headed to Laura which is suppose to have some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Mainly because there are only 30,000 people on Majuro.

Majuro it's self is interesting, there is only one road that runs though the entire island. It is also shaped very funny ...

... inde i lufthavnen. Der var smaa boder udenfor hvor du kunne koebe kiks og tyggegummi (og ikke andet), men naar du havde chekket ind og var gaaet igennem immigrations var der ikke andet en 15 stoleraekker...oev boev, for vi havde regnet med at spise frokost ude i lufthavnen. Jeg synes at jeg har set en del lufthavne, og deriblandt en del ret daarlige lufthavne, men Tarawas Bonriki lufthavn er nok den daarligste. Den er stor ...

... waiting to board for the first time in Majuro. The covered area had fans going, but of course no air conditioning and no bathrooms. It was warm and humid but not really uncomfortable. We waited about 30 minutes for the plane to be inspected and then were allowed to re-board with our carry-ons. A similar process happened at the next stop in Kuajalein in the Marshall Islands. This time the ...

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.