Good morning from Uepi Island, still in Marovo Lagoon, just much closer to the large New Georgia Island where Munda and Noro are located. I’m now 20-25 minute boat ride from Seghe.

But before I tell you about Uepi, I need to go back a few days. In fact, I need to go back to exactly where I left off. 

That coconut curry with king fish that Esther cooked was amazing. The tastiest food ever! A typical dish around here.

The old lady with whom I shared my meals couldn’t stand it. She likes American food: nachos, tacos, pizza, this thing she calls goulash but it is ground beef with elbow pasta and loads of powders from packets. In short, more curry for me. Yummm

After lunch, she really wanted to dive so we went together to a current-free giant cavern on a wall and had a lovely dive. We spotted two crocodile fish in a mating ritual. The female retained her statue-like stanze while the male was lightly nodding his head. That’s really showing interest considering the croc fish’s usual rock-like motionlessness.

I love croc fish!

We also saw a giant humphead parrot with the biggest teeth imaginable. If you ever worried about your overbite, one look at this proud fellow would dispel any insecurity.

There was also this spectacularly festive red, black and white sea cucumber. The red lines were a secret Babilonian message in perfect cuneiform, I decided.

In general, I see a lot of different big sea cucumbers around these parts. I am really happy they are not on the humans’ menu and the Japanese passion for them has not reached the Solomons yet. Cucumbers are slimy with a hard outer layer and super soft middle. If you flip them (which sadly DM’s like to do), there are often tiny shrimp residing under them.  Some of the sea cucumbers have these tiny flower-like feet that land on the sea floor gently but I always imagine that they are like suction cups. I also imagine them giant and alien and taking over the earth. Fun thought for such a sweet fragile creature.

After the dive and with the sun shining over the pretty lagoon and the little island just across, I joined Jay & Esther’s younger daughter Rose and her friend from that island right across for a little jetty hang. We played music and danced, took photos, stared at the fish, played with the butterflies on the butterfly-tree twigs that Johnlee hung on the awning of the jetty, petted Buffy and Coco (the old lady’s dogs) and laughed our heads off for not always known reasons. They taught me a few words in Marovo:

Pepele – butterfly 

Pepele-somo – butterfly tree

Mai – Come here!

Encala – Go!

Ihana – fish

kolo – ocean

tusu – island

Leana – Byebye

Leana via – very good

Ipu leana – good night

Mar leana – Good morning

Mama

Papa

I love the pure happiness that you can experience with kids. Fun to talk to, easily amused, always up for a prank and ready to laugh. Whenever I think of what age I would like to be again, I think, hmmm 12? 13? 14? Yeah, that would be just perfect! Before Dad passed, before the war, before I had to move away, when I had my herd of girlfriends to run around our little Eastern European town and embarrass the boys whom we fancied but were too shy to talk to.

Dinner was some other magic Esther concocted, then Kindle then sleep to the sounds of 2 barely working fans, cicadas, bats, occasional rain and occasional wave in the mangroves below (likely caused by a jack trying to get a late night snack).

Friday, 2 dives off of 2 more remote islands. Both gorgeous with sharp rocky cliffs plunging deep into the ocean creating beautiful walls covered in coral and a whole other world. I love the predictable harmony of these underwater worlds. I love knowing what to find where, who’s going to behave how, what coral will house what crab or snail, what anemone will house what fish or shrimp, who wants to eat whom…

Both dives were deep and involved a sloping-ledge corner bustling with life thanks to a current swirl. Both dives had 3 different types of barracuda, the smallest one in the largest schools. Both had tangs and anthias in mega droves. Both featured a green turtle, sea fans, short and hard coral and cute nudis. I liked the 2nd one better because I did not have to worry whether my elderly dive buddy with serious moving difficulties and nausea will survive the hour.

On the 2nd dive, on the ledge in the blue, a million little fish were swirling about when a posse of dog-tooth tuna decided to start hunting them, parting the school like Moses and the Red Sea. Woosh sounds every time the little guys tried to get out of the way.l Later I asked Johnlee what the little guys are called. “We just call them bait.” – answered Johnlee matter-of-factly…

I love those expansive dives where a large wall turns a corner and offers a busy super fishy corner. Part of the reason why I always worshipped dives on the Tuamotus. Those corners before the pass had me witness every pelagic species imaginable. Whales, whale sharks, tiger sharks, 9 mantas in a row… Tuamotus have become far too crowded for my taste and the sea life is not as carefree and abundant… But I doubt I will be lucky enough to find another place that is that easy to get to and that magical to dive.

