Way, way too tired tonight to write much. I mean, I could spend an hour writing about our public bus ride out to the Le Meridian Resort, the over an hour wait in the hot Papeete sun, the loud music played on the bus, the Tahitian polka music where everyone clapped along so we did too, the Tahitian rap music where we looked like a couple of middle-aged bobbleheads, groovin' to the beat. Yes, I could expand on that for at least an hour. And I could mention that I was up at 5am watching the Oceania Marina sail away, the best part of staying at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti. And that the 20% DEET lotion that has faithfully accompanied us on every cruise for the past ten years but was rarely used is now empty and I had to buy new mosquito repellant today. I decided on a waterproof, sweatproof spray that contains 50% DEET. I don't know if that can even be sold in the U.S., but that's what will see us through the rest of French Polynesia, Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Instead I will make this quick...
I cannot recommend staying at Le Meridian. It's very mosquito-y out there, and we've now heard of four people who either stayed there or live by there who contacted Chikungunya. They have all sorts of water ponds with lilies in them that are beautiful to look at but are huge breeding grounds for mosquitos.
We loved the Manava Suites Hotel, loved the rooms, especially the kitchens and huge bathrooms, loved how contemporary it all is, loved the views, but they have mosquitos too. Luckily, it's set up so you go to your suite and close the door and really don't spend a lot of time wandering through landscaped grounds.
We spent most of our day at the Intercontinental Tahiti and it was beautiful. Crazy expensive food, of course, but we hit happy hour and half priced drinks and shared French fries and breadfruit fries (very tasty dipped in Thai sweet chili sauce) and sat on two loungers overlooking the infinity pool and watched a sunset that, I swear, lasted over 90 minutes. It just kept changing and getting better and every time we'd think we needed to leave, it would morph into something different. The frigate birds were squawking and the tree frogs were chirping and it was only the two of us and (Paige, this is for you) it was the most romantic sunset we've seen since our honeymoon on Captiva Island a bazillion years ago. It actually made me fry a little, it was so beautiful.
It was after 8pm when we caught a taxi back to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti; we had left at 8:30 this morning.
It was one of the best days ever even before we took showers and then had coconut sorbet from the freezer section of the little refrigerator in our room while G watched what must be the French version of Ice Road Truckers on TV (only it's more like Mud Road Truckers). This has quickly become his favorite show.
The end.
If I haven't mentioned it lately, life is definitely good. :-)