Just another day in paradise......

Day 3 – Papeete 2

Sunday, normally a day of sleeping in for me was not a normal day. After eating dinner at the Roulottes last night, I walked home and crawled into bed around 9PM. I was awake at 5:30—no alarm. Amazing. What’s more amazing is that I willingly got out of bed and into that weird shower.

Dinner last night: Grilled MahiMahi, Shrimp (which I already ate) Risotto with Parmesan cream sauce. Of course it was delicious.

The roulottes are a great place to people watch. It’s not just for tourists either. Entire local families come here to eat. There is a heavy Chinese food presence due to the large population of Asian families here.   This meal and a large bottle of COLD water was 2 460 (about $25)

And then I had to have a crepe. I chose a Nutella, banana Chantilly crepe. But they also had homemade waffles, plain ice cream, and more. It was a difficult decision and required me to make my rounds twice, stopping to view various menus. Decadent does not begin to describe the taste of the crepe. The Chantilly is homemade whipped cream and I’m thinking there was least 2 cups in this crepe. It was so rich and sweet it made my teeth hurt and I had to have some table salt afterward!!!  But I did eat the whole thing!!! No picture—maybe next time.  The crepe was about $8 American.

Breakfast this morning was the same as yesterday. European style. It’s good but I need EGGS. LOL I met the only American people since I left the US this morning at breakfast. They are also cruising on the ship for their honeymoon and staying at this hotel! Very friendly people! Their names are Jason and Courtney. They told me they’d already met 2 other people that mentioned cruise critic and are also on the ship. 

I have a tour scheduled at 940AM. So, more later!!!

Back from my most excellent tour of the island of Tahiti. There were 2 other couples and me along with the driver. A very nice air conditioned van. Our guide’s name was Phillip and he was ½ Samoan and ½ Polynesian. Wonderful arm sleeve tattoo! (Sorry, no picture) I was asking him about it and he says you tell the tattoo artist your family’s ‘story’ and the tattoo he draws on you is that story, in ancient designs.

The 2 couples are both boarding the Pacific Princess. One couple is from England (Kevin and Bernie) and the other from Florida—although the woman is originally from Japan. (Phil and I think it's Mimi for short) At any rate, all were very nice and we had some good conversations. It will be nice to ‘know’ some people right away.

At first, I thought I was lucky to be sitting up front, next to the guide but that opinion changed in about 15 minutes. The sun was beating through the windshield and it was HOT even with the air blasting.

I’ll try and add some pictures I took on the tour at the end of this post, but they upload very, very slowly. Phillip gave us lots of interesting Tahitian facts about culture, history etc. Here a few memorable ones:

• ·         The artist, Paul Gaughin, did not leave Tahiti voluntarily. The people of Tahiti tried to kill him because he apparently spread syphilis to a large number of woman who then spread it on to their lovers.  (Woman were known to have many lovers and it was OK)
• ·         His wife was 13 years old when he married her.
• ·         The last King of Tahiti is not buried with the other kings. He was the one that gave Tahiti to the French in exchange for wine.
• ·          20% of Tahiti’s population is Chinese—they were ‘gifted’ a mountainside in Tahiti by Jacques Ciroch (not sure on that spelling)
• ·         The Nonni fruit is said to prevent all sorts of disease, even cancer. It grows wild here.
• ·         There is another fruit (he said this was on CNN) that is only in Tahiti that is said to kill cancerous cells. And that representatives from the US and someplace else were there and developed some sort of serum. I guess time will tell.
• ·         Marijuana is ‘no big thing here’. There is no penalty to smoke it, only if you deal. It grows wonderfully in this climate and is said to be a way better high because it’s grown naturally. (They use things like rotted shrimp or rotten fruit as a fertilizer)
• ·         The country was originally under English rule in the 1700s. They tried to impose their standards onto the natives. No long hair on men, no breech clothes, men had to wear trousers, shirts and shoes. No tattoos either. They also outlawed the “primitive’ religion and replaced it with their own.

