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South Pacific Trip

Part one of two.

WEDNESDAY, 10/10/01: Bed 1:10AM! Set alarm for 8:10. Bags TOO HEAVY! By 3:23AM I haven't slept, put Vicks up nose and pee. Pee at 6:32. Salt gargle to 6:40. Feel full of dread. Up at 8. Write a bit on computer. Car calls at 8:27, leaves at 8:30, via Interborough Parkway (now Jackie Robinson), and arrives 9AM! Alarms being tested in new terminal. Slow line. Duffel weighs 29.5# on their scale. Confirm two window seats, moving first back from 21G (over wing, though she said "first behind wing") to 26G, perfect. Sit in lounge at 9:30 exactly, boarding at 11:20. Puzzles. Calm. Board at 11:45. Off at 12:20. #1 Lower NYC. #2 4:25 Canyonlands! Mostly clear, some clouds over Great Lakes: panic at first when we go determinedly EAST, then turn north in middle of Long Island, cross Hudson around Bear Mountain Bridge, over eastern, narrow, end of Lake Erie. Good views, snow in mountains still east of Rockies. #2 included snow peaks on horizon. Bumpy ride. #3 butte-ends at 4:27. #4 shadows at 4:35. Very bumpy, but I'm quite calm. #5 red rocks at 4:50. #6 L.A. at 5:39, HUGE spread-out town! Land at 5:42, which is 2:42 local time, after 5:22 flight. NO signs to "Bus A under blue sign to Terminal 2" for Air New Zealand from United Terminal 7. I'm at the gate, ready to board at 3:33, only 50 minutes for a transfer they thought 1:50 too short for! No boarding till 7:45! Decide on Wolfgang Puck's pizza, though the place is a dump. Buy Bristol Cream for $11 in duty-free shop. LUNCH at 8:10 for $9.06, a filling pepperoni and mushroom pizza and $5.25 for draft Foster’s beer. Puzzles pall by 10PM. Read New Yorker. Delay. Now 11:43PM. Forget to take 12PM penicillin until 12:30AM. Plane held up in London for security and then immigration here closed and they had to taxi somewhere else to clear them. Board 12:53, having waited EIGHT hours! I'm in FRONT of wing, but there's nothing to see. Time announced as 8:20, FAST, which clears when it's said that Tahiti is THREE hours different from Los Angeles, not TWO. So the flight WOULD have been 8:55, not 7:55. Tired.

THURSDAY, 10/11/01: It was MOJAVE Desert we flew over. Off at 1:22AM. 1:37 take diphenhydramine. Glass of wine, find my headrest bends to cradle my head, try sleeping at 1:50. Penicillin at 4:55, one hour before breakfast on plane? Cabin lights on at 8:56. 1/4 MOON out, but no islands. Starting down at 9:05, numb. Now 3:08AM. Beach-row lights, NO traffic, two ships (Renaissance 4 and 5), land at 3:28. NO ATM working for my card, into cab at 4:10 for $16 to room at 4:20 and BED at 4:40, having lost and FOUND earplugs. Fred got double beds but they had no note that I was going to join him. Take pravachol at 4:55AM, having forgotten it. Light out at 5:23AM! I know I slept SOME because I DREAMT in that 28 minutes. [Can't read notes.] Wake at 6:20, something at 6:54. 7:07 up to shit, take 2 grams vitamin C and .5 g melitonin by 7:19. Lie. Up 7:33 to shower. But we talk and he pees at 7:39. Start unpacking at 8. Breakfast is $22, but good fruit and omelet, and pictures of Fred and couple and MOOREA across way, to 9:30. Back to finish repacking, watch TV, read Fred's 10/9 Los Angeles Times; FIND window blinds, finish repacking by 10:30. Take lots of photos of Beachcomber over-water cottages and closed Lagoonarium. Town out backside is Punaauia, which Victor pronounces pu-na-a-wee-ya, with big hotel. Get ROOKED on bill-changer, thinking to get 2540F for $20 but getting hit with a 500F commission! Look at tours and book a 2-5:30 5000F safari up hill and across north coast. Fred says he doesn't want to join me, will stay in the sun at the hotel until he puts both our bags in a cab for the Aranui at 6PM. Cute driver picks up our bags at 10:05 from room. 12:30 I take a two-minute video on Reel 42, from Beachcomber to Moorea. Great tour: albisia beautiful tree under old man's beards and in SHAPE on horizon. MAPE tree with drum-sound roots. GREAT tour. STOP now at 7:45AM, feeling slightly SEASICK and figure BED will feel good! Seven of us on tour, with tall Victor as guide speaking fairly good English. Behind is couple from Kansas City, youngest, then guy from Cayman Islands and his wife from Texas, then couple from California. Hill ride spectacular, with views down to town and Beachcomber and clouded shores. North shore rather late for a too-big-for-photos waterfall in darkening day, and he takes me directly to Aranui, NOT docked in town but way out somewhere, at 6:35, where I see the sign that it leaves at 2300! To room, guided around by Vai, up to find Fred in bar, drink three funny-tasting drinks and have lots of peanuts, only had three pieces of cheese for lunch, cribbed from breakfast buffet. Dinner at 7PM with WONDERFUL Jean-Max and Geraldine, in French, with tuna seviche with lettuce appetizer and a good sauce, poor chicken in gravy with potatoes and corn salad, and a Chardonnay-Syrah wine bottle for the two of us, and we take some of the Frenchies' wine, too! They show us the dorm, we all laughing when I said I wanted that to start, but Fred insisted on private bath, and I would have been MISERABLE in the twining hallways, sleeping one above the other, sharing six toilets and two showers---the noise! the smell! the rocking of the boat, being on the top level, five flights above those of us who are essentially at water-level. We fear not having enough space, but we unpack and unpack and put things away and there's NOTHING left to put under my bed, though the closets and shelves are fairly full. Penicillin at 10PM with 3 g melitonin and bed at 10:10PM, not moving yet, though they report we start out at 11:20PM, five crew last aboard.

FRIDAY, 10/12/01: Wake at 3:30AM, moving, not peeing, and up at 5:35 to pee and clip beard a bit and look out at 5:45AM to find sun has LONG risen! Sit in lounge with few other people, chatting and looking through Conservative magazine, and third in to breakfast at 6:30, with Tom and Billie, nice people, and Bob the lecturer sits next to me and talks about the errors in his competitor's book, while HIS book, of course, is perfect. Lots of fruit and a good hot roll, not knowing we can order eggs for ourselves, and cute "blond" teaches me how to use hot milk and Nesquik for good hot chocolate. Back down at 7 to roust Fred from bed, who says it's ruined his back, and he leaves and I start typing but feel vaguely nauseous, so I stop and lie down until 9:15, when I take LAST penicillin at 9:20 and go up for talk that starts at 9:35, Vai and Sylvie guides, Didi we'll meet in three days. Bob talks as archeologist who should "be asked any questions at all." He'll give a 4:30 talk in dining room and I start list of meetings: today 9:30 meeting, 11AM lifeboat drill, 2:30-3 atoll passing on which about 500 people live, 4:30 lecture, 6PM meeting, 6:30 dinner. BUSY! Ulla is documenting Aranui for Australian TV and we can buy copies if we want; she'll show us her 2-hour piece on the last day. 15 in the English group, both French and Germans have bigger ones, since we're 66 now, will grow to 77 tomorrow, and to 99 in five days (but only for a week), many in "local" class in bedrolls in special section separated from us. Dr. G. will be in the blue infirmary 7:45-8:15AM and 5:45-6:15PM. Our housekeeper is Ayla. Laundry on BED Tues and Fri at 9AM, no underwear, for Josephine, free. Blue beach towel on desk by 5:30PM for changing. Video room is one up, and we can view our videos OK. They have list of films at desk. Sylvie can change dollars at 115F/$ after lunch and dinner, but rates are better in Marquesan banks. No passports needed on shore. Bar open 11-11, by Yoyo. Boutique at 7:30AM, may have AA batteries. Odd numbers, us, go to reception and turn to port (left) side of ship for drill. Meeting to 10:20 and I catch up with this at 10:50, still feeling slightly "off." Maybe finishing the last penicillin will help clear up my system. Now to get ready for lifeboat drill. Drill to 11:20, then to lunch, where someone says they've rented Moby Dick for showing at 1:30. I move around, lunch having been canned white asparagus with lettuce and lamb with a white sauce, with good green beans and carrots, with a rosé wine that again we took most of. The movie needed adjusting for sound, but Vai did it, and then there were only lines through it. Bradbury's script NOT very accessible! Over at 3:30 and I show Fred my ten minutes of video, puzzling over the few TV controls to make everything work. Then pass atoll from bridge and DOZENS of flying fish! Talk at 4:30 by Bob: Tuamotos CORAL, Marquesas VOLCANIC. 15 of 18 landings will be done in whaleboats, for which I better buy jellies. Peaks are hardened basalt plugs. Volcanoes washed away. Gauguin's house had opium vials, which was LEGAL then. No-nos (fierce, biting, no-see-ums) ONLY in Nuku Hiva, and Anaho Beach. Survivor being FILMED on Nuku Hiva. JEEP ride possible for the ten-mile over-mountain walk on Fatu Hiva, tell Vai I want it that morning. Talk to 5:20, French late to dinner, but fill up table with French, so we don't have to concentrate on them. My video of atoll was of Kaukura. #10 and #11 sunset at 5:48PM. Meeting from 6-6:25, LOTS of detail about tomorrow's trip, taking lifejacket for only time, jellies for landing in knee-deep water after surfing over the barrier reef, maybe rain, so bring raincoat, bug-spray needed, hat, sunscreen, out at 8:30 and back 2:30, lunch there, either walk 40 minutes to and from or take launch across lake. Dinner of Potage St. Germain just delicious with garlic toasts, then wahoo, tasty, with mediocre white sauce and gloppy cauliflower, followed by cake. Down at 7:30 to brush teeth and take $40 to change to buy jellies and AA batteries both for 1300F, Sylvie making it clear that the 7% addition for credit cards is ONLY for "advance cash loans" and NOT for chits in the bar or boutique, so I put it on the chit. Fred says he can't sleep for 2 hours after dinner, so I find vertical stairs to top of bridge, EIGHT flights up! Loud funnel, stars vaguely obstructed until my eyes get accustomed to the dark and then there's a strange galaxy-like object in front of the boat and a GREEN-flashing "star" that doesn't move off the portside. Down at 9PM, two hours after dinner, and get into bed at 9:15 REALLY TIRED.

SATURDAY, 10/13/01: Wake at 3:30 to pee and shit, again at 4:50 to see moonbeams on ocean waves INCHES below porthole. Vaguely depressed about getting up, but rise at 5:55 to shower and get plastic bags out for A&K bag, shoes, towel, stuff for day. Type this to 6:30, when Fred insists I wait for him for breakfast for "no more than ten minutes." But when we're up at 6:40AM the breakfast room is totally full! I look out at nearing atoll, now out my window, and back down to finish this to 6:56AM, back up for breakfast. Sit with a couple from Basel, who ALSO had problems with plane reservations. Nice chat, and wonderful ham and cheese omelet, very soft, with a hot hotcake with syrup, then lots of fruit, including most sweet grapefruit. Hot chocolate good, too. Down to room and remember that I forgot the water bottle, so back UP the two too-familiar flights and thankfully the bottle's still there. Fill it and back down to brush teeth thoroughly, wash off the toothpick holder, and prepare a huge bag for today's excursion, finishing this at 8:20AM. Whaleboat boards almost immediately I get upstairs for the 8:30 departure, each one seating 25, so there IS no need for prioritized lists. Take lots of pictures in Takapoto: #14 Noni fruit (Morinda citrifolia), a fad in the US. #15 plumeria tree. #16 Vai in tiara (gardenia) hat. Woman with osteoarthritis says her doctor recommended Tylenol, two 500mg tablets 3-4 times/day, until maintenance levels are established by reducing slightly until normalized. #18 frangipane, though it might just be another name for plumaria. #19 "Laurier rose," which translated from the French might be rose laurel? Street walk starts at 9AM, HOT! BRIGHT sun. #21 seaweed "oyster collectors" for pearl cultivation. #23 beach at 9:48. HOT AND HUMID. Walk to 9:55, pee, Fred swims; I sit and sweat. Cold Hinano beer for I don't care what price! #24 oyster-pearl talk at 10:40, to 11:15. I find an abandoned shady beach and sit. BIG crab videoed at 11:54AM. Lunch 12-1, good fish, poor chicken that Fred likes, cool watermelon and LOTS of LIQUIDS. HOT in tin-roofed OVEN. Sit under shade, watching everyone else swim and try to change clothes under towels. First boat leaves 1:30-1:40, some video of cute chocolate skin ahead. Find the Aranui WAY out. First boat goes out and SITS at 2PM, boards before 2:25, and I get on next and get SPLASHED, so I get back at 2:35 and Fred's not in, so I spread out stuff to dry, and I shower, finding my SHINS worst-burnt in the day! MAYBE my forearms will survive, but I can't assess the back of my neck. But my face was totally protected by my hat. Finish this at 3:20PM [Fred: You haven't found some nice place in a lounge somewhere to do that (typing)? Me: No.] AND he complains that I used HIS plastic hangers to put up MY clothes to dry---maybe getting back at me for saying I didn't want his drying clothes-hanger on OUR closet door. Beginning of a tight trip. Now I'll go to the lounge to read and maybe have tea and cookies. Fred then announces HE's going to the lounge, so I take my New Yorker and search for a place to read: the pool deck is full of screaming people, and the rooftop above is VERY hot in the sun and crowded, so I end up on the shady side of the boat on the reception deck, with male crew being cruised by some awful Polynesian slut: thrusting her hips in short skirt, putting up her hair, talking and laughing loudly, and a cute guy down the rail looking out at the same atolls I'm looking at. Go down for video when it looks like there might be spectacular surf ahead, but it peters out as we get there. Take a long shot of placidly passing palm trees and majestically sailing clouds and the curling outer wake and frothy inner one. Then up at 4:30 to sit beside sloshing pool and watch END of one and START of another far atoll, punctuated by dozens of flying fish (once) and hundreds of birds (once) paralleling the ship, and lots of constantly chattering Polynesians and French. Then toward sunset kids take over the pool and scream, so I put in earplugs and still manage to enjoy the passing atoll. Fred's up at 5:35 when I go to the sunset rail, and we're joined by Bud, a Columbia Medical student when I was there, who used LSD in rat-muscle research in the late 50s. Placid sunset, then down for dinner (no meeting) for Steven from Andorra and very fatty paté, steak au poivre, and French fries, and a poor apple/almond tart with LOTS of wine (oh, and I had a full cup of sherry with ice, so I ended up with too much to drink and went to bed RIGHT after dinner), not bothering to stay up for the 8PM showing of Love Affair, supposedly filmed on board the Aranui, but with clearly phony interpolated stage sets that the audience howled at. To bed at 8PM, totally dizzy and drunk.

