Fakarava north

Yesterday I rented a bike and rode about 30km along the northern island. I went southwards, where I found some hotel/pensions with beautiful beaches and some pearl farms. I also went to the airport in the north west, loved riding the bike through a diverse nature where you find corals, sand, pine trees (or whatever those are, similar to that) next to palm trees, green bushes and trees with the Tahiti flower. Fakarava is a touristy atoll, even a Cruis ship came here when we arrvied. On board: Jean-Michel Cousteau, the son of Jacques, the famous ocean researcher. With about 15 hotels/pesnions in this atoll this is the most tourism whe have seen so far - although you don't really see it when you're here. Everything looks normal. Clean as everywhere, (grocery) shopping is only half as good as in Makemo (BUT: I was able to buy a little bit of fresh food, we already had salad for 2 days now!), less pearl farms than in Mangareva (but made more for tourists). The anchorage is not beautiful, you can't go swimming here. Here in front of the town it's just to stock up food a bit, see the island with the bike and wait for the northerly wind to be over so that we can move to the supposedly beautiful south, where we hope to meet 3 friends boats, with whom Marcus can go diving. After that we're off to Tahiti.
Here are some pix of Fakarava:

 See the cruis ship in the background directly behind Alita?

 How to park a boat...

 Pearl Farm and Hotel & Restaurant Tavariki

 The airport