Today we planned to rent scooters and take a tour of the island. We took the dinghy over to the town of Paopao in Cook’s Bay, where the scooter/car rental place was located. The ride over was interesting. There is coral all around, so you have to be careful. There is a small boat channel that is clearly marked, and as long as you stay in the channel, you are fine. It just looks kind of crazy as you are in the channel because Continue reading
We left Tahiti through the southern pass, which is closer for us than going back around to the north. We had been leery of using the southern pass, reading in our cruising guides that it can be treacherous. The rally to Moorea had used the southern pass and it was no problem, so we were confident in using it this time. It is a bit hard to see, but check out the surfers catching waves on the reef. It felt like we were heading out to see through surf, but the pass itself only had minor swells. Going through was easy.
Saturday continued”¦ We arrived at the ferry dock exactly at 1600 (4:00 pm). When the ferry pulled up, hundreds of passengers got off, all wearing clothing of the same material. There were people with them in regular clothing, also. We were trying to figure out what the group was. There was old people and young people, men and women, all sizes, shapes and fitness levels. One of the women in the uniform handed Christi the hat she was wearing and told Christi she could have it. The hat is woven from some sort of plant and was so freshly woven, it was still green. Christi proudly wore it the rest of the day. Continue reading
On Friday evening we went to a party put on by the Tahiti Tourism board for cruisers. The Tourism Board was sponsoring a rally from our anchorage area over to the island of Moorea, 10 miles away. We weren’t taking Kosmos in the rally, but we had been invited to be crew on another boat named Priscilla. This was the pre-rally party. There was free beer and appetizers. There was a Polynesian dance show, which was good. In addition to the female dancers, there were also male dancers. The female dances involved lots of hip gyration and flowing arm movements. The male dances involved lots of squatting, hitting one’s own legs and chest, and arm movements mimicking the rowing of canoes and use of spears. Continue reading
The weather has improved so we decided to go into downtown to do a little exploring and then maybe go to one of the Heiva (cultural festival) competitions, which we know was going on now, but we didn’t know what time the competitions were. We caught a bus to downtown Papeete and got off at the theater where the Heiva competition was happening. The theater is right on the waterfront in the heart of downtown. We walked around looking for signs or brochures indicating which competitions were happening at what times, but saw nothing to that effect. We looked for the tourism office, which according to Lonely Planet was right there, but couldn’t find it. We gave up and went sight seeing, deciding to head down the waterfront first. Continue reading