SUNDAY, 10/14/01: Wake at 3:30 to pee, up at 6:15 to NOT be able to find cut-up chinos, finally Fred tickles my memory by touching the neck of his T-shirt on a hanger and I remember I put them under MY T-shirt! Up to an empty breakfast with powdered scrambled eggs not as good as the ham and cheese omelet yesterday. Talk with husband whose wife has been sick for two days with diarrhea. Then back to room at 7;20 to lie in slight misery, then Fred starts his journal and I complete this by 8:42, still slightly woozy and ready for another lie-down. Up to deck 8:30 for some air, sit, chat with Wendy on trips, thinking I'd seen some dolphins rising and she says she saw FOUR, and then later identifies the white bird as the largest of the terns. To 10:30 talk about the migrations to the islands from Asia, NOT South America, and feel poorer and poorer, sweating and breathing hard not to be sick, and finally at 11:20 MUST leave, almost vomiting, and take two Bonine at 11:28, hoping to keep them down. Blond Stefan knocks with my salad and bread at 12, which I manage to eat, almost throwing up at last salad forkful. Lie down with GREAT relief, Fred very sympathetic. At 2:45 start charging battery, pee and at 4:20 get up to what was a 4PM meeting! But it's lots of repetition and Vai goes through the WHOLE itinerary to 5:45, signing up for a jeep for 2500F with the nice couple, one of three doing the first of these rides, which may be great. Down to room to check notes with Fred about what I missed to 6:25, and up to dinner with John and Pat, who finally is well enough from diarrhea to dine with us, sketchily, though John's a bore; Warren and Wendy, who have total charm; and Lynn and Irene, at the other end. Vegetable soup, mahi-mahi with GREAT vanilla sauce, purple ice cream, and private tours of two BIG cabins on the floor above reception with MAJOR ship motion. Steven is ALONE in owner's cabin, right at main intersection of reception, boutique, and outside railing where Polynesians hang out. Decide NOT to see Treasure Island, with Lionel Barrymore and Wallace Beery, at 8PM, my right eye STILL hurts when I get to bed---have to wash my face, and at 7:49 decided I had to type this to 8PM so I could easily add the 30 minutes to the watch for the time-change in the Marquesas tomorrow. Bed about 8:35PM. Decide to do my teeth TOTALLY tonight, AND record the DREAM from this morning: with someone like a young John C. who LOVES to be sucked off by me, and two other hunks, and the four of us have a GREAT time, almost pre-AIDS, and I wake erect for the first time in ages. Had a dream two nights ago that I meant to record, but have since forgotten, perfectly innocuous. Now change clock from 8:18 to 8:48PM. Bed really NAUSEOUS and TIRED!

MONDAY, 10/15/01: 12:34AM: Woke at 12:29 with dream, but just then FRED got up to go to the john. Dream: I'm in New York, wanting to go out on a Saturday night, but I can't find the movie listings I want, and can't remember if the Thalia is still open, or what the name of the theater nearby is that shows old double features like the Thalia used to. Think vaguely of going with Charles, but without transition I'm in an apartment which is somewhat like mine on Hicks, but it's Dennis's apartment, and I know he has an index to finish that is only thirty pages to type, which he can do in half an hour, and I say to him, "But it's only thirty pages," but he reprimands me: "There are different ways to have to type thirty pages," and I prepare to leave by climbing up on a bookcase something like an enlarged version of my black index/paper-holder shelves, getting ready to (crazy as it sounds) climb onto a shelf and go to sleep, but when I get to the top, hanging precariously, taking care that my weight doesn't pull the unsupported, un-held-to-wall bookcase AWAY from the wall, I find "my" shelf too narrow, and remember---so I climb down, saying sheepishly to Dennis, "I forgot I don't do that anymore." "What?" he says, puzzled, and I can only repeat: "I forgot I don't do that anymore; you see, I CAN change." And leave. Pee and finish this at 12:39AM, Aranui motor moaning in background. Wake about 4:50AM, lie thinking, then get up about 5:45, dress, and outside for #29 Ua Pou at 6:15. #30 church in Ua Pou 6:17. #32 BIT of top at 6:23. #34 AGAIN tip-top 6:29. Try to get into breakfast but it's totally full at 6:32AM. Back outside and #37 ALL points at 6:38. Roll #3: #1 best yet? at 6:59. #2 from dining-room window at 7:31. Breakfast 7:20-7:35, seeing that we're to leave at 8AM, rather than 8:30 as I'd thought. Frantic packing to 7:50. RAINING slightly at 8AM. #4 St. Mark in church at 8:40. Collect stones from beach. Start up for view 9:10. #9 kapok tree 9:25. #10 hanging octopus for breakfast. #11 Monette flowers and house (fare) at 9:30. Gather kapok (which gets ALL over inside of bag, which has to be cleaned that evening). #13 blue-eyed tattoo at 9:50, #14 another. On jeep at 9:55. #16 store, Oave peak on right, Totamahiti on left. #17 bay at 10:10. #18 Aranui going to Hakahau. #19 shark bay with four sharks! 10:21. #27 Hakahau bay at 11:18. Lunch to 1:30 with great Warren and Wendy at "air-cooled table" with LOTS of wine. #31 different view at 1:34. #34-35 cemetery with HUGE frangipane/plumeria and Wendy. Roll #4: #10-11 phallic turtles in museum 2:14. #15 twins IN place at 2:56. #20 last view? at 3:30. Gangway up at 4:19. Schmutzing my long-sleeved shirt, which was wet in rain then wet with sweat then dry, protecting my arms, but my LEGS are sore, on which I put Bacitracin when I got in. #21 from our porthole at 4:30PM. Then up on deck as we pull away from Ua Pou in the sunset, lasting to 5:47, then I fill water, and meeting 6:05-6:22. SHOUT at stupid, loud French brat, "Tais toi!" and Fred bends in and says "I love you--you scared ME!" In to eat with French Paul, inspector for schools in Marquesas, and his wife Marie?-Odette, and I have the nerve to introduce myself as Bob-Odile, which breaks her up totally. We speak a bit of French and Fred and Paul speak English and have salad, quiche Lorraine, turkey roll with garlicky green beans, and mocha cake with lots of wine AGAIN. Bell rings for us to leave at 7:30, and I'm down to cabin to type this to 8:06, but we've stopped in Nuka Hiva, so I'm up to watch what's going on with my video camera. Take a few pictures, trying to get fish at the bottom of the gangway, but it's VERY difficult to find the focus for the camcorder. #37: my legs! Decide NOT to recharge: hope I don't regret it. Tomorrow another busy day. Quite tired now at 8:38, and have also Bacitracined my nose. Now the end of the SIXTH day and I'm STILL on the first file---a GOOD sign. Put things away, pack for tomorrow's trip, trim beard, which seems to be growing VERY fast, and scrub my temples: GREEN from my glasses! Ready for bed as the announcement comes for the pareu-tying "class" around the pool. Not for me. Bed 9:05PM, tired from drinks and day.

TUESDAY, 10/16/01: Wake at 3:30 to pee. Then at 5:25 with the memory of a dream: I'm watching a play involving a couple on a bed, right in front of me, and she says something about a "stubby dick," to which the cute male lead takes humorous offense, but he takes his shorts off anyway under the sheets, though from my angle I can see that he keeps his hand over his genitals, but later I can see the edge of his seemingly shaved pubic hair, dark against his pale skin, and a few tempting morsels of genital, and wake faintly aroused, but for some reason (news of more anthrax yesterday morning?) I'm obsessing about the WTC catastrophe and bioterrorism and anxiety about my five upcoming trip-segments into unknown territory. Don't even try Actualism or to get back to sleep, noting that the boat seems to be stopped, though at one point I think Fred must be moving about, but he's still in bed, so it must be someone next door impinging on our cabin. Up at 5:50 to shit, and put the light on to get Fred into the bathroom at 6AM, Nuku Hiva looming large outside our porthole. Type this to 6:10AM and get upstairs with camera to see what's for a good shot, boat tipping WAY over with loading and unloading maneuvers. Out and take one unloading photo, then see Bud inside for breakfast at 6:25AM! Eat with them, very pleasant "Where haven't you been, Bob?" conversation. Out at 7 and I think to WALK into town, and Fred agrees it's close enough. And we won't have the fuss of the buss. Up on deck at 7:20. Roll #5: #1 offloading cargo at 6:17AM. We leave boat at 7:30, #4 Taiohae at 8:11. Sit on viewpoint to 8:35. To BANK 8:50-9:15: $80 for 9584F, effective rate of 119.8F/$, after waiting 20 minutes for two girls obviously financing their entire village. Then to white tent for music and dance and cake and coconut milk and grapefruit and litchi and then Didi directs us to cars at 9:55AM. #6 cathedral at 10:04. #11 St. Peter at 10:43. Leave after music, and pee at 11:09. Stop on overlook to 12. Stop on top for lunch 12:30, Cool! Lunch to 1 of pasta and seviche and sausage and salad, buying a beer, filming tropicbirds, loving the casualness of being on the mountaintop. LIE on grass till 1:12. #27 picture of "other end," which turns out to be the terminus of Typee Valley at 1:35. #28 general lunch site at 1:44. Off in cars at 1:50. #29 Typee valley at 2:22, on ridge between two valleys. Off to hike at 3:10. Off at trailhead at 3:23. Walk HARD 3:26-3:38 and we're there already. I'm not impressed at first, but as the details build it's an OK visit. #33 platform at 3:40. #34 two-headed woman from 1700AD at 3:50. #35 small tiki in middle is "still very dangerous and powerful." German from 1895 wasn't allowed to even SEE it. 10,000 people in 1700s. DOZENS of sites. #37 close-up of center at 4:12. Reel #6: trying to take pictures of SECOND site: see people going, and ask Bob, coming back, and he says, "Don't be there alone, it gets dark VERY quickly here, don't get lost!" I think to turn back but OTHERS are going, so I join them and see a HUGE platform under an ENORMOUS banyan tree. Try to photo and videotape it, finding when I get back that I have 1:32 on tape already. Leave second site at 4:32, #10 flowers at cars at 4:55. Back at 4:40, sweaty, last back is Sylvie, who stayed a LONG time. To boat at 5:10 and on at ONCE because I want it to be light, and film lots, and back to Aranui at 5:29. Back up to video Fred's boat's arrival about 5:55. Meeting 6:05-6:15, talking about one-hour walk tomorrow, with Didi. We were up 2000 meters at noon. Then to dinner with the French table, Marie-Odette at end, and [start file 2 at 10/16/01: 8:39PM:] vivacious Yusef, from Moulay-Idriss in Morocco, holding the table totally enthralled with his Robert Downey, Jr.-like charm and humor. We're both captivated with him, and with couscous-royale and vegetables, then GREAT cheeses with the rosé wine, and we're TOTALLY sloshed by 7:30 finish of dinner, then wait for 8PM French TV news in the video room, terrible news about 15 anthrax cases, one a baby in NYC! People getting smallpox vaccines! France VERY concerned. Out at 8:15 and Fred begs me to sit outside, but I beg tiredness and come down to type this to 8:41, totally exhausted and ready for bed, not yet willing to shower, probably tomorrow. But then I feel I MUST shower, so I do, since the Bacitracin is dry on my knees, and then wash my socks and hang them up to dry as Fred comes in, saying EVERYONE's dancing. I'd backspaced my tape, finding that I've already recorded 1:32 on the first reel, recharging the battery to find this out. Then help Fred with his notes for Sunday, my recharging is finished, and I finish this at 9:33PM---having set my alarm at 6AM---which will be my latest to bed yet!

