Majuro Royal Garden Hotel

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.

... and tranquil waters. On the island there is very little buildings, just a few cabanas and a restroom. There is a nice swimming beach which had a great coral reef and a sunken airplane to dive on as well.

We were treated to an excellent meal of bar be que and other dishes. The food was great and complimented the surroundings. Overall we enjoyed our experience on the island and I would like to thank Mr. Kramer and his family again for their wonderful hospitality!!!

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.

... and swimming in the ocean by ourselves. I eventually met up with my buddy and we were floating in deeper water when I decided to look into the water to see what was below us. Of course, my luck, but a 5ft grey reef shark was circling 10 ft below checking us out. The shark grew tried of us and swam away. My buddy and I eventually made to the rest of our group and did some snorkling.

Getting out of the water proved to be more difficult that entry. Because of the low tide ...

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 ...

Saa er vi ankommet til Marshall Oeerne, som endnu ikke har vist sig fra sin bedste side pga. regn. Vi ankom igaar ved 18-tiden efter 1,5 times flyvning fra Tarawa. Vi havde faaet at vide at vi skulle flyve kl. 15.30, men vi floej foerst kl. 16.30 - Kiribati time, vi burde have vidst det...tidligere paa dagen da vi skulle fra hotellet og ud til lufthavnen loeb vi nemlig ogsaa ind forskellen imellem den egentlige tid og ...

... to the other side of the plane so the inspectors could continue. I assume they were looking for bombs or something, but I don't know for sure. When we left the second island, I was at a window seat and could see the small area of land that made up the island. It was basically the airstrip and causeway to another smaller island. I really felt like I was in the middle of the ocean - which I was.

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.