Tikehau _ Sea urchins etc.

This is the scary Ocean I was talking about. Here, we are standing up on the Coral Reef, and there, where the waves break, it's very deep....

Tikehau story

When we left Bora Bora we were such on a huge rush because of me (and my papers to turn in at the last minute), that we forgot to withdraw some cash. In Tikehau, we chose to stay at the only hotel that had a credit card machine, and we chose the breakfast+dinner formula.

First day, we used our little bit of cash to buy lunch and cookies. Then we found out that the credit card machine of the hotel was broken... We had to pay when we got back to Moorea directly at the bank, on the owner's account.

We have no cash, no problem, we'll go tomorrow at the post office. There, we'll be able to use our visas somehow for some cash. Well... we've been told "The Post Office opens from 9 to 11am."  We go “what???” and she replies "Yes, tomorrow is Thursday, it opens late". L.O.L.!

We get there and there's no way it would work.... We have visa cards, money on our accounts, and we can't use a cent of it!

We couldn't beg for food at the hotel, that was basically a family that had built some little houses on the beach, and for dinner they would cook in their family kitchen and serve us food as if we were their guests for dinner (and not "hotel clients").

OK... we go from there. It's only one day, we'll survive! So, we had breakfast late, we kept the water bottle (because no money = no water), and we went for a walk on the beach. Lunch time arrives, and so does hunger. No worries, we went on the coral reef and ate some sea urchins. They were my first ones!!!! and it's delicious....

Then, we have finished the day with a coconut... At dinner time we were starving so much that we said "never again" and we finally asked our host to let us borrow a little bit of cash, that we paid back directly on her account when we got back to Moorea...

It's called a "Pencil Urchin" = "Oursin crayon". So beautiful... to bad we had to eat it!!!! But it was plenty of them, so no huge deal...

This is a Coconut tree crab. To catch it, you have to display half a coconut on the ground. Then, when night comes, you can be sure you will have clients, and all you have left is to grab it and throw it in a very thik bag. But watch out!!!! If it pinches you, it directly cuts off your finger!

Mathieu and the owners' son went to catch some, and we cooked them for dinner the next day...

"Hey Bob!" ...this is sponge...

This is another type of urchin. That one, if you step on it, all the little things break in hundreds of pieces inside your foot...