WEDNESDAY, 10/17/01: Fred HEARS my alarm at 6AM and I didn't (through my earplugs). Peed at 4:15, lay till 6:02. Breakfast with Christine and her dour mate to 7. Brush teeth, read guidebooks, and up at 7:50 for bus. Ride in jammed bus 8:03-8:13. Roll call by Didi. Start hike at 8:23, not the easiest, but not that hot, though I sweat profusely. #18 on walk 8:46. #19 orchids 8:57. #20 belvedere J. Brel 9:06---hot! #22 & #23 on top at 9:10. Start down after LOVELY sit on TOP to 9:36. #27 BACK look onto top-view at 9:38. #28 back-view at 9:43. #29 with cross in graveyard at 10:15. Bird-song DOESN'T climb hill but port-noise (Port-Noise complaint) does. There ARE lizards and butterflies and dragonflies IF YOU LOOK. Kids pass silently. #30 cross in right-top at 10:19. Down at 10:28 and SIT on rock in cool. And cock's crows carry FOREVER. "Magpies" (Wendy's wonderful word) wait for bus. 10:50-11:08 bus TO cemetery--GREAT ride. #31 from cemetery at 11:10. #32 Jacques Brel/8-4-1929/9-10-1978. #33 Paul Gauguin 1903 at 11:14. To END at 11:17. Roll #7: #2 from VERY top at 11:24. #3 MANY-colored leaves. To museum 11:39. #7(?) Gauguin's "Maison de Jouir" with cutie at 11:44. #11 playing field (Tohua Pepeu) at 11:58. Sun RIGHT overhead. #12 outside museum at 12:00. Bus 12:08-12:18 to restaurant for GREAT meal and HUGE fun with John's wife. Marine Expeditions IS out of business. MISS 1:30 bus back to boat. #15 lobster claws at 1:32. Absolutely incredible array of flowers outside restaurant. Bus back in slight rain at 2:15. Pee and wash shirt, deciding on NEW pants and SHORT-sleeved shirt for this afternoon. Start typing at 2:35, during which we start relocating the Aranui, and finish at 2:45, really TIRED! Look out to see a brilliant white sail and the dark loom of Vaitahu to the right and lie down to REST. Up to wash face at 3:45, and get onto the whaleboat and land in Vaitahu at 4PM in rain. To bone-carver in museum (pieces 20-80KF) with photos. #21 window inside cathedral at 4:22PM. Didi talks, but in my FATIGUE nothing seems very captivating. Rain and gray skies don't help. Top of window: turtle links heaven and earth: turtles of double life, in land and sea. Red is SACRED color. Gold tapa cloth with tattoo protections. Blue breadfruit trees: abundance. #22 breadfruit/breadfruit 4:43. Video store and "Main Street" and #23 sunset shot at 5:07. #24 last of Vaitahu at 5:38. Talk to Vai and she says she can certainly get one jeep for tomorrow's crossing for 15,000F. Can be four people. Bud and Irene say no. I ask Wendy and Warren and HE (half Maori!) insists on walking, while she's glad to be OUTSIDE. Pat definitely wants to come if she can be inside (and guess who gets to take care of her!). Then we have dinner of lovely lentil soup, seafood under cheese, and millefeuille, and then we're at 4 and want to go to 5 and ask Lynn and Irene, and only BOTH will go. So I ask Didi where Vai is, and she'll be out in ten minutes, he says. So we wait until the 7:45 seating goes in---announced by FRED!---and here comes Vai and she agrees that TWO can sit outside, so we WILL be six, sign up as such, will leave at 8:15, get lunch and extra water, and leave on jeep about 10:45, go up in an hour and picnic on top for an hour and come down in an hour and meet group for rest of day, for only 2500F each! Come down to room to start typing at 8:07 and finish at 8:17, VERY tired, blue shirt almost dry, ready to crawl into bed as soon as possible. Bed 8:30, asleep quickly. But then Fred comes in and puts on the bright light to write his notebook, which wakes and irritates me, but when he shuts it off I go right back to sleep.

THURSDAY, 10/18/01: Sleep through till 5:10AM, when I pee and shit, then Fred's up with a dream at 5:50AM that he kicked a black kid he was teaching in the ass, who said he'd tell the authorities Fred touched his testicles. Fred was furious. Up at 6:02, depressed by his news report of 44 cases of anthrax in NYC and DC and the assassination of an Israeli minister of something or other. To breakfast with the Americans, Pat giving her care into Fred's hands. Lynn talking of his bad shoulder and foot having problems with the kids in the pool, who won't be told NOT to go in at the wrong times. I video (inadequately) wonderful surf-spray on the rocks off Omoa in Fatu Hiva, and take photos directly into the sun. Lots of cold-haze on my camera lens in the morning. VERY humid outside. Down to type at 7:35, taking raincoat along, and announcement comes at 7:40 that hikers can pick up their sandwiches and water at the desk. I recharge my battery quickly and go up at 7:43AM. Everyone carrying phallic baguettes downstairs. Pack will be ENORMOUS, thank goodness for the jeep! Now 7:50AM and putting on shoes and shirt and going upstairs for another busy day. Take a SEPARATE bag for lunch and spare water and regular water and raincoat and DEET, so that my A&K bag has only camera, video, binox, and spare film and batteries for lightness. Slather (too-thin?) sun screen over all visible skin, leaving hands greasy. Finish this at 8AM and go upstairs, ready. To Omoa on Fatu Hiva. 8:40 to island, waiting for the "8:15 for hikers" boat that never comes. Try to take video of blowhole but it never really works like it should when I'm shooting it. To Craft Center at 9AM, then to museum for long explanation (during which I later learn they had a fantastic fruit feast at the craft center), then perfume-making to 9:50. Back to big hall for tapa-making. Buy tiniest, silliest tapa for 300F. Videos going fast. Wait for blue jeep at 10:46, when he says he has to get word from Sylvie, who comes around the OTHER way when I go to the museum to search for her. Off at 11 with only one woman extra (the other three get off when Sylvie pleasantly complains this wasn't part of the understanding) with a baby, who turns out to be Bruno's (the driver's) baby and his wife's sister, the baby-sitter. Roll #8: #8 and #9 at lunch-stop view at 12:21. EVERYONE joins from the hikers and talks and laughs---I go WAY off to be relatively alone with the wonderful nature. Back at 12:40 when he comes out to get me, to group. To town at 1:45, where the store for a cold soda isn't open yet. Art Center has only coconuts for drinks. 1:54 sit in shade, watching eternal volleyball game. F/$ at 100 wasn't best the driver could do, but Lynn simply didn't have the cash, so nothing was bought. At 2:30, wearily, to Center for dance rehearsal with the women and a compelling drumbeat. Finally the boat comes around the bend at 3:40, having been held up because the crane at the other port didn't work, doubling the unloading time. We have the dance, with guys, mostly ugly but for one sexy bod in the back that I run almost to the end of the videotape with, not having thought to have enough BATTERY to get BEYOND the end of the first tape (#42). Food (fried bananas good) and coconut oil making to 4:40. Rewind the first reel at -1.02.54, then continue to 39.25 and 20.13, making a total of 2:02:32 for reel #42. Keep trying for photos of sexy canoeists, but got only a scrap of the naked simple-minded girl, and maybe some good close-ups of tattooed canoe-rowers. Keep trying to 5:05, when it rains, delaying boarding, and get back to the ship at 5:38, obviously after sunset, where Jean-Max said that the rainbow seemed to circle around under the ship. In town it didn't go so far, though guys played and rowed and unloaded in the rain. Back to ship to get video on start of reel #43 of sunset beach, then down to get notes for talk at 6PM, then back down to shit again and come up for dinner at 6:30, again with lovely Geraldine and Jean-Max, talking a long time in bad French, through good sashimi with an almost-Hoisin sauce, chow mein with dried noodles, and a peach melba dessert, with LOTS of red wine. Leave at 7:30 as they exchange addresses, and I'm to cabin to shower for only third time in a week(?), and put Bacitracin on almost-healed shins, and start typing this at 8:05 and finish now at 8:20, ready to go to bed. Bed at 8:40, seeming to fall asleep quickly, not waking when Fred comes in, since he doesn't turn on light.

FRIDAY, 10/19/01: 7:32AM: Sadly, I'm starting to count the end-of-days for the Aranui at the halfway point. Only five more days of landing. Pee at 5:05 after a sexy dream leaves me rigid and wishing for privacy. Lie awake in the rocky sea, knowing we're docked at an island only for unloading this morning. Up to look at the small village with lots of people and the choice for placing the dock at the rockiest, roughest-surf place, then stand for breakfast from 6:25 to 6:41, when they finally open with few cups, no coffee, no water, hot chocolate buns, and the "second seating" lined up outside wondering what was taking us so long. Down at 7 for the video camera for loading and unloading, but the island is SO tiny that there's nothing to take a picture of except the loading boats rocking in the surf and being bailed out. Down to write this, clothing out for laundry, without a long-sleeved shirt for the first time today, hoping for an enclosed jeep ride and trees at the tiki-place. Now 7:37, Fred sorting his pills for the next five days, and my battery recharging, nothing left to do but sit and look at my two full bottles of water here before me on the desk, with my pills. #31 "altar" at 8:37. Hiva Oa: Puamau for "tiki." Board at 8:52. To island at 9, falling and skinning left upper shin. RATS. Sit in back SEAT in shade till departure. Up hill at 9:15. Site built 1700-1750. Big tiki is takaii, "ready to erupt with rage." Birth-death tiki found on BACK: "butterfly goddess in agony." #35 and cutie at 9:40. Roll #9: #1 boys at 9:50. #10 Last Chief's tomb from 1897 at 10:11. #11 hill and breadfruit fruit on right. #12 Polynesian grapes. #15 bathers at beach at 10:40. Ride back at 11:05. Lunch at 11:30 and at 12:27 to a good lie-down. Chat with Fred, then catch this up as we relocate to new touring spot at 1:45, feeling TERRIBLY tired. Hope nothing's going to HAPPEN! Out now for boat at 1:46. 4:27PM: Onto second whaleboat at 1:57, tired. #17 red-apple tree at 2:26, in Hanaiapa, with #18 carpet from it. Souvenirs being bought, I wander up-valley at 2:45PM. Look at horses and flowers and trees and listen to cocks crow and see a hen and six tiny chicks and listen to the stream flowing by, but it gets hot and I have to walk back facing the sun, so at a row of croton-leaf bushes I stop and glance around and start back toward the village proper. Footsteps behind: a dog followed by a medium-height Marquesian who says "Hello." I ask if he speaks English, and he does. We remark how beautiful the place is, his name is Jean-Pierre, he teaches five students in a "special" school in Atuona; we exchange addresses, we look long into each other's eyes, his middle finger gives my palm a bit of a rustle as we shake hands goodbye, and my mind's been obsessed with him since then, even though Fred tries to make fun of him, but finally wishing us good luck. His body was incredible, down to the Grecian lines descending to the thin blue of his swimming trunks (he loves surfing and spearing his own fish); he left his sneakers by the bush at which he posed, saying he had to be back there at 4PM to meet his volleyball coach. But the long, lingering, intense eye-to-eye contacts were the most striking: if he was flirting, he SURE knows how to flirt; if he's serious, I seriously feel sorry for him---what chance does he HAVE? So I shook hands with him and came back to the ship at 4PM and took a shower and started writing this and talking to Fred and finish at 4:42, thinking of nothing but Jean-Pierre B., Atuona, Hiva-Oa, Iles Marquises, Polynesie Francaise. Hmmmm. Up to deck at 4:50, sunset LATE, going down at 5:39, behind clouds at set. #21 at 5:43, sunset maybe at 5:45. Watch clouds turn from white to pink to gray, then in for meeting 6:03-6:20, then sit outside again when dinner is called at 6:26, and Fred sits with American table, saying Wendy will join me, so I save a seat for her, turning away the dour-turned-card Frenchman, who makes a moue at me, and then Warren says she's not eating: she has a migraine! So I sit and non-understand their French, lying to Jean-Louis by saying I understood "la moitie," which he says would be GOOD for a quick conversation like this, and I surely agreed. End comes at 7:30 with the bell, and I finish this at 7:36, not possibly staying up for Bob's 8:45 talk on tikis AND get up at 5:30 for the Bird Islands tomorrow morning. Bed 7:50PM!!