I had my first Tahitian beer today. It’s called Hinano. It was pretty good. While we were at the restaurant, we were talking and one woman said how she preferred wine and I said, well, I like a good gin and tonic! And Kevin (the Englishman) said….welllllllllll, I guess we’ll be seeing a LOT more of you on the cruise. LOL LOL LOL I said I would try and behave myself. Time will tell. I did mention that a good friend of mine usually had to tell me repeatedly “GIN IS NOT YOUR FRIEND”

This is the lighthouse called Point Venus. This is where Tahitians and Captain Cook first met. Cook wanted to track Venus' path across the sun.  1769

This is one of the many sacred sites located in Tahiti.  

An upripened Nonni fruit 

The view from a scenic overlook in Tahiti. 

Day 1 Papeete

Day 1 

My transfer from Unique Tahiti was waiting, as promised after I cleared customs. My luggage did make it although it looks a little beat up.

For the cost of my transfer, Tracey included a tour of downtown Papeete to orient me on this unique city. It’s very urban but has little pockets of beauty all over the place. There are multiple parks and benches set into the shade everywhere I looked. And although they like their graffiti, the downtown area was surprisingly litter free.

Cars here completely understand the meaning of the crosswalk!

After Tracey dropped me off at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti, I checked in unpacked a bit and headed down for the breakfast included in my rate. It was delicious—the bread was amazing but the coffee was strong enough to stand your spoon in. But, I added milk and drank it anyways. I needed all the help I could get!

My room at the hotel is on the 4^th floor overlooking the harbor. It is immaculate. It reminds me of the rooms in Italy. The most important aspect is that it has air conditioning! Which works in an interesting sort of way. On each wooden room key fob, there is a piece of metal that you insert into a slot near the door. This turns on the electricity for the lights and AirCon.

This is my view from my room. The cruise ship in this picture is just leaving port now.

After my breakfast, I headed out to an ATM and a walk along the waterfront and through some of the side streets. It was EARLY—I’m talking 7:30AM early. Tracey told me most people here rise with the sun and get out because the weather is so pleasant early in the morning. By noon, she says, it’s just too hot and people wait until late afternoon to come back out.

So today I saw a sunrise from the airplane while we were high above the clouds, had my breakfast and walked about 2 or 3 miles and was back at the hotel by 930. I turned on the A/C in my room, took out my contacts after 30 plus hours and BAM, I was out. I slept for about 4 hours and got up and showered. That felt heavenly but I don’t know if I get the whole shower thing here:

To the left of that, behind the shower door is an elevated tile, one step up and on the wall in back, a towel bar. I guess you take the actual shower in the recessed part and step up to the back to dry off? Who knows, but that is what I did.

The water in the industrial port here is even pretty!

That’s the ferry that you take to Moorea—the island you see in the background.

 There were lots of women on the sidewalks with fresh flowers making flower crowns and hats. It smelled wonderful.

The temperature has dropped a lot and there is a nice breeze now. I see people out walking with their kids on the waterfront—on their way to the park for a little play-time.

I am told the food trucks (roulottes) will start setting up down the street around 6PM. That is where I am having my dinner tonight!  And then this Gypsy will be heading to bed. I am still tired. I have a Western Isle tour tomorrow morning. They are picking me up at 9:40.  Snaps from the roulottes:

Oh and you know what else? I forgot to say last night, during some fairly decent turbulence, we crossed the equator! This is the first time I’ve ever been I’ve been in the Southern Hemisphere! And for a little education: Directionally, French Polynesia is sort of directly below Hawaii and it is as far south of the equator as Hawaii is North. The days and nights here are almost exactly even, year round. Sunrise and sunset about 6:30 or so. And because I’ve been dying to know, I filled up the sink in the bathroom and when I let the water out, it spun in a counter-clockwise direction! So now we know!