The second Friday dive again was with JohnLee. The 3rd son (and the 4th child) of the large family I was staying with, Johnlee used to work for Bilkiki as an engineer for 10+ years. Then retired and has been working on this island: he built a house for his Mom first, then for himself then brought his brothers to do the same. He’s made the hiking path around the island that I frequented daily. He was never certified to dive but is one of the best divers I ever dove with. Plus he spots cool things in the water. Plus he has 0 uptightness about leaving me to continue diving if he runs out of air.

I spent a couple of hours talking to him between dives. Interesting points of view: mix of traditional and modern in a unique way. 

After the dive, he brought me a carving of an eagle ray with shell inlays. Absolutely stunning piece of traditional art.

Shortly after, Esther came to get me to go see how a “motu” is made. Motu (which I have until then known as a Polynesian word for a small island) is a Marovo word for a stone oven. My dear family, practicing 7th Day Adventists, honor the Sabbath and do not cook, clean, work or do much other than spend time as a family and pray. Sabbath starts at sunset on Friday and ends at sunset Saturday.

So at 4pm on a Friday, everyone is busy getting food ready. And very excited about the holiday. Mama and the eldest daughter-in-law were leading the motu production.

A wooden shelf in what is the kitchen/dining room hut (as well as, I suspect, Mom’s  house) is covered in corrugated iron and on top are large rocks for boiling stew like I saw another day; a half of a drum with blazing fire where the rocks are heated, and in between the 2: the place for motu. Small rocks are heated for hours in the drum. Then layered out on the corrugated iron surface, packed tightly, then covered with fresh banana leaves on top of which the ladies place the food to cook: a giant bundle of leafy vegetables, a thick paste of cassava mixed with coconut and some other goodies that is then layered with a banana paste spread then another cassava layer, then more banana leaves, then a layer of yams and sweet potatoes cut in half, then more hot rocks, then more banana leaves, a rough sack cloth… et voila: a motu! They will uncover it on Saturday for lunch after church and have a Sabbath feast!

While the girls make food, boys husk coconuts, work on various repairs and joke around. The brothers truly love each other. It is so obvious. And today, they all had shaved heads and was challenging to tell them apart. They all have short stoutly frames with solid feet. And they are all jovial and cordial.

Their wives are much better looking. 🙂

Esther also showed me how she smokes fish and introduced me to her duck Napsy.

Linty and I picked a bunch of fruit the kind of which I had never tasted before. Small red pair-shaped fruit that tastes like a super sweet bell pepper. They grow on a tree like cherries. Fruit platypus. 

Esther then sent me back to my house with a fresh coconut which, I swear, had a liter of juice in it.

The next morning, I was leaving at 6:30 in a pouring rain. But at 6am, also in pouring rain, the whole family came over to say good bye. The most touching thing I have ever experienced. it’s funny what happens when you meet people who are this kind (and when you are a Westerner used to people being nice mostly when they need something from you): your heart gets overwhelmed and you tear up unable to believe that someone can like you this much and be this good to you. 

Well, that’s not a problem I have on Uepi. The beautiful tree-covered, bird-abounding island with a gorgeous reef right off their dock is owned by a family of the coldest Australians I have ever encountered. They have had this place for 30 years, they charge a pretty penny and, judging by how they and their kids behave, live a very rich lifestyle. I think they have outgrown any desire to offer hospitality to people many years ago. Now, they generally only show light courtesy to people who arrive in large groups and want to spend a lot of money. A single traveler is a deplorable that needs to be ignored. I am not even joking!

Hans (remember Hans from Sanbis in Gizo?) called Jill, the matriarch, Hitler Plus! This is a German Swiss talking, btw. I heard a kinder but not terribly different qualifications about this cold unpleasant fairly angry woman from some other people… man she must be in so much pain having to do the job she hates day in day out.

Poor thing!

Anyway, the diving is really good, there are long hiking trails and the staff is fairly pleasant.