SATURDAY, 10/20/01: 7:26AM: Dream 1: I'm holding a beautiful blond body from behind, running my hands completely up and down his front, and he gets VERY stiff, huge cock flopping grandly up and down as he writhes in my grasp, and I'm sure, though the coloration isn't right, it's somehow associated with Jean-Pierre. Dream 2: I'm teaching a beginning class in Actualism, and when I look behind a curtain separating me from the person on my left, I find it's Joan Ann D., and I say that SHE can answer any questions if they have any, and then a brainstorm hits: "Joan Ann, would you mind giving the intro yourself, since you're the real expert here," and I have the idea she's glad to be asked. Wake at 12:57AM, again at 2:45, neither time peeing, but pee at 4:30 and then lie awake thinking when to get up, obsessing about Jean-Pierre asking for the schedule of the Aranui and meeting me at the next island, unable to stay away from me for a single day, flying or boating from one island to another. Up at 5:40 to deck, the sun just rising over the end-mountain of the island, and one very flat and one steep bird island gradually come into the sun, squabbling sound loud in the air. Then we gather steam and sail near them, and as I video, someone shouts abruptly from the deck and the birds go wheeling up, but not nearly so spectacularly as one could have wished had the ship blown its klaxon. Shots of that merge into the double-tying of the ship at the entrance to "Invisible Bay," and as the second rope goes over, there's a huge black manta ray coasting just under the surface. Both ties completed by 6:32AM, in time to let me get one of the last spaces for the first breakfast, having a very salty cheese omelet with two beignets and a bit of fruit and a lot of juice, then out to see again if I can see a manta, videoing the transfer of a pickup truck to the ship, and then down to type this, finishing at 7:33AM, ready to brush my teeth at last. 4:54PM: Even though I think each day will be worse than the last, each is, in fact, BETTER than the last, thanks primarily to the Goddess Vina, with at least four tumblers of wine at lunch that give me the go-power to climb to the tiki platform while breathing hard but NOT having any kind of attack. Brush teeth, starting up at 8:33. Roll #10(?) tikis at 9:30. Museum to 10. #3 tiki with pee pot at 10:14. #4 castor tree (from US!) at 10:20. #5 grapefruit AND lime on ONE grafted tree at 10:44. #6 orchidaceous vanilla 10:48. Poro iti is nightshade, LIKE tomatoes in cemetery wreaths. Litchi-like fruit is KAVA, good, but not the anesthetic that froze sides of faces and caused mental illness in the past. Red apple Didi calls mountain apple. Amau fruit = candlefruit, or candlenutfruit, which can burn sequentially, which I collect in my bag along with a plastic-like lamina of palm bark. #7 INCREDIBLE tree variety in park at 11:27. #8 Aranui and airport and horses on way to second artisanal at 11:57. #20 Oru Tehe Papatehuma Center drawing at 12:44. Rosewood tiki for 3000F. To lunch 1:10. Underground-ovened pork and chicken and fish and bananas with good-baked bread and first red then rosé then red-again wine after three glasses of water to start, also filling my Sprite bottle, which has kept dry! LEAVE drunk lunch, with dancing with lovely blue-yellow clad slender-waisted girl beaten by her father, and her husband, with five metal plates in her skull and a false eye! Leave 2:42 for 20-minute steep climb. #21 climb (start at 2:50) at 3:04, and arrive at 3:06! Lots of photos, again from 1700s, houses on site ONLY for tikis (gods), and Dr. Robert S. said Tiki was THE god who fucked a pile of sand (ugh) to make Marquesans, as a two-minute summary of his talk last night, which I missed. Start down at 3:26, I pee, 13 of us, and find the doctor is only 58 years old! #29 ALTAR at 3:50. To whaleboat at 4:05, aboard 4:11, shower, listen to Fred, who's taken two Imodium and still shits water every ten minutes and has lost his peanut-red pepper AND a roll of film with his new (bald, tattooed) love on it, which I still insist he WILL find, though he bucked over backward on the boat coming back in a huge wave. I had the GREAT luck to step onto the drying sand from a receding wave RIGHT ONTO the back of the whaleboat and got aboard without wetting my shoes AT ALL! Got laundry back but she didn't get the tar on the back of my blue shirt. Fred teaches: turn the shower-faucet STILL MORE and hot water will come out, and it does! Type this to 5:09PM as ship is moving, and I'm counting only FOUR days of trips left, yet REMARKABLY happy with my resilient body that can drink all the wine and climb the hills and survive the long ride on truck-back in the sun in a short-sleeved shirt without burning! Really AWFULLY lucky. Now hope to show my tapes tonight. NOW this is the ELEVENTH day and I'm STILL on file 2! Fuss to 5:25 and lie down. Up at 5:35 to sunset. #34 sunset off Nuku Hiva at 5:45PM. #35 really too late at 6:01. Meeting 6:02-6:16. Put on shorts, lei, beads, and two cameras and up third at 6:30, only Warren and Wendy there before us in full Polynesian kit. Happily accept a seat next to Peter and Irene, celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary, with Steven unspoken-to behind, and have one cup of the awful punch, then watch as darkness descends and covers the not-yet-quarter moon over the island. Then the buffet at 7:30 has lots of line, but I go at the end and get much too much meat, lasting until the "program" starts with young girl-passengers doing ridiculous hulas, and even worse young people performing magic acts that can be seen by only the closest five people. Horrible, horrible, horrible. Hope for the male dancing, but when the guests are picked to dance I've decided it's not worth waiting and go downstairs at 10:05, a record-late time. Bed at 10:15, sleep instantly.

SUNDAY, 10/21/01: Pee at 4:55, had put alarm off, so I get up only at 6:12, calling Fred at 6:19, but we're up second and third, signing up for the 8:15 engine-room tour, and getting in to a still black-faced Stefan and served-as-we-stood breakfast fruit and cereals and coffee. Sit with Peter and Irene chatting about pleasant and unpleasant people encountered on trips until 7:30, when I go out to watch the bay vista rock back and forth, looking like rain, and down to type this till 7:45, putting on shoes for engine room. Peter and a Frenchwoman Michelle and Steven join us, mostly in the control room that I videotape in entirety, good condensed facts about Aranui, and up at 8:40 to fill both water bottles and change to Roll #11, using MANY too many films, and recharging battery for long day ashore. Now 8:51 and ashore at 9. 3:44PM: Miss first boat at 9. JUMP from back of boat to ALMOST dry beach at 9:20. Start walk 9:30. Pleasant, level, tree-lined walk, sometimes along beach, #2 sandy beach at 9:53. #3 forest at 10:23. Gather seeds. #4 Hatuatua Bay for Robert Louis Stevenson's former "most beautiful bay in the world" at 10:27. #5 site, #6 shipward view, and #7 opposite view at 10:47. Note to myself: ASK to SEE S.s' porcelains at American Museum of Natural History. #9 copra drying on way back at 10:56. #10 flowery beach at 11:47, just before getting to group at Anaho Beach for two glasses of orange juice and a Hinano before following the kids directly for buffet lunch of sausage, beefsteak, chicken, fish, rice with corn and peas and pineapple, and a few other things that I take under a palm tree sheltering a dog, which the little girl moved to another tree. Watch everyone swim, but sit under another palm tree and listen to the boat people's awful Honolulu radio CD, then move my seat and finally decide to beach-walk, seeing a wonderful eel that I video, but nothing much more in tide pools. Some said there were beautiful schools of fish, Fred said the morning was clear and the afternoon awful, and Bud and Steven said that Rangiroa was undoubtedly better, while Fred said that Moorea was much better. Miss the 2:10 whaleboat, then take shoes off and wade into warm water for 3:10 whaleboat, managing to get in before my pants-bottoms, rolled just above the knee, got wet. Aboard to shower and wonder where Fred went, but he did NOT shower with the crew, coming back and showering, gossiping, and I finish this at 4:10PM, only three days of Aranui whaleboats left. Give 1000F to Fred, collecting crew tip from Americans, and have 3500F left! Bed, under covers, since Fred will only accept A/C to be lowered, not shut off, at 4:11, chatting with him, and up at 5:30 for no sunset behind hill of Anaho Bay. Meeting 6:05-6:25, and my bone MAY be a child's bone. Good dinner: potage St. Germain, blanquette de veau, cheese (about which Jean-Max said of Roquefort that it should be cut from BOTTOM, and then TURNED so the next person cuts from "bottom") and red and rosé wines with fruit cup which, at my last taste, was bad. Good chat: his FATHER and HE worked at Le Grand Écuyer in Cordes! We stop LATE at 7:40, no one rang bell! To room and try for bed but can't find earplugs! KNOW I had them in the control room this morning! Search both pants pockets, even shirt pockets, even sides of bed, and finally recalled: filled my pockets with SEEDS on the walk today, and put them all in the souvenir envelope, and one of the gray seeds WAS my earplugs! Finish this by 8:12PM, tired from last night's less than 8 hours, and going to bed NOW! Remember Pravachol at 8:20PM.

MONDAY, 10/22/01: 4:17AM: Wake with MELANGE of dreams: 1) I'm in a play, reading my script from long, narrow sheets of paper, leaning my face against what might be the bars of a baby's crib that form part of the fourth wall, trying to give the impression of great sadness, but then the possible producers of THIS show are elated by the news that the network has renewed their contract to do a revival of a very successful work, like Oklahoma!, and so obviously they won't do OUR show, though we still have a chance to produce it independently. 2) A small restaurant shows very-short movies, but some of them are classics, like 1930s French films or early American silent comedies, and their schedule is printed in very small type on sheets high up on the ticket-seller's window, so it's hard to read. One film ends, cut to the very last moment of the final scene, and another film begins instantly, making me wish they'd left a BIT of breathing space between. 3) I've been having lunch with Marj M., who's moving into another apartment, and we go by taxi from our last night's stay in one of a series of TINY rooms constructed by a proud hotelier who buys out window frontages and builds little lanai-like rows of temporary shelters, and we're passing his 35th and 36th numbered apartment, marveling at the adjoining furniture stores whose displays are under wide eaves, protecting them from the rain, though many are displaying leather furniture that's actually being rained on, when Marj looks out to see her brass-knobbed expensive bedroom suite being moved in in the rain, and she rushes over to supervise it to make sure it's not wet or damaged in moving it through narrow doors. I vaguely think, "Now she'll have room to let friends sleep over, though she's not the type to share her living space easily." Wake as ship starts moving, and carry laptop to john to transcribe dream while peeing. Lie and think, counting five days left and series of five days left in entire trip; try Actualism but can't get it going. Look at watch at 5:55 and take out earplug to hear alarm, which Fred hears. Up at 6:04 to shit, dress, write this to 6:16, ready for breakfast. 4:51PM: #11 sunrise at 6:47AM. #12 coast 6:09. Breakfast 6:30-6:50, then video and pictures of coast and DOLPHINS. Turn into Hatiheu Bay after seeing FRONT of ship with my feet in hawser-hole but STILL not able to see prow, but sleek dolphin-forms weaving in and out at the side, not having enough impetus to jump out of the water, though what looked to be SMALL [start file 3: 10/22/01: 4:59PM:] ones were leaping alongside their mothers. Back down and take last shit at 7:58. Up at 8:02. Boat 8:20. #29(19?) Hatiheu 8:42 after TRUCK to village. Leave on walk 8:51. #30 tikis 8:53. #36(26?) peaks 8:57. Roll #12 (not yet?): #32 recent tiki (fertile man with two pregnant wives), and #33 torture tiki(which has a topknot of carved turtle-shell, a warrior killing a warrior with much less mana, thus much smaller). #34 OLD tikis at 9:13. Roll #12: #1 wall tiki of woman giving birth, an OLD one, at 9:24. Dance to 9:24 and BELOW this level is smaller one from about 1300AD. Bob talks 9:55-10:11, WAS banyan=Hikokua. ALSO Christian graves here. Earth oven with four levels. Leave 10:13. #11 three cornerstones at 10:15. #12 rocks at 10:19. #13 ginger at 10:26. #14 hibiscus, #15 Datura at 10:35, when I figure with no cars passing me the petroglyphs must have been UP the same road! Walk BACK in heat! 10:43 NO one at Hikokua! #17 Tahakiu at 10:49. 10:54 regain group at reconstruction. #20 banyan at 11:04. #21 and #22 petroglyph at 11:09. #29 trees and rocks 11:35. #31 long house of chief at 11:40. #34 back of "village" at 11:45. On truck at 11:50. 11:57 to restaurant and Fred didn't save me a seat! So I sit at a totally empty space without getting a 500F beer. GOOD Frenchwoman next, Bob and sweetheart (did they go off for "dessert"?; but Bud said he was AFRAID of death, VERY depressed, so he probably would NOT have had sex at 70), and Walter Matthau look-alike and friend and LOTS of water and LOTS of wine and manioc and veal and fish and music and shrimp and TWO half-lobsters and PIG and bananas and dessert of bananas and fruit and STONED to 2:15, happy to have BEEN excluded from American table. Sharon comes to talk. I break teapot top at 2:45, DRUNK. Out to beach and sit next to Arlene and when Bud comes out tell them ALL about IBM and free-lancing and LSD trips that IBM paid for and meeting Fred at Beard and travel, and he reaches for my face to brush off a no-no, as does she, so "they like me, they really like me." Talk till 4PM, get on the whaleboat 4:05 and aboard 4:12 and shower and by the time I'm out they're MOVING. Put battery on to charge and some things away and start typing at 4:53PM, Fred coming in and AGAIN apologizing for not having a seat for me but Klaus just BARGED in after they'd said it was taken for SO long---yeah! Now 5:18 and I've got to find stuff from Easter Island to relay to Didi for his advice on my stay---and do I tell him about the others who want to hear his information? Oh, and maid took my DRINKING GLASS! #36 pierced rocks on way to Taiohae at 5:36. #37 sunset. Roll #13: #1 and #2: sunset at 5:44PM. Talk to Didi about Easter Island 5:51-6: see caves, beach, they love dollars, big village of 5000, they have 20,000 visitors a year while Marquesas have 8,000. Meeting 6:02-6:16. Dinner 6:25-7:25: we INVADE American table, forcing the K.s elsewhere for a change, and Billie kills me with joke about father sharing birth-pains, husband saying, "No problem," and they "got home to find the postman dead on the porch." Cervelat tasted a lot like bologna, fish OK with OK sauce and cauliflower, with floating island that was just meringue on milk. Then Ulla's film 7:39-9:47, lots of cargo, good water from Taipi Valley exit, nice exit sunset over Rangiroa, but not that great, though three American couples order 10,000F film by 10AM next day. Very tired to cabin and bed at 10:05, talking to Fred in darkness till 10:26.

