Papeete

Our day starts at 2am as we get up for our 3am car to the airport. We have uneventful flights to Denver, then San Francisco and to Papeete, Tahiti.

There was a traditional polynesian song and dance greeting as we waited to clear immegration.

We got to our Airbnb around 8pm and managed to stay up to 9pm. We are now five hours later than our starting time zone, so our day really started at 9pm the previous day here, 24 hours ago.

In the early morning, the roosters crowed from 2:30-5:30am. After that the traffic noise was louder than the roosters. The red junglefowl, a species introduced by the Polynesians as they populated the islands, are in the city streets and are the culprits.

We walked over to the market to look for breakfast at 7am. Donna found some juice. Then we tried the supermarket and got some small pastries. Stopped at a bakery on the way back and got a small quiche and croissant bechemel. Came back the two blocks to the room and ate here.

Went back to the market and Donna shopped for a pāreu, a wrap that can be worn a a beach cover up.

We then walked over to the cathedral and took a few photos of the outside, but it didn’t open until 11am so we could not go inside.

We walked over to and through the Pa’ofa’i Gardens along the harbor. There were a few birds, mostly introduced species like the zebra dove, the myna and the red-vented bulbul.

Tahiti gained some autonomy from France on Sept 6, 1984. There is a monument to this event in the park.

Then back to the cathedral to look inside. It is somewhat plain, but the stained glass windows are very modern in style.

Notice that the tree has coconuts on it.

Crepes for lunch, then we walked over to the Robert Wan Pearl Museum. He bought into a pearl farming operation in the late 1970s and later bought out some of his competitors, producing 85% of the Tahitian black pearls.

To participate fully in Tahitian culture, we went back to the room for a siesta before going to supper. We had supper at a restaurant in the Pa’ofa’i Gardens on the open balcony on the second floor overlooking the water.

On September 18th we needed to be out of the room by 10:30am, but can’t board ship till after 1pm. There is a place to wait in the shade by the terminal. Donna rested while watching the luggage there.

I shopped for a Tahitian shirt and briefly visited a temporary exhibit that was all in French on Tahiti in World War I. On September 22, 1914 Papeete was bombed by two German cruisers.

The Mairie de Papeete is now city hall, but was a former palace. It was open, but I didn’t have time to explore.

Our ship left at 5:30pm and the local canoe club was out practicing.

Some people get seasick with the wave motion, but Donna likes it, saying it rocks her to sleep.