Island events recap

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Date:   November 2006 - POLYNESIA

The Arenophiles
Among the tourists who come and visit our islands, many leave with, in their luggage, some "sample" of sand taken on the "beach of their dreams".

Among the various and different tourists who come to visit our islands, many leave with, in their luggage, some "samples" of sand taken on the "beach of their dream". This unruly reflex, depending on the people, reflects a symblic claim, the taking over of a place where one lived a moment of pure happiness. This is understanable, the idea is laudable, the move justified, but be careful, this is the beginning of a phenomenon of addiction, a trend toward "collectionitis". Some of you indeed are not at their first "petty theft" of this kind. From the handful of irridecent white sand from Bora Bora to the finely golden sand of Moorea, or the deep black sand from Venus Point in Mahina (Tahiti), there is plenty of choices in Polyenesia.

Then there is the sand you collected on the Riviera , the sand you brought back form the Sahara desert, or the red sand from Monument Valley in Arizona, in other word the beginning of a collection. And before you know it, you have become an arenophile: a sand collector! And now that you are aware of it, you will realize that sand chases you everywhere: of course on the beaches, but also in the deserts, the quaries, the rivers, and everywhere in all of the planet's mountains. And there is sand in all colors, some of it with two colors and sometimes three colors. There us fine sand, coarse sand, from star dust all the way to chick pea; It is after about a dozen collected samples that one really catches the virus (and the true pleasure) to have become an arenophile. Trading can start with other "addicts". Thanks for these two photos coming from Nathalie's collection, in britany.

Alain, another fanatic arenophile, living in the center of France, has a very impressive web site with nearly all types of sands existing on the planet : www.arenophile.net to visit now!

We sent him some sample of sand we collected in Bora-Bora's lagoon, to enlarge his collection.

He sent us back these magnifiscent macro-photos.
Unbeleivable, don't you think?

3 photos of sand collected from the bottom of Bora-Bora's lagoon,
Matira point. 

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