TUESDAY, 10/23/01: Pee at 3:15. Doze to 5:55, up at 6:06 and to breakfast at AWFUL table with French who won't speak to me, across from sneering Papa who tries to interact with his kids at table across way but seems to fail. Good hot cake and fruit. This to 6:50, down to brush teeth and look for day-walk in Taiohae with MY guidebook after lifting Fred's bed partway to find no glass and no film he'd lost. Ready, oiled, packed by 7:43, up 7:46 to lobby. #5 (too close?) schedule of 17 landings at 7:48. Out at 7:53, having missed first bus. Bob nabs Fred to locate Jean-Louis for tips, but Fred wanders inside without saying a word to me. Leave 7:55. #6 flamboyan tree 8:07. Pass the Memorial to the Dead. #7 Piki Vehine Pae Pae, or Temehea, festival tikis in row at 8:38. Lots more good ones, chatting with Peter. #8 All 8 islands (6 Marquesas, Tuamotus, Rapa Nui) tiki at 8:39. Around to the Herman Melville Memorial and chat with Arlene, then I want to go up the Meau Valley for the Maula Pae Pae, but Fred doesn't, so he says he'll meet me at the Cathedral. I start up 9:15, hot, #14 waterfall at 9:22, and a truck with the two French on the back pass me with a "Hang loose" signal from the death seat, but I couldn't see who it was. Get there and take #15 tiki, paepae and banyan at 9:24. To Cathedral at 9:35 but it's locked and Fred's not there. Flag down the bus and ride in comfort to ship 9:40-9:50 via helicoptering French tourists who paid $140 for small ride. Onto ship with cold water from cooler and find maid finishing room. She gives me another glass, saying she didn't take first one. Great cold water. Start typing at 10AM, looking up things, and finish at 10:33, not moving out yet. Will get dressed and go upstairs. 7:32PM: Up at 10:38. #16 380-meter Vaipo Falls? (agrees, sort of, with map) at 10:44. #17 goodbye Nuku Hiva at 11:12. Down to cabin at 11:15. Fred is back: hibiscus on my pillow. Lunch 11:30-12:30: asparagus, veal and green beans, watermelon and cantaloupe. Down to rest in bed. Up at 1:15 for Ua Pou. Fred moans his tattooed love's departure and wants only beach. I leave at 1:30 to roam. #18 Hakahau side street 1:44. Quiet: dogs, cocks, flowers, fire-smoke, clouds, distant banging, cars, more-distant waves. Empty, hot and humid. #19 central paepae 1:54. #20 town at 2:28. #21 Anohoa Beach---bodies on left at 2:34. Through to #26 at 2:40. To the cross at the top. Sit. Feel like shit. French chap has been traveling with his wife for 15 years, visited his son in Tahiti two years ago and stayed here three weeks and doesn't know when he's leaving. Why do I feel his life is inconsequential? Leave 2:55. #28 cross at 3:18 at bottom. To oceanside on barrier from 3:20-3:33. #29 Aranui 3:33. Board at 3:37, exhausted. Drink half a liter of cold water. Shit. To upper deck at 3:53 and sit entranced, looking as we circumnavigate Ua Pou, but sadly all the peaks are swathed in clouds. #30 leaving Ua Pou at 4:07. #33 rainbow over Ua Pou at 4:44. #34 at 5:07. Watch dolphins (and try to video them) and sunset (not very good) and figure since there's no announcement, there's no meeting at 6PM. Bud tells some of the awful jokes Fred warned me about, including the duck "No nails? Grapes?" Down at 6:13 to wash hands and face from suntan lotion and up to wait for dinner, which starts at 6:25, again with Lynn and Arlene, who begin to pall, and NO ONE ELSE will sit at our table, and most of the others are filled. IS there something wrong with me? Out early at 7:25 to a French chant against the ever-charming Stefan, and down to start typing and finish now at 7:49, battery recharged, ship barreling toward the Tuomotus the day after tomorrow, the last full day of the Aranui trip, and I'm starting to count meals left (7), times to climb the stairs (more than 10), times to shower (?). Read my guidebook on Rangiroa and Tahiti just to pass the time, and finish this at 8:24PM, tired enough for sleep. Bed 8:32. Start up with acute gastric reflux (first of trip!) at 10:20PM, feeling hot, so I put air conditioner back on, which I'd put off before going to bed. Fred's not back yet but I think he comes in while I'm still awake.

WEDNESDAY, 10/24/01: Wake at 3:16AM, feeling almost feverish (reminding me of my angina feeling on deck yesterday about 5:15PM, which, thank God, passed). Then wake at 5:38 with a complex, confused dream: I'm touring London with Sherryl, and we pass a corner where a crying woman is consoling a tiny woman with some dreadful disease under a scrawled sign detailing their disasters, and Sherryl is greatly affected and starts crying, even though they're obviously affecting lots of others who are passing money to them. We climb onto the scaffolding under which they stand, but then have to come down at the same corner, and I apologize to Sherryl for making her confront these two women again. Then we're riding on a series of very crowded trams, and each time I hear the clicks of the conductor's ticket-punch I'm reminded that I didn't get a new ticket, as needed, but we're coming to the stop and I always flee the coach almost before we stop to get away from the conductor's fine. Great confusion about time: it's DARK here at 1PM in the afternoon, light some other inappropriate time, but as the next tram's headlights illuminate the desert sands over which we're traveling (in London??) I think there's something charming about "traveling in the dark in afternoon London." Pass a corner in which a series of modernistic buildings have been constructed by some famous architect (like Frank Gehry) under the influence of some famous artist (like the guy [Maurice Sendak] who did Where the Wild Things Are), with buildings in the form of Alice in Wonderland Cheshire Cats or Mad Hatters, or built around roller coasters, all brightly lit, shaped, and colored. "Oh, I've always wanted to see these, and here we are," I shout with glee. As we get off trams, we're confronted with odd beggars and contortionists: the last is a French woman in elaborate boots slowly settling into a front-facing split on a rain-wet sidewalk, and I think it must be awfully uncomfortable for her both for the strain of the split and wetness of her underpinnings. Other details, all in London, escape me now at 5:55AM as I type, sitting over a load of shit in the toilet, wondering whether the clock has already been set back the 30 minutes we went forward for the Marquesas. Fred knocks on the door, says, "Oh, you were working," when he sees my laptop (shielding my genitalia from his view), and says that the clock WAS turned back last night. I lie back down, thinking tranquilly about the ending of the Aranui phase of the trip, and get up at 6:43 and change both my watch and the clock on the sill back a half-hour. Put his stuff off the desk to type this by 6:21AM, doors slamming in hall: life goes on. Up to breakfast at 6:42AM, eating until 7:18. Down to fill the pillbox for the next 14 days, only one more time to do this. Get Love Affair with Warren Beatty and Annette Benning, rather soppy, with maybe the last (from 1994) of Katharine Hepburn's film roles, using the Aranui for exterior shots and sets for the double-level lounge and double staircases and cabins. Vai came in to help with the sound quality and said the film crew lived aboard for three days of shooting only, but she refused to give up any of her free time to serve them. It's good they met in the Empire State Building rather than the WTC, but they DID have Princess Di meeting Sylvester Stallone as a sore point. Then watch Mulan  (both movies from 8:10-11:30), which didn't have much of a story but introduced the terms "cross-dressing (relative)" and "drag show (on the road)" to the younger audience. Some cute lines by Eddie Murphy as a VERY black-talking wannabe dragon. Lunch FUNNY to 12:30, when they talk me into showing my videos when I just mention that I might be watching them. Rewind the roll #43 in the deck and find that I've used 1:58:28, so only about four minutes left---now I go to check that the FIRST tape WAS rewound from yesterday's show, the second is positioned properly, and find that I'd left the camera on VCR, so the battery is almost exhausted! Good I checked so I could recharge the battery AND put new roll #44 into my bag for today's videoing. Show MY films from 12:45-3:25, speeding ahead to get in the four hours in the allotted time between the end of lunch and the start of Bob's talk at 3:30. Crowd started with Peter and Irene, Warren and Wanda, John (just for a bit), and Sharon; Billie comes in later, one of the ugly deck hands describes Jean-Pierre as "my friend," and the good-looking semi-supervisor (of whom I've not taken a single shot) sits through most of the second half. Bob pops in and later says, "From what I've seen, I'd like a copy of the whole thing. Oh, $20 is too LITTLE to charge for your time." It goes quickly, but soon the motion sends Peter and Warren out of the room. Wendy and Sharon are VERY supportive, as is Billie at dinner afterward, and also FRED, very willing to even see it AGAIN. I feel almost seasick in the close, hot, humid room with all the video-motion added to the ship motion. Up to Bob's talk at 3:30 after taking only one (leaving a full dose of two remaining) dimenhydramine. Bob talks to 4:40 about Captain Cook and Pele and plate tectonics, I go to room feeling poorly. Rest to 5:30, Fred says, "No sunset." I give passport number to Vai and sit on deck getting less seasick. Pay 1400F bar bill for four beers, borrowing 2000F from Fred, who's carrying his wallet, and then Vai reminds me of my boutique bill of 1700F, which Fred adds to his Visa charge, 400 for AA batteries and 1300F for the jellies. Meeting 6:07-6:25, talking about shark-feeding from glass-bottom boat, and snorkeling. Take plastic shoes. Dolphins in pass into atoll. Dinner 6:30-7:30. Tom (of Tom and Billie) gets Herman Melville: Damned in Paradise but it's so bad he shuts it off with the hilarious saying, "I don't believe in ejecting without stopping." For the tape, of course. Tabu is shown from 8:30-9:50, with kids CONSTANTLY popping in to see if it's finished yet, making its silent slowness even MORE slow. Hot and tiring. Take pills from dinner and get to bed at 10:10.

