Downtown Aitutaki

When I have several exciting days in row I'm too beat by the end of the day to write anything that I think can do it justice. Today was such a day. I woke up from a really good and much needed restful sleep to the crowing roosters (tons of chickens and roosters on this island) around 6:30. I went for a nice walk on the beach before breakfast and took pictures of stuff in my hand a coconut and a clam shell. I saw a blue star fish in the water (etu moano) and snapped a couple good photos of this most interesting creature so be on the lookout for the photo of the etu moana (blue starfish). John spent a bit of the morning checking his emails and working. We met up by the pool for a nice island breakfast (toast, fruit, cereal). After breakfast I walked along the beach and took even more photos. I have some fantastic shots that I think you guys will really enjoy. A note about photos; internet charges are based on MB usage and while it's relatively cheap send and receive emails downloading photos and other images uses a terrific amount of MB so I'm limiting my photo postings until we get to NZ where I suspect we'll have fewer restrictions. Anyway after breakfast and a second walk along the beach John and I rode bikes into town in hopes of solving our cellphone connection problem at the telecom center. We rode what are called "push bikes" basically old fashioned bikes with 3 gears and to brake you need only pedal backward. The ride into town was interesting because we pedaled on the wrong side of the road (with traffic coming toward us) we figured this out after an older gentleman on his motorbike rounded the corner and almost collided with John. He told us we were pedaling on the wrong side of the road. The most interesting thing I saw in town was a number of parents on motorbikes with their young children either holding on or strapped onto their parents. I saw a woman with a baby in a carrier riding her motorbike with the baby strapped to her chest and another with what appeared to be an 18 month old child holding onto her waist. No helmets for parents or children but in some cases the children are held on by a strap connecting driver and child. A sight like this in the States would probably make the evening news but here it's quite common. We pedaled into town twice today because John was told that in order to receive a refund for the $150 worth of non-working phone cards he would need to present a receipt. We went back into town (about 3 miles) and this time John took the receipts but still didn't receive a refund (long story). On our way back the first time we stopped at a little restaurant that really looked more like a private home than a restaurant for fish and chips (delicious). We stayed there for close to an hour just enjoying our lunch and the hospitality of the owner and "mama" we paid the owner for the fish and chips but had to speak with mama about the two cans of soda. Mama sold us some nice refreshing beverages. The second time in I stopped at another store where I bought a large piece of fabric also known as a dress, the woman showed me how to tie it and assured me that the girls at the hotel would have even more fashion suggestions so to just ask them. When we got back to the hotel I was ready to try out my recently acquired snorkeling skills but this time in the ocean. We got the snorkeling gear and reef shoes and walked into the Pacific ocean. OMG it was absolutely amazing just like jumping into a huge aquarium! I managed to cut my leg on some coral but other than that tiny mishap the experience was amazing. While returning our snorkeling gear John struck up a conversation with the other newlyweds, Kevin and Crystal. It turns out they scored some fresh tuna from their cruise/snorkeling guide and planned to cook it up for dinner tonight. They invited us to join them for dinner but John thought Crystal may have invited us only because she was a little tipsy. I didn't get my hopes up too high for dinner with the newlyweds but they arrived right on time as promised at our villa with the most outstanding shrimp, rice, tuna dinner you can imagine. We enjoyed Crystal's outstanding cooking and a bottle of white wine with this sweet young couple from Seattle. Crystal is a molecular biologist and Kevin in a bartender, they've been together for 3 years and were married last week on the main island, Rarotonga. I'm afraid my writing is really going downhill but I feel like there's so much to write about but I'm exhausted so grammar and punctuation must take a backseat if I'm going to be able to keep up with this thing.