I arrived in Tahiti just before sunrise and dragged my confused and groggy self over to the little air taxi that goes to moorea. It was kind of scary. There was no door between me and the cockpit. There was only one pilot. The ride was bumpy. I kind of liked it.


As soon as I got to the research station, it was time to go diving. I barely had time to put my luggage in my room. Then we launched the boat and went out to do two dives. Each dive was about an hour. It was lovely. We saw a black tip reef shark and a couple of turtles on the first dive but we couldn't find any clown fish. On the second dive we found lots and we cut little chunks out of their tail fins. Actually, I just watched this time. Tomorrow, I will do some cutting and catching.

After the diving we went and visited the UC Berkeley Gump station down the road. The rumors I had heard were true. Gump is pretty nice and Criobe is a bit of a dump. On the up side, rules are pretty lax here and I get a room all to myself. I'm quite happy to be here so please don't take my statement about this place being a dump as complaining. It's just a fact. It's a topical paradise kind of dump so it's o-kay.

Here's the view from Gump station:

I'm really tired right now and I've got to dive in the morning. I think the text formatting is going to be a little off here but I don't care right now.