Kelcey Chandler-Yates and Jim Yates present...

UnderSeaPhotoVideo.com

Maupiti from the top

September 10, 2003

Maupiti - We arrived in this little bit of paradise less than 24 hours ago and already I have met a family of Polynesians I know!-Jim and I were exploring town and up to me comes this young woman who announces, "hello Kelcey, welcome to Maupiti". I was shocked!! So out to the boat all the women in that part of the village came. They all wanted their pictures taken with Loreto the parrot! Parrots are something they don't have in these parts. When they arrived they brought bananas, papaya, cucumbers and two freshly caught fish-cleaned and scaled! They also showed us an unfortunate turtle they speared which they offered us a front quarter of.-Hard to bow out of but against my culinary morals I told them I realized how much they love the taste of turtle and when I had tasted it before I could not tell the difference between it and beef-this was a lie-it tasted disgusting as it was made into a stew-guts and all-ick-besides-poor turtle-I like diving with them and looking at them too much.

September 11, 2003

Climbed to the top of the mountain today-fabulous views and great exercise-it did show me how out of shape I am though-too much cooking for the 14 guests we have had for the past 4 months. It has been fun but it is nice to be back on track with school and boat maintenance.

September 27, 2003

We are now in Penrhyn and you may read about that next however Maupiti deserves a bit more explaining.-we traded my jewelry for shell bracelets and necklaces as well as sold over 500 dollars worth of items-they couldn't get enough of the stuff-where do they get their money??-Anyhow this was not the only great thing about the island. The people were really fun but a bit on the gimme side. By the end however, they came around and we all enjoyed each other. When we left it was very sad. We were not only leaving this island but all of French Polynesia where we have enjoyed the culture and the locals so much we can not imagine another place we would enjoy as much.-(See Record Searchlight column for leaving French Polynesia)