While most cruisers hurry through the Tuamotus, we love to stay in one atoll and explore it thoroughly. Raroia is one of the most interesting places we’ve found so far in the Tuamotus with lots of untouched motus. So far we have found a large, racous sooty tern colony, a frigate bird colony and many white terns, noddies, red-footed boobies and even brown boobies. The ‘noddy trees’ are already covered in nests with small cicks, while the red-footed boobies still sing to their mates (at least they seem to think it’s singing, while it sounds like roaring and cackling to the untrained ear) and build nests together. The lagoon itself is full of fish and very nosy reef sharks and nurse sharks.
We are suprised to find so much untouched nature here, even though there’s a village next to the pass. There’s quite some pearl farming going on, so maybe the locals are too busy cultivating pearls to bother making copra (and destroy the natural habitat) or go and collect seabird eggs (which has led to the extinction of sooty terns on most atolls).
Whatever the reason, we enjoy watching the wildlife here! Of course we’re also keeping busy doing maintenance on Pitufa with sewing machine projects, small sail repairs and yesterday Christian started a major winch-modification project. We love our Tuamotu routine where we can work and play according to our own schedule 