THURSDAY, 10/25/01: 5:13AM: Dream 1: I'm correcting a program deck of IBM cards, and some woman operator asks if I'm using line-orientation or code-orientation, and I don't know the difference, I just say, "My code 1 in column 80 means the line continues on the next card." When someone I'm training asks if I've made the corrections, I say I did, until I check and find that I'd not said that the rest of the first line was blank for the header card, so I have to make that correction, feeling stupid. Dream 2: I'm buying tickets for an amusement ride in the basement of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but realize that lots of rides are closed (indicated by black hoods over the kiosks that in some way represent the rides or concessions), and when I notice that some rides that had been open before are now closed, I go back to the originally open ticket booth to find that IT is now hooded, and I wonder if I'm going to be stuck with tickets I've already bought for rides that aren't even going to be open today. Wake with light coming in the porthole and see that it's 5:05AM, debate recording the dreams, but then do so, ending now at 5:20AM after an itty-bitty shitty. Up at 6:10 after recording dreams earlier, then put laundry away while Fred showers. Up to breakfast at 6:28, mistaking Wendy for Sharon; she asked about New Zealand's ownership of the Cook Islands. Down at 7:20 to put battery on charge, tend to other matters while Fred fusses, wanting the table, and I finish this at 7:53AM, still lots of time to kill before getting boat tickets and 10:30 arrival at Rangiroa. Roll #13 in now. Repack. Up to sit in shade at 8:20. #36 cargo hold at 8:28. Talk with Bud about his two years in Sri Lanka and about Arthur Clarke, and Bud doesn't think his buddy was gay because he was married with a kid. HA! To bow at 10 for dolphins. #32 bow-watch at 10:09. Start roll #14. 10:30 take last of video roll #43. Start #44. Lots of video and down at 10:50AM. Dash into trunks and jellies and PUSH to first whaleboat at 11:05, third-last to board. Onto glass-bottom boat at 11:15. Snorkel 11:22-11:45, and later I get some of the fish I saw: short-nosed unicornfish, Chameleon sea bass (red with filaments off top and bottom of vertical tail), yellow Moorish Idol, convict tangs (striped black on white), and burnt parrotfish. Boat starts back at 12:10 and off at 12:l5, EXACTLY one hour. Whaleboat at 12:20 to picnic at 12:28. I hop off DRY end of boat. LOVELY lunch (salad of carrots and asparagus, chicken, sausage, noodles, great golden watermelon, orange juice 12:35-1:20), back to snorkel at 1:35, changing in john without flippers, back at 2:20 tired, but there are more coral formations that are LIVING and I can get closer to the fish and find places to stand, even meeting Fred, who tells me about huge moray, which I can't find. #8 Kia Ora Village sign at 3PM. I video barrier reef surf and get brochure from hotel (all this after walking through fields and getting TOTALLY leg-burred), for which I return for a photo from Fred, with everyone justifiably laughing at me. I suffer sand in jellies and drink my Sprite at 3:21, after two more juices and about a dozen pieces of watermelon---ah, forgot about the roasted parrotfish with lunch. Last boat due out: I'm back 3:35 with Warren swimming with white-tip (not dangerous) shark, which I don't think I managed to video. Last boat is back at 3:45, I videoing before showering, and I return flippers to Sylvie at the desk. Then I'm in the room, undressed for a shower, and reach for the video to realize we're going to see the dolphins AGAIN as we EXIT the pass, and quickly dress and back up to video a total of 20 minutes of dolphins to 4:20. Sit on the prow, until Pimo (?) announces "first sitting" and lights up a joint and begins a serious move on the Frenchwoman I hadn't seen before, so I move back to chat with Fred, who'd SEEN him five years previous on a flight from Moorea with Diane, Sylvie's predecessor, who TOLD him about the Aranui, and NEXT to her on the flight was Pimo! Lots of flying fish and we cruise the circle of Rangiroa with music from below. Sun setting toward 5:48 when the Germans go for their meeting. #9 Warren and Wendy at 5:51. #11 sunset at 5:55. Video atoll 6:07-6:09 waiting for the English meeting, which starts at 6:20. We leave suitcase outside door BEFORE breakfast, and Friday is CARNIVAL in Papeete! At 7-10PM with parade and costumes on Walt Disney theme on main street. We leave keys at desk. Meeting over 6:20. #12 Vai and Fred at 6:21. I dash down to wash face and hands from salt and put on Mauritius T-shirt and dash back up for table with Fred and Bud and Arlene, but with Bob and Marie-Elise and Stephen! ODD mix, which Fred and I negate by talking about what happens tomorrow: I go with him to Moorea and see about coming back with some Moorean group to the Carnival to return to Moorea afterward. Lots of wine, with hints that I may play my video but no one REALLY wants to see it, though Bud and Arlene give me $20 sight unseen for a copy and Bob gives me his card (but not $20) for it, and Fred insists HE'S first on the list, and I accost Wendy in the hall and she says she DEFINITELY will order it at breakfast, and outside I meet Jean-Max, who says he wants to take a picture with Fred and me and Geraldine at breakfast, too! Dinner was a strange Bouchée de la Reine with fish instead of chicken with a VERY tough tart below the creamed fish, ham with a cream sauce and their lovely little formed-ball baked-mashed potatoes, and a lovely chocolate cake that I share Fred's portion of and refuse another of from a nearby table. When I come down for my cards, which I give, so far, only to Bob and Bud, my battery is charged, so I take it up and video the tables for the final dinner, which Fred says gains me "points." For what? I come down at 7:50 to SHOWER at last, taking a LOT of soap (particularly in the ears) to get rid of the SALT, and shower to 8:15, and out to start typing (in fresh underwear) and finish now at 8:40, boat roaring toward Papeete, people probably upstairs carousing, and I'm drying from my shower, neck maybe burned by the sun from snorkeling, but bottoms of feet seem OK despite sandy-corrosions from jellies. GOT to at least use the toothbrush before bedtime. Fred's down at 8:46, saying that John's going to fix his fly. "With his teeth?" I inquire. I decide I've GOT to start packing, so I put out my Pravachol at 8:47 and start putting things away. PACK to 9:25, almost SEASICK with the motions and the concentration, and leave my bathing suit to dry somewhat and slippers and new socks and smelly shoes and hope everything comes together tomorrow after I sleep. Can't even find my ENVELOPE laptop keeper, so settle for green semi-bubble wrap. Bed at 9:30, VERY tired!

FRIDAY, 10/26/01: Wake at 1:20. Wake at 2:55. Wake at 4:50 with "operatic" dream: I'm vacationing in some historic Polish city (too preserved to be Warsaw, too big to be Krakow) which I've never been in, but thankfully most people seem to speak English. I've had to dress quickly and for much of the time I'm barefoot, but toward the end I look down to make sure I'm wearing my sockless black-leather loafers. Somehow I fall in with a priestly looking older man with huge white beard and flaring black locks who's the prophet or spokesperson for some enormously popular, but underground, group, and I'm responsible for helping find a meeting-room for tonight. We had the top floor of some small hotel, but that just wouldn't be large enough, and some facilitator says we should try "The City Hall Commons Room," of which I have no idea the location. They somehow get "ahead" of me and I rush to catch up by trying the tram: but go TWO stops when I should have gone only ONE, but when I try the RETURN tram, the ONE stop puts me back where I started. Try to walk, but find myself at a famous "Brukke," a memorial to an old bridge AND an old river, an elaborate construction of old stones with modern windows into "history": a rotating wooden waterwheel showing the "river bottom," and a wire-enclosed hunk of rock showing the "river side." Go "across" town to find a block-long, ten-story, octagonal monstrosity of an under-construction City Hall, but go in the "Opera" entrance, and think, "Well, I can see what's playing the seven days I'm here." Enter THROUGH the ground-floor of the Opera---elaborate, though small---and I think prices might be cheap and this a good chance to catch up with opera. Three women throw a die to see which serves me, but none can speak English, pointing me to a pile of pink programs. One woman, dressed for opera, reads a pink program that seems to have a synopsis of last-night's work. I find a schedule and they're playing Cinderella for two nights, one night with a tab announcing "Richard Tucker," though I thought he was dead. The next three nights is Wohollozzek..., which is the abbreviated name of something about Halloween by an American composer, and I think it would be a pity NOT to hear it in English. Ask an elaborately dressed sentinel about a meeting "room for 100,000" and he seems to leave to find out for me, but never comes back. I feel my usual dream-frustration and finally wake after more complications I can't recall now, past 5AM surely, shit only a bit, ankles feeling sunburnt but looking OK. Back to bed at 5:10, doze, and up at 6:08 as Fred moves around. Dress, finish stuff away, fill out comments page, shit again at 6:20, Tahiti in large sight. My bag out at 6:26 and up at 6:28 to breakfast with all Americans (and Steven), and down at 7:02 with $20 from Wendy, 5 Band-Aids from Arlene, and put my name on Billie's address list, but Bob S. says, "I'll send you a cashier's check or a money order." Type this to 7:05 as Fred comes in. At 7:10 he uncovers my camera case, which I'd totally forgotten about, in the bottom of the closet, and also my envelope for my laptop, which I'd resigned myself to wrapping in the booze bubbly. Things clearing up, though we're not yet docked, at 7:12AM. I go back up at 7:19, Fred STILL packing. Give address to Geraldine, including e-mail. Video entry to Papeete at 7:24. Down to cabin for the LAST time 7:20-7:35. #13 [last item on PAGE 13!] Papeete at 7:38. #14 [first item on PAGE 14] Renaissance went belly-up: "Nearest port, passengers and crew pay OWN WAY HOME." I hear myself thinking, "Last stairway, last water-bottle filling, keys in basket. Goodbye!" Ship docks at 7:55, off at 8:17, Fred still looking for his bag. His bag's off 8:30; he's arranging taxi with Vai and Sylvie. He secures his luggage to his wheels at 8:38. Dock hot and chaotic. Into taxi 9:11. 2000F taxi to Air Moorea at 9:30. I have to reserve ahead: next-last flight on Jeudi 11/1 is 17:15. Get tickets at 9:40, 5600F on Visa. Baggage on cart for 10AM flight at 9:43. Board 10:03. #15 Air Moorea inside at 10:06. Off at 10:07, land at 10:13, videoing a lot; off plane 10:15. I say to Fred, "I dream of a time when the flight to Europe will take the same time." Reserve return by 10:20. To local "free" bus (from plane ticket) at 10:25, off at 10:26, and to Club Bali Hai at 10:40, spectacular island. Sit at laptop at 10:56 after minimal unpacking in hotel-room 3 because Fred's over-water 42 isn't available until tomorrow. Turn on A/C, which cools very slowly. Walk to view outside at 11:05, then to shop at Pao Pao supermarket to 11:30: corn flakes from Australia, half-fat milk, six huge water bottles, butter, papaya, grapefruit juice for 2000F. Back at 11:45, in to nice, cool room. Put stuff in fridge and type this to 11:52, still vaguely "rocky" from the 16 days on the boat. But Moorea looks like it has a LOT to offer for my brief stay here. Finish typing and just lie back in the comfortable wicker chair, enjoying the air conditioning, savoring my sheer presence in Moorea. Then Fred suggests lunch at 12, so we're dressed [start file 4: 10/26: 5:43] and out to L'Ananas Bleue for their "famed" cheeseburgers, having a double, but the meat is too lean and too chopped up, and the cheese is more milky than cheesy, and the Hi-C for 300F doesn't help, but the French fries aren't bad with lots of ketchup and there's a cute guy with a female ivory carving around his neck who seems pleasant enough to look at. Fred pays 1000F and gives me 70F---the rest---later, and I pay 1500F for mine. Back at 1PM and he strikes up a conversation with bicyclists who are finding it too hot to continue camping and bicycling and are willing to spend the money for an over-water cottage somewhere. I beg off since I'm desperate for water and go to room and drink and just lie down, TIRED. Fred writes and leaves, and I get up at 2:50, shit, and dress for snorkeling by 3:20. Out to wake Fred by the pool and he tells me that the best fish are at the sides of the bulwarks holding up the bar, and indeed he's SO right: incredible schools of lemon and white fish at the bottom, floating shoals of beautifully blended pink and salmon and yellow and rose pop-eyed fish right AT the rocky wall, a couple blue-and-yellow angelfish types at the bottom, some startlingly iridescent-blue fish mingled with the yellows, and one long, yellow-tailed, more-gar-than-gar fish camouflaged in the midst. Out beyond the dock is a psychedelic school of Moorish Idols whose weaving white catenaries intertwining and sinuously rising and falling over the blue bottom is almost hallucinatory: I can almost hear the Disney-type music over their stoned representations in one of his animations. Back and forth, back and forth, and whenever I think to try another place the lure of the original is great, so I'm back until I'm tired and my eyes are weary with salt and my face sore from the too-tight mask. Up to Fred, who says that Hero's just announced a ride for $5 out to two whales frolicking in the bay. I give Fred my snorkel gear and hop into the boat with the Los Angeles couple we met at the Blue Pineapple, he with riveting, focused blue eyes, she sweet and retiring, and with Beth, Mrs. V., and Hero's son constantly bawling "PA". We zip out to a flock of boats, single kayaks, double hulls, family boats, three-person motorized water-scooters, and lots of snorkelers, and suddenly there's the eruption of a blow from simultaneously surfacing mother and child humpbacks, the mother sometimes lying startlingly high in the water while the infant cavorts around her: flipping its tail, rolling over, showing its head and then its tail, showing both flippers waving gaily over its stomach like an otter, and sometimes rather clearly TOUCHING, or allowing itself to be touched by, other snorkelers. WHY DID I LEAVE MY SNORKEL? One woman climbs off and is left in the wake when Hero steers ashore for a press photographer who rather quickly runs out of film. The bulky shore-boat from the Paul Gauguin comes past, as well as a three-masted schooner with about 30 people crowding its decks, flashing camera-bulbs. I'm enthralled in the PHYSICALITY of the deep-timbred blows and remarkably sinuous twists of the young tail, and the fantastic slow-motion descent of the mother's tail: almost TOTALLY white underneath. They stayed around and stayed around, even after we dropped the photographer off and Hero's kid kept saying he had to peepee. Finally back "to dinner" and rave to Fred sleeping by the pool at 5:15, and he says he's scheduled dinner at "The Little Turtle" at 6:30, the first sitting, and it's all fine with me. He lets me shower first, salt VERY hard to get off, and then I'm out at 5:45 and start typing and finish at 6:02, in time for Fred to say we should leave a bit early. Walk up the block in the darkening evening to Honu Iti (The Little Turtle), Chef Roger, and at 6:25 we're the first there, but have a LONG talk as it seems the woman at Bali Hai did NOT call in for a reservation. We get a waterside patio table anyway, and the Ono-Ono docks nearby and Fred thinks they may go over for the Carnival, so I dash out and get their schedule, which shows they don't sail after sunset, and try to console a poor Frenchwoman who came on it, having been told there would be taxis there, and there ARE no taxis there, but a local says he'll help, and I return to Fred to say if there's news of a Frenchwoman raped and robbed, that'll be thanks to me. Guy hooks up a light to attract bugs for the fish below outside, and Fred orders a half-bottle Muscadet for our appetizer of his tender tuna sashimi and my vegetable soup, and a full bottle of Pinot Noir for 3000F for his veal filets with foie gras and my boned (except for arms and legs) quail with foie gras, and his dessert of passion fruit and lemon sorbet and my two profiteroles that I took a Cappodocian picture of. Pleasant service and an eventually crowded place. Out at 8:40 and walk back looking at fish in brooks in Fred's flashlight. Back at 9:05, keeping 14450 visa bill I pay. Bed at 9:25, pleasantly tired, Fred having given me his facemask.

