Ahe Atoll Motu French Polynesia
French Polynesia Ahe Atoll MotuFrench Polynesia, Ahe Atoll Motu, Oceania
I just want one thing to fight for. Twenty acers would be far too small to put it in the right light, that's only 0.08 sqkm. Would-be to be living on about a 10-moraw plot of land and you could go about it in 5 mins. I just want one thing to fight for.
I am still looking for immigrants for almost every nation in the hemisphere. And the trouble is that our predicament has never really been taken into account in our migration legislation..... lì'fyari leNa'vi'Rrtamì, almong a fra'u zera'u ta ngrpong....
The Ahe Atoll - the Tuamotus Achipellago, French Polynesia
A long and rainy evening was followed by sunshine and a constant south-easterly breezes that led us softly to our next goal, the Ahe Atoll in the Tuomotus archipelago. Tuomotus are a group of Korallenatollen, known for their treacherous mountain pass and access, deep sand beaches coated with palm trees and crystalline lakes.
Archipelago inhabitants live from fishery and coppra farming, but the big bucks are in cultivating beads. Recreational and lagoon areas are rich in sea creatures, and boating from islands to islands over colourful cliffs and unbelievably clear waters is a true pleasure. Several of the Tuomotus in the south were used by the French authorities as test sites for atrocities.
Sailing over the Ahe passes, we crossed the lake to the small town, where there is a jetty. The Motu, or Isle, is the atoll' s centre of society. These Tuomotuses are known for their dark beads, and some of these amazing gems found their way into my âprecious stuffâ bags.
After a little bit of creative work and a few hook and eye fastenings in stereo silvery, I have transformed some of these beads into a beautiful range of amber beads. So I' m going to describe what I know about it. First some of the black-lipped pearlescent pearly bowls with the most colourful and flawless pearly cups are found and offered, and small bits of their cloak, the outside lips of the meat, are sliced and placed in the landlord's cysters.
It is this small chunk of meat that gives the bead its distinctive colour. In the uterus of the landlord is a core that is a small imperfect ball derived from a large freshwater mussel found in the Mississippi and Tennessee Odyss. This is a delicacy, the egg is opened gently and kept open with a small key.
In order to remove the beads, the oyster is opened again gently, and if the core is not repelled by the eggplant, a small piece of dark bead is taken out and another core is placed in its place. Oysters either rejects the core or take it on and form a mother of pearl on top of it.
An oyster that rejects the core is either consumed, offered for its cloak, or another way of inserting it is made; a small part of the oyster shell is introduced into the uterus, or a synthetic semi-sphere is placed on the inside of the shell. It produces an uneven and clumpy bead, the latter produces a colourful clump on the mother-of-pearl shell, which can then be sliced out and made into a cheaper one.
Only a very small proportion of these cultured beads are AAA+ grade, which makes them very precious. When I visited jewellery shops in Papeete I saw some of these AAA+ beads. You can see the colours of the bow in a bead, and you can see your own image as if you were looking into a glass or two.
There seems to be an inner fire burning in these beads. One necklace of these ideal beads, long enough for a necklace, cost 600,000,000 Swiss Franks, well over 600,000 US Cents. Beads are not the only darling in this atoll. I had a nice time at the beach in Ahe when I took my Hammock, a small meal and a pocketbook and spent a few mile paddling until I came to a little place calling out to me.
I look over my cloves at the unbelievable blue waters. At the end of the afternoon the winds were calm and I could go kayaking along the shore, dangle my legs in the hot waters of the lagoons, look at the colourful corals and effortlessly cover the many mileage I had covered this mornings.
If the atoll is not clear, the simplest way to get in and out of the atoll is between times, in shallow waters. During the doldrums we were stopped by the descent because some little guys had come to our ship to come and see us and exchange some beads. As we came out to the Atoll Passport, the flood had already turned and a heavy rift in the river flow whirled up the door.
The next stop is Tahiti, where we will pick up our post and our new windgenerator and get some treats from the big French grocery store in Papeete.