Food is good but the dinners are orchestrated by the control freak lady who will seat you then unseat you, then move people around, then command who goes to the buffet first, second. I will let you guess when a single lady traveler’s turn to eat is… Hint: half the food is gone or picked out when she is finally allowed to approach the buffet table. And if, god forbid, she asks if there is more salad (being that it the salad tray is empty), she’ll get angry eye-rolling looks and the iron lady’s son (who spends most of his dining room time boasting about his world travels, his fast car and his new house) will come and dump some salad on her plate with a look of chilling disdain. I kid you not!!!!! I have never seen anything like this before.

Here is another fun tidbit about Uepi: On Satuday, my 2nd dive, 30 seconds upon getting off the boat and beginning my descent, I noticed that my go pro started flooding. I notified the DM and began ascending. I get to the surface and the dive boat is 10 meters away but leaving us divers and the dive site completely. I scream, yell to no avail. The dive boat goes back to the Uepi dock and I figure, OK, I”ll try to get to the shore (about a kilometer) and walk back (also about a kilometer). Then the boat goes out again, this time with a refresher-course divers. The divers also get dumped and the driver rushes back because the matriarch and her grandson are on board and the kid wants to go back and snorkel. Everyone is too preoccupied with the kid to notice a lonely diver in the water or hear her screaming. Now, if you don’t know much about diving, let me explain why a boat that just dumps and leaves divers behind is a horrible no no. Oh wait, you figured it out? Well, ok so yea, that happened.

I managed to swim to the rocks (over some really shallow and sharp coral), pull my go pro out of the dive case and place them both carefully on the rock. I then swam around to a little dock used by the owners only (and well hidden). A carpenter who was working on some wood structure heard my screaming and thought I had been bitten by a shark. He came over and helped me retrieve the gopro from the rock and carry my tank back to the diveshop.

And I am proud to report that I managed to save the little camera but I will not take it back into the water on this trip. So no mo’ vids or pics underwater. Just seeing and remembering.

The first dive Saturday was epic. Ripping current, 20+ gray reef sharks swirling around millions of fish. A turtle, 2 nurse sharks under an overhang, endless little and big critters. So exhilarating.

Sunday dives were calmer, along the wall. The highlight: the dm and the other diver swam on while I got to be alone with 5 beautiful eagle rays. I was not moving or even breathing and they were quiet right under me. I could study their patterns. Did you know that even though they are called “spotted” their markings are little circles, little exes, little smudges… A veritable tick tack toe. (how do you spell that?)

other highlights: 2 gorgeous skeleton shrimp, 2 super interesting pygmy harlequin shrimp, a goby shrimp (goby keeps guard while the shrimp, like a mini bulldozer, pushes shells out of their hole. Not sure why this symbiotic relationship exists but it is super cool to watch).

OK, I think I need to go get some breakfast before the Hitler Plus condemns me to starving till lunch.

Oh wait wait, I should tell you that all around the Marovo lagoon, and definitely here, you see many hornbills, cacatoos, parrots, sooty terns, as well as ospreys, hawks and eagles. AND Uepi also has these red-crested, blue-headed black tall birds that are some non-flying bird variety. They walk like an emu.

***

My morning dive was through endless labyrinth of caves. Saw some gorgeous shrimp and weird tiny cave fish that likely has never seen sunlight. Also: eagle ray and a marble ray and a crocodile fish (this time, no mate) and a million other bits and bobs. Dive time: 93 minutes. Max depth: 30 meters. Happiness level: very high.

***

The afternoon dive was spectacular: cherry on my Solomon Diving cake: We descended literally right at the Uepi Welcome jetty, dove down into a swirl of gray reef sharks, spotting along the way 2 gorgeous nudi and my fave snail. Lovely current brought huge schools of travelies, sweet-lips bass, as well as potato grouper convention, multitude of giant Napoleon wrasses, even a baramundi. Black-tip reefs hovered around the hole under some huge black coral where Ben the DM found a gorgeous octo who changed color and texture from smooth red-brown to rough sandy-white. We set on to of a ledge on a corner and let the fish hypnotize us. Well I did anyway. After 70 minutes, Ben ran out of air so I sent him out and continued diving all the way back to the jetty against the current. I loved slowly swimming in the school of sweet-lips as white-tips, grays and sundry groups checked in regularly. We swam over giant green morays, clowns and some marvelous fan coral. The jetty had 2 of the most enormous giant clams you’ve ever seen. They are so big they do not even bother closing. So good! Happiness level: through roof!