SATURDAY, 10/27/01: Wake at 4:10 to shit, try a bit of Actualism and put on facemask and actually reawaken at 6:45AM! Fred's been out for the baguette and other things, and we breakfast on corn flakes and milk, sliced pineapple, quartered papaya, and baguette and butter, with an awful local cartoned grapefruit juice with my pills. Wash dishes, since Fred "did the shopping." Oh, before that we took bread to the waters and fed dozens and dozens of fish, some even more elaborately colored than those seen yesterday, though during breakfast it begins to rain slightly. Check at 7:40 with the Activities desk that it would be better to reserve for any given Safari Tour the day before. Back to wash dishes (every good deed deserves repeating) and type this to 8:31, not quite sure what to do with day, with news that the final Carnival parade is TONIGHT. Fred lies down, the rain continues very lightly, nothing seems to be doing, so I lie down, too, and doze and snore a bit and think, and finally at 11:11 I decide I want a few corn flakes, so I get up and Tehi is waving from the lawn to get someone's attention: "Cabin 42 is ready; I'll pick up your bags in half an hour." OK! Starting the actual moving of luggage at 11:40, in solid by 12:25 and unpack to 1, when Fred does lettuce and tomato salad with paté and wine and cheese. #20 hill at 1PM. Long, nice lunch, wash dishes, make "things missing from room" list to 2:20, and I sort through "future" file to separate out Tahiti, Moorea, and travel plans to 2:40, and then plan weeks to come with Fred to 3:40, who later comes in at 5:45 to say that Rose says that Tetiaroa is like "sleeping under the stars" with primitive accommodations. HAD made a list of things to ask the Activities lady at 8AM tomorrow: my safari on Monday, our picnic on the motu on Tuesday, and 11/6 reservations for Tetiaroa. We give our list at the office and get the key for room 3, which we raid until 4:15 for our missing items. #22 clouded bay at 4:25. #23 Ono-Ono and clouds at 4:40. Sort through guidebooks and read lots on probably unattainable Bora Bora and what I'll be doing on Moorea till 5:25. Shit and read the Lonely Planet on Moorea, and the mountain walk seems impossibly difficult. #24 & #25 at 5:15, trying to capture the sailboat and clouds in the right light. Fred returns from swimming at 5:45 and I finish this at 5:50, ready for our 6:30 reservation for pizza and salads at Alfredo's, where some tourist said she got SICK eating fish! We've been lucky. Out in the semi-dark and people are loudly singing along the way. Get a spinach salad with hot ham and egg bits in a good sauce for 1400, then two pizzas: Sicilienne with ham and egg, and Reine with anchovies and onion and capers for 1450 each. Have a 1795 carafe of rosé, then two glasses of Hinano for 1000 and out about 8:15 to walk back and sit on the deck watching the clouds---oh, sunset BEFORE was SPECTACULAR. 6:10 fabulous sunset videos. Back at 8:26 and look at waters while drinking sherry and watching Ken and Warren from Palm Beach check into room 40. Bed at 9:15.

SUNDAY, 10/28/01: Wake at 12:15 EXTREMELY hot, envying Fred his fan in the bedroom, worried about mosquitoes. Then up at 4:10 to feel it much cooler, so I'm comfortable. Glance over the hills just through the screen above my head, then put on facemask and doze off until 5:20, when Fred's up and moving around. I get dressed and sort out 410F in my change, cadging 10F from Fred, and buy 7 postcards @ 60F each for ALL my 420 change, a weighty relief. Buy bread but no wine since it's Sunday, and back to watch sunrise and the fish below, and Fred again brings out the bread and butter and I bring the cereal and some awful orange drink I got instead of the awful grapefruit drink. Pineapple completes the breakfast, and then we're into facemasks for a GREAT sun-behind walk almost to the drop-off and SUPERB groupings of fish: sapphire, aqua, gold, purple eye-shadowed, distinct-finned, one cigar fish with a whip-like blue tail on the way back, lots of brown-red staring up at me as I block the sun, shoals of yellow-and-blue, and a strange half-white, half-black, along with a sky-blue wrasse with a pair of horizontal white stripes. Butterfly fish, angelfish at a distance, and a drop-off into the deep blue where the parallel rays of the sun meet in a point at my shadow. Back about 8AM, wash my face and get to the Activities desk to give Carol 4500F cash for the 4x4 ride tomorrow, and a credit-card imprint for 10000F for Fred and me to the motu picnic on Tuesday. SHE liked her three days eight years ago in Tetiaroa, said WE should phone for the reservations. Back to shower the salt away in the semi-outdoor shower, and finish this by 9:05, "hasting away" to church, as Fred put it. Leave at 9:14. #28 on way to church at 9:30. #29 at 9:33. #30 two churches at 9:46. #31 OUR cabin lower left at 9:48. To #35 outside church at 10:29, when I got tired of service and went outside in the heat. LONG service, over at 11:15! Home at 12:04, having shopped for no wine on Sunday and ice from bar. Fred boils vegetable soup from a mix as he medium-rares two entrecotes deliciously, and we finish the brie and paté and salad while I have iced sherry and he has Scotch. Finish washing up at 1:30 and then, nothing else doing, to bed, dark clouds looming. 2:10 heavy rain feels wonderfully cool. Up 3:15. #36 3:20 clouds. Sit and look at scenery till 4, then decide to brush teeth and trim beard to 4:50. Type to 5PM, with a new set of rainclouds sweeping down the east valley toward us---what'll we do for dinner? As we sit chatting, we begin to get wet and move inside, trying to shut the sliding glass doors, but one comes off the slide! We fuss three times before getting it back, and it still moves sluggishly at 5:30. Finally I have to bite the bullet: I get out the postcards! Postcards to 6:10, and it's still raining hard, and Fred debates going outside but I push for La Snack Mahogany, so we put on jellies and splash through flooded lawns to office, where we're told a car IS coming at 7 for Mahogany, so we go to bar at 6:30, where guy says to go to Pacific Harbor in Fiji, and be sure to go to Tavioni Island. In Rarotonga, walk across the mountain and collect the money, which pictures dicks. Car comes for six of us and takes us to a small, neat place where we share a Lafite Monteil and he has rabbit in mustard and I have sweetbreads and kidneys in moutarde de Meaux, great sauces but kidneys are better and more numerous than sweetbreads ("all meats from New Zealand"). One kid squabbles from bar table and another cries from car, which is a misery, and Fred meets his fat female American friend with money, married to a Tahitian with a body. Drive back at 8:50, and I'm so wrecked I leave Fred talking to people while driver waits for a tip, and pee in public john with only one working shower, and get into bed at 8:55, not even taking Pravachol. Fred comes in later and we chat a bit, so I might get to sleep about 9:15PM.

MONDAY, 10/29/01: Wake at 12:55, hot, but it cools when I write dreams at 2:55AM: Dream 1: I'm on some Survivor-like quest for four specific items, though the first three are very easy, yet I find the fourth after other teams seem to have done so, but I try to make a neater list than anyone before me has. Dream 2: I'm at a huge company, a combination of IBM and Holt, first having trouble with the elevators: I get on at 24 and hit 26 and it takes a LONG time to get there, then I can't find the right extension and it seems EVERYONE is having that problem but no one's doing anything about it, and I start making a list of names (like Fred does for Moorea) like "Bob Letterman" for coordination of projects, and "Richard Zooman" for primary specifications for this huge project, but at one point I'm talking to two handsome programmers and one starts manipulating my tits, and I try to think of something clever, like "If you don't stop that in two weeks, I'm going to report you," and am led to think that I might have an important part in the project if only I can figure out what it is, and then get recognized for HAVING that part. Up at 2:55 with a blazing moon in scudding clouds out the window above my bed. It's really breezy at 5:15, when I put on facemask and doze, thinking gloomy thoughts, until 5:55, when I'm up to shit and start typing this at 6:03 and finish at 6:14, Fred just getting up. Fred says his bills are up to 12000, having none left, asking me for 6000F, which totally completely cleans me out of francs, so I have to mail cards and convert another $100 into 12000F before leaving on my 8:15 trip. He goes for a baguette and a "sweet roll" for me as I type this at 6:23, gradually getting into day. Couldn't STAND this for more than a few days: heat, humidity, dampness, ants, brightness, rain, nothing to do. #37 sunrise at 6:42. Roll #15: Breakfast to 7:25, shower, dress, to office at 7:55. Mail cards, get cash and towel, tell about sliding door, and sit at entry at 8:06, apprehensive. Go at 8:20 as John (the guide) and Lulu (the maru driver) find Greg and Nicole from Chicago and we drive off to various views. #3 Rotui at 8:45. Take to #6 from Belvedere at 8:57, trying for a panorama of two bays and central massif. Keep passing other safari cars, long winding paved road to and from Belvedere, stopping at pineapple plantation, horizontal trees are albizias again. #13 Sofitel Coralia at 10:55, and we go to the falls over a hard trail, take videos of cute guy in water, back to truck for fruit-fest of pineapple, papaya, grapefruit, coconut, and banana. THEN drive around the island, seeing closed hotels, hearing Club Med may close because government raised their lease of 30 years, tourism WAY down after 9/11, 75% of tourists from USA, next from Italy, but they hope the "scare" is over in a couple of months. Way around and back to room at 1:23, feeling tired. Hot dog and mayonnaise and mustard and ketchup is unusually good with wonderful lemonade, two glasses at 300F each, at bar, and then over to Mobil for a double caramel ice-cream bar for 250F to 2:48. Undress and in for snorkeling at 2:55 and STAY out until sun about sets at 4:40, seeing MORE kinds of fish: LARGE golden yellow, swallowtails that come quite close to me, going all the way from cabin to restaurant bulwark and back beyond cabin, all along drop-off, mostly in glorious sun. Shower, feeling exhaused, #25 and #26 GREAT clouds taken from WATER. More shots and videos. To office at 5:15 to find Lan-Chile call is 250F but office only open 8AM-4PM! Get ice, sit and watch sunset clouds and water and video two catamaran racers. See David with an Aitutaki shirt on and talk to Nancy about going to One-Foot Motu and having lunch and walking the one back street in the small town unused to tourists. Type this to 6:30, quite dark outside, Ono-Ono passing, and dress for dinner. To Caprice des Iles, and in comes a duo with guitar, harmonica and a whole set of didgeridoos, and I trot over to the hotel for my video. The fixed-menu tuna appetizer was at least a pound, of which I eat half, and the steak is enormous, too, so I use the excuse of videotaping to not eat much of anything except profiteroles while Fred gabs with neighbors and I go outside for effects. Back at 8:30 and sit and watch the clouds, luminous in the almost-full moon, have some sherry (got to finish it before Thursday!) with lovely ice, and get to bed at 9:50, too tired for anything else. Sleep almost immediately.

TUESDAY, 10/30/01: Wake at 3 something, and then up at 5:54 to shit and lie in bed till Fred gets up about 6:45. We watch a sea snake, look at the clouds gathering and re-forming, and finally have bananas with cornflakes and hot yesterday's bread with butter and apricot jam, and only one piece of pineapple and the last of my butchered container of Minute Maid (hardly!) orange juice. Finish this at 8:16, less than an hour to the motu-lunch cruise, feeling vaguely nauseous and VERY listless. [FORGOT crazy dream last night about fitting little wooden carriages to the backs of dogs so they could walk with more "delicacy" in some bizarre Japanese-like fashion sense.] Dress to 8:30, reconfirm Lan Chile at 8:45AM. Greg and Nicole off. News awful: war goes "slowly," new terrorism attacks feared "this week," more anthrax, stocks down, recession. Wait at 9:10. Board at dock at 9:20. Watch fish, which are very hard to focus video on in water. 12 of us at 9:42. 14 out at 9:45. Stop first for a few small, listless dolphins, with the boat IDLING. so they have no reason to hang around. Guests thrilled; I'm not. Then to shark encounter, and over side to hang onto rope while (they say) TWENTY of them perform a ballet before our eyes, snatching at dropped pieces of fish, and sometimes, I think, snapping up a live fish not five feet from our noses. No real feeling of fear: like someone said: "I felt there was a glass wall between us." Though that was NOT the case, it sure felt that way. In the water with LOTS of other fish snapping at the gifts, the guide going into their mass to add other morsels, and then we're out, all obediently had just HELD onto the rope, not SAT on it. Then to the rays, dozens of them, coming RIGHT AGAINST feet and bodies and sucking at fish-pieces. I put on mask alternately and looked at other fish among them, even sharks in the lower depths. Quite a thrill, even though impossible to film convincingly. Then to the picnic about noon, chicken and fish and noodle salad and beer and punch and pineapple ready quickly, and then we're in to snorkel, amazing coral heads just inches from our bellies, blue-fish trees, zebrafish ornaments, one large free ray, Trumpetfish seemed a predator on those teenies that hid in the coral heads, one yellow-above-eye and blue-below chased my finger away territorially. Out for a LONG time, then back for a coconut-splitting demo, good meat, and back swinging through all-color water past verdant hills and lots of hotels (and two topless boobs) at 3:30. I'm EXHAUSTED, lying down while Fred is in the pool, but he gets in at 4:30 and starts his shower EXACTLY when I should, so I RUSH through my shower, DASH to the store for detergent, and get to the laundry at 5:05. Fred goes for the key, which doesn't work for him, but it finally does for me. Then the MACHINE doesn't work: the KNOB is gone. Try and try and try, sweating and cursing, and Fred goes for the woman who gets a KNIFE to pull the indicator out, saying it's 45 minutes until the dry, so at 5:18 Fred says he has to change our 6:30 Le Cocotier appointment to 7:30 for my drying. I guess so. #35 trees silhouetted against cloud at 5:30. Back to type this in a fury, stopping when Fred gets in with ice at 5:42, and I start to drink the rest of my sherry before wrestling with the laundry-door key again. Then he goes back to change reservations for dinner, but La Cocotier is closed tonight, so he lets me choose, and I opt for pizza from Allo Pizza. OK. He orders, I have no trouble switching from laundry to dryer at 6:10, back to watch lightning at head of bay, then at 6:50 pick up DRY laundry and 2800F pizzas and back for them and soup and salad and quiet wine and moonrise-watching. Bed 9PM.

