Diving in Raiatea yesterday.  The island itself had no beaches and the dive operation was good,considering how difficult it would be to organize ten people with gear, etc.  The first dive, a reef dive was very nice except that my mask kept fogging up which is quite annoying.  Probably because I had to spend so much time on the surface waiting for everyone to get in the water. Grrr. The second dive was a wreck dive which was, er. . . Interesting but I prefer seeing live reefs to dead wrecks.  We did see a nudibranch early in that dive, so bright white and fancy that I thought it was a piece of plastic someone had dropped.

I went to a cultural talk about tattoos yesterday.  The speaker was part dramatic storyteller complete with movements and sound effects. He was tattooed all over his body including half of his face.  He claims he studied old texts of European explorers who documented how the Polynesians lived to learn the craft.  He poo-poohed tattoos as decoration and emphasized the component of “soul”.

Tattoos were originally a way to record one’s family history and place in the village; anyone examining them would know your ancestry and your occupation.   They might also record significant life events such as the births and deaths of loved ones, etc.  Because the Christianization of the island erased most of the culture, there was no tattooing in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, but it came back a bit in the fifties and much fuller force in the eighties.  

Today a tour of Ta’aha, another small island in the same lagoon as Raiatea.

 The tour this morning took us to a black pearl farm and vanilla plantation.  Both were fascinating.  We learned about the seeding of oysters, the progression of pearl size over four generations, and how they are harvested.  I am stunned to learn that pearls can be both seeded and extracted and the oyster kept alive.  The seeding is done with mother of pearl scrapings so the interior of the pearl will be hard enough.  The vanilla is a type of orchid, planted without digging in coconut husks which provide the fertilizer. There is a process of drying and massaging the pods before they can be used for vanilla powder, extract, etc.  The plantation owner was a crusty old guy with a Tahitian wife who was difficult to understand.  He also showed us tanuna oil which is apparently good for skin issues.  I bought vanilla extract for everyone and some tanuna oil, of course..

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