Raroia

Before the addition of an airport in April 2006, you could only get to Raroia, an atoll in the Tuamotu archipelago, by sea. Thor Heyerdahl did it by raft in 94 days from Peru in 1947 (see Michael Cosgrove's favourite book, The Kon-Tiki Expedition). We took the cargo boat, Kura Ura III, for 7 days from Papeete and got to see 6 different atolls (Anaa, Faaite, Katiu, Makemo, Taenga, Takume) before we finally stopped at Raroia (population 80). Everywhere we went, people would greet us from their homes calling "Café!," an invitation for breakfast usually consisting of tropical fish, rice, ipo (a steamed hockey puck of heavy bread), crackers and various powdered Nestle beverages, bought the last time the boat was in. Some of these little islands don't have one store and all their commerce is done at the dock. They place an order and the crew goes into the belly of the ship to put it together then bring it ashore on a whaler, whether it's flour, canned goods or a truck. That's how we got ashore too and sometimes it was a challenge staying upright.

At Raroia, we stayed with Inatio, Ruya and their kids, Lani, Tiare, Rahea, Inatio, Gregorie and Tehere. There are no pensions or hostels on Raroia. It was a Friday night when we got there and they kicked off the week with a 2-day party, where various guests came and went, sang, drank and/or played ukelele, guitars, keyboard or spoons until the wee hours of Sunday morning. "Faire la bringue," it's called.The kids were really fun and we had a blast playing bocchi ball, swimming in the lagoon, drawing and watching cartoons with them.

The family took us across the lagoon to their camp for a couple of nights (where I spent my birthday hammocking and swimming in between casse-croute breaks:). We learned 101 uses for the coconut and its tree (I wove a mat but it's too big to pack.), how to harvest copra, and at least 5 ways to fish (Cozzy fought off sharks from the reef.). By the way, coconut crab is delicious!

The purpose of visiting Raroia was to see the motu where the Kon Tiki landed. We finally visited the small island one morning and ambled around, imagining what it must have ben like for the six men on board the raft 60 years ago. Apparently the motu has changed as the sea has risen and claimed some of the land, yet the people of Raroia are the same genuine, hospitable folks that collected the rafters in 1947 and took them into their homes. We will never forget out time there.