WEDNESDAY, 10/31/01: 3:19AM: Wake with dream: I'm touring a kind of amusement park of exhibits, and a door CHANGES in front of me to become a kind of testimonial-hall for something like a war-crimes trial or atrocity hearing, with an audience of mostly defectives (cripples, deformed, mentally deficient, misshapen), but all of whom are life-or-death interested in these testimonies. A woman behind me says, "Is this Thursday or Friday?" and I say "Saturday," and she says, "One must hear a through line." People come and go in groups, or families---ALIENS might be a better way to characterize some in the audience, as if this were a horrifically detailed science-fiction movie about some cosmic genocide and its retributions. A noise VERY (in my head, of course) like my doorbell at Hicks Street wakes me and I type this while shitting. A moment after I put the laptop down, one of my "messianic" thoughts strikes: I am chosen to "transmit" some form of "reality" (from some hyperspacetime totally alien to anyone's previous imagining) that would make the delusions of---can't think of the MOVIE (The Matrix) or the handsome star's NAME---Megan Ross? Dwayne Winter? Meance---Keanu Reeves!---seem mundane, in the true EARTHLY sense of the word, as opposed to the extraterrestrial-trial evidence I'm to witness for the salvation? redemption? condemnation? transfiguration? of present society with the knowledge I'm responsible for transmitting---truly a "brain mad" scenario! As if I had to come to Moorea with MY mind at THIS time for a multidimensional conjunction of forces and intelligence and influences to receive these almost-sacred images I recollect and describe so poorly, yet would produce a dynamite-AHA! in those who have been waiting millennia to read JUST PRECISELY these words, which would trigger EXACTLY the effect desired from so far away in time and space. 3:54AM: Finished typing the above at 3:38AM, returned to bed and thought of the movies that contained "truth": Soylent Green, Zardoz, 2001, tiny bits of Star Wars, Close Encounters, that William Hurt movie [Altered States], Shape of Things to Come, as supplying "loops" that I could gather around each finger to "cluster" into a meaningful whole of knowledge---of revelation. I went on to think of my writing "of this sort" as little nuggets of uranium in the vast ore of my "15 feet of writing." My website would inspire "disciples" to come to my apartment (since the manuscripts are too valuable to let outside the apartment) to transcribe the "15 feet of writing" onto the website so that acolytes could distill those words into a "magic formula" for ultimate revelation and transformation. Just as in Bruce Jaffe's "unsaid" "Actualism teaches Enlightenment" that produced "the desired effect in me" even though HE professes not to have had ANY awareness of "the effect desired" or of his ability to transmit that effect. Raelians pass through my mind, and other mystery religions, more loops for the "integrating fingers" of the "Ultimate Transmitter." Or more messianic balderdash. But my world-web of travel-lines is near-complete, and only the TRANSMISSION remains to be completed---maybe "as simple as" a message to aliens to come rescue the Earth from the terroristic fear and madness that grips it at THIS present time and space. GOT to do a session! Now it's 4:02:42, as if the sheer configuration of a moment's designation has some key importance in an unimaginably important final Message. AND forgot to record that as I lie in bed TRYING to start a session, wondering whether to transcribe my thoughts here on the laptop NOW, I see light through my eyelids and find the bathroom door that I'd not clicked shut (even THAT remote short-story of a door "clicking shut after being closed" has some significance) BLEW OPEN, obliging me to get out of bed to close it before it might wake Fred, COMPELLING me to take my laptop with me to complete these thoughts at 4:05:13. Up again at 5:50AM to shit a LOOSE shit, first of trip, and back to bed to brood. Fred's up at 6:15 to say he had TWO loose shits last night, and it RAINED hard! Miss 2-foot needlefish he saw, but when he goes for bread there are a HUGE set of waves, seemingly from NOWHERE (no boat, no noise), that REALLY roil the sands below, then a backlash of murkiness from underneath while a tall, slender native loosens up "next door" and slips into his catamaran for his morning exercise. Fred returns at 6:45 with new jellies for only $9, and postcards he asks me to write. Finish this at 6:55, ready for breakfast, maybe, with queasy stomach. Trip starting tomorrow? FOUND earplugs I lost in drawer last night, so I STILL have a spare set. Wash dishes from last night, then have breakfast and wash those dishes until 8:10AM. Lots of waves pass, and Fred says we should go early to video the fish he'll feed with the bread, since they don't seem to like pizza crusts. Then the boat docks and he chats up everyone, taking pictures that he'll bring back next year to chat about, and I get some good videos before the sun goes behind a cloud (it's really getting HOT, I'm sweating already) and on the way back think to register for the glass-bottom boat this afternoon. But I need cash for the 3500F and she'll be closing soon, so I walk back, get the cash, and pay her just at 9:30, getting the ticket to be at the entry at 1:30, so early lunch, and back to the [Start of file 5: 10/31: 9:53AM, half through the FILES on day 21 of a 40-day trip!] cabin to find the woman cleaning, so I sit on the deck and watch the waves and the tour-boat leave, and inside at 9:50AM as she finishes and start this and start the second half of the files just past the trip halfway point, now at 9:55AM. Vase blows over in a gust of wind, wetting bottom of video (which still works) and causing a POOL at the head of my bed, which Fred seems to be content to let me clean up by sopping the wet tablecloth again and again and squeezing it into the salad bowl until it's almost half-full. Then, washing lunch dishes from the good left-over pizza, poireau soup, salad with lardons carefully sautéed by Fred, a salad plate is pushed off the drying rack by a heavier dish atop it and CRASHES to the floor, cutting my right SHIN, which I quickly Bacitracin and am glad that it seems to dry up well enough. Wait for the glass-bottom boat at 1:23, until Lulu drives up at 1:40 with a German couple, and we get to Ia Ora Sofitel at 2PM, blithely waved to the Nautical Center, for Bruno taking only us three under a threatening sky. He feeds a moray, shows us fire coral, brings up a young and old sea cucumber and a starfish and a living shell, until it rains and tosses so much we can hardly use our video cameras without getting them wet. This agony is over at 3:20, when the gal in the lobby said we won't get a ride until 4PM. So I check their "Activities" and find THEIR motu lunch is 7500F, dolphins for a half-hour are 11000F, helitour of Moorea from Moorea for 20 minutes is 16000F per person, the 4x4 safari is 4000F, a pedal boat for two persons is 1200/hr., a kayak is 700/hr., and an oxoon, a motorized Jet Ski, is 40000/hr. Jet Ski, with guide, is 12000/hr. Read News and take a copy and Lulu comes at 4:10 and stops at AIRPORT at 4:14 to pick up someone. Get to hotel at 4:30 to find the lobby being set up for the 6:30 show, and to the room to find Fred reading, and when I confess to being anxious and fearful, he patiently listens to my tales of not wanting to risk anything, wanting to set up my website before more travel, and we both agree that 9/11 will affect everyone for the rest of our lives. Finish my Harvey's Bristol Cream neat, without ice, and realize that my 15:37 film from the reef will necessitate my putting a NEW roll of film into my video camera for this evening, and finish this at 5:38PM. AND I shamelessly used my "fearfulness" to say, reluctantly, when Fred said, "It really wouldn't make any difference to me," that we would NOT be making reservations for Tetiaroa, because I would fear it would be a disaster, as (I finally reluctantly admitted) Moorea is becoming, and of course he had to agree that the traffic, housing developments, Ono-Ono noise, French water-skiers, ALL made Moorea less desirable, and that Bora-Bora was already ruined because it was much smaller. Now at 5:41 I get a new videotape ready for the dances. They've moved the chairs outside, so I decide to sit in front, and it's a bright, young, smiling group of about twenty who go through a VERY fast series of different kinds of dances in two or three different costumes, much of which I record (20 minutes from a 6:15-7:05 show). Then back to recharge my battery in case we see any Halloween festivities (we don't), and line up for the car for La Cocotier at 7:30, pushing out the bleached blond and his dreadlocked girlfriend. Share a good goat-cheese salad, he has rather undercooked sweetbreads and I have fabulous roast lean duck in a honey sauce, both with good potatoes and carrots, and he has creme brulée and I have strawberries with sugar for dessert. Leave after waiting for the car for a while, sharing with speechless American couple, and back at 9:45 and sit for a bit and get into bed at 10:10PM, worried constantly about trip.

THURSDAY, 11/1/01: Wake at 1:45 and doze till 4:45, when I shit, then wake at 6:10 to lie looking into sunlight and flying insects while Fred's shopping, and we have a VERY leisurely breakfast and I wash up and type this at 8:30, preparing to start to pack for this VERY long day. Lie in bed DREADING, APPREHENSIVE OF, FEARFUL ABOUT, the rest of the trip, eighteen endless days left. Start looking at packing, trying to decide what to take to Easter Island and what to leave at the Papeete Hotel. Then Fred decides it's OK for snorkeling and we're in just after 9:30 and have a glorious time until just before 11:30, feet absolutely puckered from such immersion. Backs of heels look awful, so I shower and put on Bacitracin. Think through more repacking and go to lunch at 1:15, not as good hot dogs as before, and sourer lemonade. Get rate-sheet, stuff from safe, and cash in $80 for 9600F, down to $160 cash---have GOT to get an ATM machine somewhere! Pickup will be at 5PM for 5:45 flight---that's the way to fly! Paul Gauguin takes up whole bay. Clouding up again, but Fred suggested I take a day- or overnight-trip to Bora Bora, since with Moorea they're the best of the best. Now 1:25PM and back to packing. Roll #16: #1: packing at 1:50. Going wacko with inactivity: mostly pack the duffel and the blue bag, and borrow 20F from next door to make 180F for three postcards at the shop that I thought was closed from 12-2---get there at 2:15 and find it's closed to 2:30. Back to type this at 2:24, wondering what to do next. Lie down with alarm set for 3:45. Fred comes in at 3:15 and we chat and go again to the store at 3:30---and it's still not OPEN!! Wait till 3:40 and return. Type this to 3:50; time goes slowly when there's nothing to do. Stare at scenery, then finish packing at 4:15. Out to pay 900F "house tax" (150F/day for 6 days) which is noted and Fred insisted I pay, and try AGAIN for the store, but it's closed and Chance (!) says it's because it's a holiday! Only open in AM. TRUCK arrives 5:03, so I hop onto the back and bid farewell to the last silhouette of the mountains against the clouds over Moorea. To airport 5:15, "departure of 5:45 delayed 15 minutes." Sit at 5:20, 25 kg luggage! Airport crowded 5:35. Flight 2 leaves at 5:45. Ours next. Board 6:10, off 6:14, land 6:19, almost dark, bumpy ride with winds, no photos. Try again for ATM, no luck. Nothing open, no information about hotels. Into taxi 6:36: "Good cheap hotel?" "$50 in section right near airport." "No, center of town." "Kon Tiki about $90." "OK." He drives me there, she quotes 9965F, gives me key to room 601, not bad with balcony overlooking waterfront. "I'll take it, but I have to leave bag." "OK." Reserve for Sunday and Monday, saying I'll be in late. OK. Into waiting taxi at 6:52 and onto Aranui at 7PM, slated departure at 8PM. Look around for Vai and Sylvie: Vai's on vacation and Sylvie is being treated for her Achilles tendon, serious. New guide says I can put bag below blackboard. Wander and hear one American-accented woman who turns out to be the friend of Robert S., who's there (along with thin-faced French, other French, finally Geraldine and Jean-Max) to talk to Phillip W., one of the sons of owners, cousin to Romina. He again praises my movie, saying he'll write me (did I give HIM my card?) and surely wants the film, I can even charge him more if I want and no, he's NOT taking it as a business expense. Howling kid turns out to be Phillip's! Have two punches from Yoyo, but most Americans must be eating at 7PM, first sitting. Horn blows at 7:45, I'm off at 7:48, everyone leaves, gangplank goes up, cars drive away, Aranui pulls out at 8:14; I sit on curb and worry! There IS a telephone kiosk nearby, used by three maybe-hoodlums. Finally cab driver pulls up with a smile at 8:22PM! Drives me to airport for SAME 3000F----$50 for two taxi rides! Even says he'll see me at airport 11:45PM Sunday---maybe he will! To upstairs self-serve restaurant and separate two bags, getting toothpick out for nut between teeth, pee, type this at 9:04PM, listening to French and American as many people wait for, I guess, the same flight I wait for. Motley crew. Beginning to be tired. Don't feel hungry, only thirsty. Puzzle to 9:21, TIRED! Puzzle again at 9:29, time passing impossibly slowly otherwise. 10:04 SOME announcement. 11:20 on line! 11:50---NO bug spray in carry-on, make check-in with most of the stuff I need for the flight! DAMN!