Fakarava is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the Tuamotu Archipelago — a near-perfect ring of coral enclosing a lagoon so large you cannot see across it. The pass at its southern end, called Tetamanu, is one of the greatest shark dives on earth: hundreds of grey reef sharks hanging in the current, hunting grouper in the narrow channel between ocean and lagoon.
Fakarava has a permanent population of roughly 800 people across two villages. At night, the only light comes from the stars — which, at this latitude, this far from any city, are extraordinary. The sharks are not aggressive. They are indifferent — which is somehow more affecting. You are in their world, and they have decided you are of no consequence.
That particular feeling — of being present in a system that preceded you by millions of years and will outlast you by millions more, if we allow it — is what Fakarava gives you. It is also where Justin and I found each other. Which is perhaps why the place feels, to us, like the centre of the world.