Category Archives: French Polynesia

Moorea Fish or Fruit?

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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 →

Exploring Papeete

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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 →

Papenoo Valley Tour

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Yesterday we had decided to go on a guided tour of Tahiti’s undeveloped interior. We booked a tour of the interior of the island with Tahiti Safari Expedition. Our tour guide picked us up about 9:00 am at the marina that we are anchored near. There were supposed to be five more people on the tour with us, but none of them showed up, so it was just the two of us. We are getting used to having private tours and will be sad when the day comes that we have to share a tour with others. Continue reading →

Welcome to Tahiti

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We pulled into the lagoon at sunrise using the main pass, which is in downtown Papeete. Since we approached in the dark, we didn’t get to see the views from the distance, but from here it looked like Tahiti is a single large mountain that slopes down to the water. It is much less imposing than the Marquesas, which are taller, steeper, and clearly had many mountains. There were buildings all around, including many big buildings that were 4 and 5 stories tall. There appeared to be buildings all the way around the shore and most of the way up the mountain. A bunch of trash floated past us. Yep, we are in a city. Continue reading →