Day 48 Another day of fun

And another Pearl Spa Resort
Manihi, Tuomotu Archipelago, French Polynesia
We went ashore in the morning at the village of Paeua where Pat and Carly had met a young man who spoke English the night before when they went ashore for some supplies.
Enrique is the 20-something son of the president of this atoll. He spent two years as a Mormon missionary in Kansas City so his English was quite good. His uncle operates a pearl farm so he was able to set up a free tour(which is cheaper than the hotel’s $25 per person) but not until Wednesday.
In addition to being the local tattoo artist, Enrique works as a fireman at the airport near the Pearl Spa resort so he offered to take us there on his way to work. This is the same resort that we visited in Hiva Oa and Nuka Hiva. Access to the Internet is a good reason to visit every one of the Pearl Spa Resorts we have come across so we made sure Manihi would be no exception.
Manihi is a slow paced island where half the 350 person population works in the pearl farms. There are two places to buy food but one was not open any time we went there and the other is Chinese take-out from a small grocery store. While this is quite tasty and nourishing, the only place to sit down is on the benches under the tree in front of the store.
The Pearl Spa Resort offers a restaurant, a beautiful pool and the slowest Internet we have seen so far. I think I got one message off to Tim with a blog update but I am not sure it went and this one message took almost an hour.
Somehow a contest developed to see who could swim the furthest underwater in the pool. I came in last. Dave was second but the younger lads all made it one length and Kurt bested everyone by returning underwater for a total of two lengths whereupon his breath was totally exhausted and we had to help him to the side. Nonetheless, we declared him the clear and easy winner.
At one point, the manager came over and introduced himself. He had heard from the manager in Nuka Hiva that we were coming and was instructed to give us a warm welcome. We must be spending enough money although not as much as the guests who spend hundreds of dollars a night to rent the over-water private bungalows.
After a day of eating, swimming and playing cards, we returned to the boat.