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the dangers in the pacific…

Hello Again! So, the last few days have been unlucky…

There are many stories to tell, its a shame i don’t have a better connection here. I’d also love to upload scans from my journal as the artwork relates well to my experiences.

In brief, here is what has happened…

Last thursday I went to Maupiti and climbed to the tallest peak. Immensely impressive being up there… I even made a video I can latter add music too ( a sort of music video).

Hello Again! So, the last few days have been unlucky…

There are many stories to tell, its a shame i don’t have a better connection here. I’d also love to upload scans from my journal as the artwork relates well to my experiences.

In brief, here is what has happened…

Last thursday I went to Maupiti and climbed to the tallest peak. Immensely impressive being up there… I even made a video I can latter add music too ( a sort of music video).

Getting down was another story as I could not find the same path down anymore! Fortunately after about 40 min i finally found another route down to the other side of the island…

Once at the shore I took a swim in the lagoon, all nice and normal but upon my exit I noticed a yellow and black stripped snake in the water no more than 10 cm from my face in water that was not more than 10 to 20cm deep! I already had momentum, so to stop i would have had to spals in the water… instead i decided to float over the snake (the length of my entire body) as dead as possible, so as to alarm it as little as possible… its head which i saw very clearly did not bite me… boy was i relieved! (some claim its the rare ‘1 min snake i saw, so named because if you are bitten you have about 1 min to live… but others say this is not true, in any case, i’m still here!)

The next day I went to a different island, raeatea, and things unfortunately only continued to be somewhat negative.

I climbed up to a place called the 3 water falls, and for those of you who know my thailand story of the magic butterfly, there are parallels… while hiking up to the top i wished the store was open so i could get some fruit (papaya or mango) unsuccessful in my search for a public fruit tree, i hiked along until a lady with a bag stopped me and asked if I would like one of her cucumbers! These are no ordinary cucumbers and look more like mutant melons! I took the smallest one from her bag, which was still gargantuan, and trodded along. I was very busy recording lots of water fall sounds when suddenly mid step i feel my headphone cord being pulled on and then “thwack” my recorder disappears!!! after the short term disbelief that it actually fell in the water i proceeded to look for it everywhere… the water is more than arm deep and it could have sunk between any numb er of rocks i’d never ever get to. I search far and wide, and faced my fears of putting my arm inside dark crevices (memories of snakes still in my mind) eventually i was about ti give up on it when suddenly i extracted it from the water! dead, naturally it was… the same recorder i thought i had lost in LA was now drowned! really i have no luck with this piece of gear…

So i sit and after a while I hold this little piece of a leaf and say to my self… if i can transform it into a red berry… i can also repair my recorder… (ok i am a bit of a nutter). So after 5 min of concentration, i open my hands and sure enough its still a little piece of leaf… i trek up, swim under the water fountain but i am definitely very quite and neither happy nor sad – or rather i am happy and sad, which kind of cancels out into some neutral state. i get all the way to the top, eat my cucumber (after about 20% of it i m cucmber-saturated)… the 2 and 3rd waterfalls are very beautiful, and some parts are scary 5rope climbing with slippery ledges etc.) – on the way down, what do i see? a little red berry just like the one i said my leaf will change into… i have renewed hope. if anything at least finding it means i have a chance of getting it repaired…

That evening i plug it in and it chirps on and then off again briefly… there is some life in it!

Life continues, I go to a ship wreck the next day, and when i leave the wreck i think tomyself… “ok don’t move your feet much to not hit the beam” 2 seconds latter, i hit the beam at my ankle! The bruise has left me with a limp noz for the last 2 days and counting…

That night the device works again somewhat better again, I’m tending to it like a baby.

Until yesterday morning when I wake up because in my dream the device was “on” and fully functional, i turn around and sure enough; its on and working!!!! unbelievable. Well, not totally working cause if its not plugged in, it turns off, so the battery is still not working, but i’m already amazed it survived in the water at all!

I stay at the hotel the whole day to rest my ankle, and then in the afternoon i do a trip in a kayak to the nearest Motu (= sand rivet along the edge of the lagoon and ocean) nothing bad happens to me, that is until the evening when i take a stroll with Xavier ( a cool friend guy ive been hanging with for the last few days) and i manage to fall into a deep concrete pit on the side of the road! As I am falling into the emptiness, in shock and unable to react, i’m in disbelief, how can i be falling??? it was hidden in shadow and invisible to me, i land on the hard floor and cut my left foot, left knee, bruises here and there and my right wrist is strained in a band of pain….. nothing broken, and i can still walk, but today i walk aith a limp and i can barely use my right hand (i’m i,pressed i can still type)…

Whats up with this? 4 days and every day a disaster of sorts, i’m thankful to be leaving this island that doesn’t like me!!!

Today i will meet up with walter, back on bora bora and tomorrow i’m going to look for a doctor… and just rest for a few days.

So, that’s been my life for the last few days! hopefully things will only get better now! at least i am still alive and nothing is broken or infected… once must look up in life!

Oh, if you want to send me email, please use: [email protected] my other email addresses don’t work here because most places are still using internet explorer version 3 or 4!!!

Paradise was never this easy…
😉

Lots of love, seb.

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4 Comments

  1. comment
    hey seb! jeez, you and that recorder 🙂 Still reading your blogs with interest and thinking of you, hope the rest of your trip works out better!

    brandon

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