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We wish you all happy holidays, fun and joy celebrating whatever you believe in (or not) Our ailing world needs us to be tolerant and to work together to tackle the really important problems… Merry xmas from an ideal Pitufa crew and from the real Pitufa crew

We had heard that Chuuk was a diver’s paradise and expected a cute, touristy place. Instead we found a dirty, run-down little town with lots of closed shops, dilapidated buildings and a big, official rubbish dump smack on the seaside… We also expected an American range in the shops (Micronesia is closely affiliated with the US), but the amount of ultra-processed food full of corn… Continue reading »

Saturday’s a busy day in the village, everywhere food is prepared in advance for Sunday, as the strict Christians here don’t light fires on the Lord’s day. We strolled through the village last Saturday, watched the proceedings and were in invited by the chief to join them for dinner. So we went home and started cooking ourselves to be able to contribute to the feast.… Continue reading »

The pass of an atoll is the bustling centre of its underwater life with corals providing a home for millions of little swarmfish hiding in delicate species like staghorn, groups of surgeons and parrots as well as couples of butterflies roaming the slopes, groupers and morrays hiding in crevices, swarms of snappers in the deeper water and barracudas, sharks and trevallies passing by. It’s also… Continue reading »

Turtles are still hunted and eaten on most islands in the Pacific, the only exceptions are touristy places (where the locals are encouraged to protect them as an attraction for visitors) and around very developed areas, where environmental organisations have been raising awareness for the protection of endangered species. We try the same and often include turtles in the presentations we do at schools, explaining… Continue reading »

It’s never great when the water alarm in the bilge goes off with a high-pitched BEEEEP, but it’s especially disconcerting when you’re out on the ocean with still 60 nm to go to land… The first step is to lift the floorboard, take out the alarm and silence the deafening noise to be able to think again. The next step is nasty: put a finger… Continue reading »

Have you seen videos of people hypnotising chickens and even sharks by rolling them on their backs and stroking them from the collarbone down their belly? I thought that magic might knock out crocodiles as well, so I grabbed ours and behold: it worked!

Remember how we were hoping that Smurfy would be less aggressive with less testosterone in his system? Well, it seemed to work for a while, but then we started noticing that he’s been gaining weight since he was neutered, so we’re feeding him smaller portions. Guess what happens when he’s hungry and cranky? Yep, he gets aggressive… This morning he was sitting next to his… Continue reading »