March 21, 2018 – Fakarava, French Polynesia

We don’t want to sound too repetitious from yesterday’s experience at Rangiroa, but Fakarava is another atoll in the west of the Tuamotu group in French Polynesia, southeast of Rangiroa and about 300 miles northeast of Tahiti. It’s the second largest of the Tuamotu atolls, after Rangiroa. The shape of Fakarava Atoll is roughly rectangular -- length of 37 miles and width of 13 miles. The lagoon has a surface area of 429 square miles, and there are two passes through the coral reef (entryways for ships entering or leaving the lagoon), one of which is said to be the largest in French Polynesia (½-mile wide). We read that the total land area around the lagoon is six square miles.

Here’s an aerial photo of Fakarava we found on the Internet, which clearly shows the coral reef and small motu (islands and islets) separating the water inside and outside of the lagoon.

Water in the lagoon is very clear and calm. Snorkeling must be great here. We understand that the best diving and snorkeling spots are in the vicinity of the two (northern and southern) passes. Gentler snorkeling opportunities must abound at some of the secluded fine sand motu (islets) on the atoll, as you can see in the above photo.

Fakarava has been designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, in recognition of its unique flora and fauna. This designation normally provides motivation to the local community to be actively involved in conservation efforts.

This morning, we traveled via tender boat at 9:30 am, from our ship anchored in the lagoon to Rotoava, the main village and administrative center of Fakarava. The water was so calm in this lagoon (as it was yesterday at Rangiroa) that getting on and off the tender was very easy to do; even Ginny enjoyed it!

Fakarava has a total of about 800 inhabitants, and most of them live in Rotoava. Once again, there were a few tables set up with souvenirs for sale, as we stepped off the tender. This time, it was almost totally handmade shell necklaces, with a few black pearls also available. There’s another black pearl farm on this island. We looked around the souvenir stands for about 10 - 15 minutes but didn’t buy anything.

Needless to say, there is very good diving and snorkeling here, but there were no shore excursions offered by Crystal. There were opportunities to hire a local person in Rotoava, if someone wanted to do any of these water activities.

Jim decided to take a walk in the village of Rotoava and was surprised that there was a long, paved road running through town and along the lagoon, with a few dirt roads leading off the main road for a few blocks before hitting water again.

It was a nice walk, with bougainvillea and other colorful plants lining the road, a bright colorful church, well-built homes, a boulangerie, and snack shop. This seems like a fairly quiet, but pleasant, village.

There were two fairly small spots in the village that looked tempting for swimming in the crystal-clear water. Jim saw several fellow passengers from the ship taking advantage of the opportunity. There are a few pensions (guest houses) here, but Jim didn’t see any major resort hotels.

Fakarava looks like a small, pleasant, remote place to escape to, if you want to get away (a long way away) from the modern world for a while. It’s also a great place if you want to spend a lot of time in the water.

Because we've been visiting so many ports during this portion of the world cruise, it's been relatively quiet during the day on board ship, as people go ashore on excursions or to explore on their own. Soon we'll be having more "days at sea." We're looking forward to the new enrichment speakers and other activities. Ginny may even start her watercolor classes again.

We may not attend as many evening entertainment shows, as they're now having only one show at 9:30 p.m. Up until now there were two shows per night -- early (7:30) and late (10:00).  They're also starting to repeat the production shows. In fact, one show (Speakeasy) was repeated for the third time since we got on the ship a month ago. We did go to see the encore performance of Mark Merchant, the ventriloquist, for an all-new show. He's very talented and quite humorous. Another night we went to a show by Giovanni, a vocalist performing "old school" Motown and Soul Train hits. For the most part, he was a hit with this audience.

Jim & Ginny