blue green white turquoise
tuvalu | travelled in 2015 | posted on dec 05, 2015
browsing travel catalogues, one often sees images that are just too beautiful to be true. but when you arrive at these places, you realize that the photographer really did an impressive job on overstylizing the scene. he has to, because selling dreams is the travel catalogues' job, no matter if they will become true or not.
so, let us imagine the dream, the cliché of the south sea:
deep blue sky, green palm trees, bright white sand and the clearest turquoise water.
well, what can i say, places like this really exists in the south pacific. not everywhere, but there are some places where i stood and asked myself if i had just entered some dream land (well, at this point i am not sure if you still believe me, as i am also a photographer).
the small islets of the funafuti conservation area are such places. this western part of the funafuti atoll is a protected area where people are only allowed to enter when accompanied by the conservation officer. of course, hunting and fishing is also forbidden.
one day while staying in tuvalu, we decided to go there. so, after an one hour boat ride crossing the atoll, we set foot on an untouched pile of sand, and here it was: blue, green, white, turquoise.
after walking around a little bit (the whole island could be circled in about 10 minutes), some snorkeling in the amazingly clear water (i will show some pictures later in another post) and some resting, we went to the next small islet and did just the same - there is nothing else to do. but i also can see no reason to do something else in this paradise.
but after some time, the conservation officer pushed us to return to the main island, because the pacific had decided to show us its rougher, non-paradisiac side: blue faded to grey, green to grey, white to grey, at least turquoise stayed a litte bit turquoise. and when finally the wind and rain came along, the boat trip changed into a nice rodeo ride. interestingliy this experience gave me also a deeper understanding of what it means when your home is just a tiny patch somewhere in the endless vastness of the ocean.
to all german speaking readers:
if you want to know more about the past, current and future special situation about life on a south pacific island, then i recommend reading a documentation that was recently published on süddeutsche zeitung online. it is about the marshall islands, which also have a very special past being the nuclear testing ground for the united states (bikini atoll... does it ring a bell?) but except for that, still most of what is written there also applies to other countries like tuvalu.
"Wo die Welt gerade untergeht" (don't miss to read all four chapters).
