Pictures have been added for the Marquesas also!
Life on an atoll!
Where one world ends and another begins! We never could have imagined that the tiny slivers of coral reef that separated and protected us from the open ocean could teach us what they have. The daily rythms that life takes here in the midst of such solitude and beauty are like nothing we have ever experienced. No matter how many times we have escaped to different remote cornors of the world, fleeing civilization, we have never experienced what we did in the last month. There is no way to emphasize how alone these atolls truly are. The weather patterns, crystal clear water, solitude, sea life and most of all emotions that engulfed us constantly, opened are eyes and minds while challenging us in ways that the rest of the world has yet to attempt. The lifestyle that we were quickly to adapt to forced us to slow down significantly in not only our actions but in our thoughts. These last weeks have for the first time allowed us to find a way to feel comfortable with a lifestyle we have always dreamed of but never been close enough to understand. The Tuamotus showed us not only a way of life but a way of thinking that can never be matched.
Adjusting to the slower pace of day to day life took us some time to understand and get accustomed to. Once our bodies and mind slowed we were able to truly submerge ourselves in a way that allowed us to enjoy our surroundings for all there simplicity and beauty. Leaving here today our boat is slowly being escorted by the outgoing tide back to the unprotected expansive Pacific Ocean. As we get pushed along we are reminded of how something as simple as the current, like so many patterns we came to trust and count on here has become our friend, our time keeper and our sense of security in a place so exposed and vulnerable to all of the seas glory!
The first time ashore this tiny coral outcropping in the middle of the Pacific is humerous to look back on. Prepared to conquer what ever the land and people may throw at us, we left to explore with a fully packed back pack, camera, shoes, pocket knife and expectations that no one cloud! As the days or in some cases the hours unfolded the back pack became to heavy and never needed, the pictures had been taken or could never be captured , the shoes became a hassle and we were taught the proper way to shuck a coconut so there was no longer a need for a pocket knife. So there we stood day after day in the clearest water we have ever seen with nothing but a bathing suit holding a snorkel in our water pruned hands.
We got used to the daily squalls that more often than not turned into full blown downpours, drenching our boat and everything on it. Somehow we never seemed to mind them because they were always accompanied by a full arched rainbow that was able to dry out our annoyance before it began. We awoke each morning having no plans and no expectations because they had all been met in ways that we have yet to understand. The ocean become our playground, our home, our life. The days spent spear fishing, scuba diving, surfing, wandering the deserted motus and eating more coconuts than we could stomach have left us salty, sunburned, tired and more content than ever!
This solitude that we came to know so well that was initially something hard to confront is now much harder to leave. As we skip along the ocean back in the big blue ocean we are no longer protectected by the atoll we came to know and love. We can’t stop staring at the tops of the palms as they disappear into the distance wondering if we will ever experience anything like this again. Physically nothing has changed since we arrived on this desolate island. There are still dozens of coral motus littered with coconuts and lined with Palm trees. The water is still as clear as glass teaming with sharks and tropical fish. We are leaveing our surroundings just as we found them and the daily routine of the people, animals and ocean continues on its repetitive cycle. The life that we entered moves along the same as it has been for as long as one can remember but it all feels, smells and looks so different to us. Our stay here has opened our eyes and our hearts to the true meaning of island life and even when submersed back into civilization we will never forget the way we felt so at home in such desolation.
