The Peterson Pack on the Move

As we have continued on our travels, we have spent a lot of time in tropical areas and discovered an unfortunate fact. Well, unfortunate for some. The mosquitos in the French Polynesian islands are of a particularly vicious variety: they crawl through the smallest holes in our bug nets, they swarm you whenever you step into the forest, and as an added bonus the bites swell too, getting far more inflamed than the Alaskan mosquito bites that we are used to. Despite all of this, I remain relatively unmarred. You should see my dad and sister —they look like chicken pox victims. But  my mom and I only have a few bites here and  there, similar to a typical  Alaskan summer. This leads us to a pretty commonly asked question (or at least in our family). Are some people tastier to mosquitos than others? The answer isn't as simple as it might sound. Research has shown that many factors can influence mosquito attraction, the carbon  dioxide in your breath, and even the color of ...

We have spend the past week on the French Polynesian atoll of Fakarava in the Tuamoto archipelago. As on Rangiroa, we found the Tuamoto people friendly and happy hosts.  People, even teenagers, make eye contact and wave, saying “la Orana” in greeting as we pass on our townie bikes.   The island and beaches are very clean and the  beach combing is the best I have ever found.  The day has a different rhythm than we are used to. Everything starts as soon as the sun is up, with the few stores opening at 5:30 am and closing again at noon in the heat. Everything shuts down from noon to three and its anybody's guess after that.  I was twice greeted by sunrise rainbows! The seas on the inside of the atoll have been much calmer, often almost glassy, something we saw only briefly on Rangiroa. The sea life is like nothing I have seen anywhere. Sharks, coral, fish, eels, just off shore and easily seen from land or a snorkel in front of our cabin.  “Snack” restaurants a...

                On the oceanside of Fakarava my mom and I found pink sand. We wondered how it was formed. We had some theories like crushed pink coral or broken up orange rocks. It turns out the little one-celled organism, foraminifera, makes pink sand.       Foraminifera, forams for short, are single-celled organisms with shells called tests that are made of calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is the same material found in shells of other marine organisms such as coral, lobsters, and muscles.       Forams are not considered animals because they do not have bodies that are divided up into multiple cells. However, they are also not quite like plants because they do not have photosynthesis like plants and algae. As a result, foraminifera are clarified separately from both plants and animals in a group called protists. Protists are found in most fresh water and salt water environments. The majorit...

Atolls are formed by volcanos that slowly sink.When it is sinking, coral is growing around it. Over this time period the coral is changing into different forms such as barrier coral and fringing coral. It usually takes around 30,000,000 years.  - Quillian🐕

We celebrated the first week of the new year and the first week of family sabbatical (nicknamed the Sabubu by Anson) on the French Polynesia Atoll of Rangiroa . We have been working on developing our routines, our homeschool curriculum, and like everyone else at the new year, setting up habits that will support us this year and into the next phase of our lives.  A one road island is the perfect place to do that.  Goodbye 2023! We stayed in this little bungalow. It was like a forest service cabin with non-potable water and air conditioning. This atoll is totally flat with only one straight road going from one end to the other. Tre and I loved biking to the grocery store in the morning to get French pastries. It seem so strange to us to find French food in the middle of the South Pacific. There are road side stands selling Roquefort and other French cheeses.  In this photo the kids are joining some locals their age watching black tip reef sharks in the shallows of the Blue ...

   Have you ever wondered why a tiny island, 15,556 miles from France, speaks French? You probably haven't, seeing as Rangiroa is an  extremely  small island, and most people have never heard of it. You probably still don't want to know. But, I'm going to give you an in-depth explanation of it anyways. Sorry in advance, I am being forced to write this.    Rangiroa is an island in French Polynesia, which is an overseas collectivity of France. It is made up of 5 archipelagoes: the Society Islands, the Tuamotu Archipelago, the Gambier Islands, the Marquesas Islands, and the Tubai Islands. The capital, Papeete, is on Tahiti, French Polynesia's largest island. European encounters with French Polynesian islands began in 1521 when Ferdinand Magellan, who was exploring for Spain, sighted the island of Puka-Puka. Over the years, more islands were discovered by explorers from various nations, including the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen; Samuel Wallis, a navigator from Eng...

We found the spines of a red pencil urchin also known as the  Heterocentrotus  mamillatus. Anyways, I wanted to do some  research about it. My mom also helped me draw a picture of the sea urchin.    Heterocentrotus  mamillatus  are  f ound  throughout the tropical waters of the Indo- pacific region but especially Hawaii. Its predators are fish and sometimes humans. (gross who would do that?!) Its spines are thick and rouned allowing it to  bore hard into things. It also helps to defend against predators, wave drag, and pressure.   Quillian🐕

So we are in Tahiti for new years eve, isn't that cool? we have already stayed the night and are going on a plane for 1 hour when we land we will be in Rangiroa which will be the first place we stay with out having to leave immediately. But enough about the future and more about the present. Right now we are in a three star hotel which means there are beds, chairs, two privet bathrooms, tv fridge, etc. So far nothing super exciting is going on. —Quillian

     I guess I'm supposed to write on this blog. I'm not really sure what to say, because we haven't really done anything worth noting yet.       In the past three days, I have spent about 24 hours on planes. We've been traveling at odd hours: getting up early to catch planes and not getting back until late. And that's not even mentioning the time differences.       Right now we're on the island of Tahiti, part of a tropical country called French Polynesia. A lot of people have heard of Tahiti, but it's not really what I expected. I thought it was going to be pretty touristy, and it is in some ways, but it also shows a different side of island life that I'm not used to seeing. The place we're in right now, Papeete, is dirtier than I expected. There's trash in the gutters, and lots of tin-roofed sheds.      We landed in Tahiti the night of December 30th, and we are leaving around noon on New Year's eve. So of course, I...