Or as we found out “Feremo”. That’s his real name. We got into the island around 1200 and Moe was waiting for us to hike across the island. He had a rice sack and I was thinking that he would pick up some garbasge on the windward side. Little did I know what he had in mind.
(Editors note: For more on Mo, his nephew Matea and this island see our blog from last year’s archive on August 21, 2013)
Any wonder why Mo loves this place. (Those are Charisma and Orcinius way off in the background. You have to anchor about a mile off the reef).
We walked through the jungle. The path was not much more defined than last year. We probably couldn’t have found our way by ourselves. Along the way he showed us places where the “old ones” had plantations. It was pretty cool to have the anthro-history lesson. You could almost hear the voices of his ancestors.
Part way across he suddenly stopped and we saw him reach down. A giant coconut crab! Moe very triumphantly announced we now had dinner! This guy was huge. Probably 30-40 years old. That’s the one problem with harvesting these animals. They grow very slowly. We only taste them here where they are not over-harvested since only one or two people live here.
Miss grabbing this crab just right and say "goodbye" to your finger.
He very carefully tied it up with vines from the forest floor before putting into the rice bag. Ah, now we get it. Moe has several black fingers and toes from coconut crab encounters. Their claws can cut through coconuts – you can image what they can do to your extremities!
So, a great hike, coconut crabs, some coconuts on the beach to recover from the hike and back to the boats for dinner of coconut crab.
John and Mo taking a break.
Bringing back the crab.
Mr. Crab ready for the pot.
The kitchen. Water's almost boiling.
Cooked crabs, dinner's ready!
You can see from this picture how their claws can open coconuts so easily.