Day 78: Papeete

The Oceania Marina sailed into Papeete harbor early this morning, and, as we've discovered, a cruise ship right off our balcony is an exciting thing. I read on Cruise Critic about cruise ships being right outside someone's office building, or sailing by their house enroute to Alaska, and I couldn't imagine what that must be like. Well, now I can, at least a little, and it's fun to see people going on cruises even if I'm not with them.

We had our breakfast early today and I walked down to Notre Dame Cathedral for the last time to watch Father Jesus say Sunday Mass. I love Papeete on Sunday and holiday mornings...there's no traffic, less noise and it's generally much more relaxed.  I walked right down the Rue du 22 Septembre on my way back to the hotel, and I have been wanting to talk about that here so now is a good time to do that. 

On September 22, 1914, two German warships bombed Papeete in an attempt to get the island's coal reserves. A French gunboat and freighter were sunk and Papeete suffered significant damage, consequently disrupting the French Polynesian economy. This is the only action in French Polynesia in WW I. In WW II, the islands never saw combat but, as I've said before, the US had a military presence in Bora Bora just a month after the bombing of a Pearl Harbor and SeaBees constructed that island's airstrip and perimeter road. 

Here is a Wikipedia link to more information on the bombing of Papeete:  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardment_of_Papeete

I walked back to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti just in time to join G on our large balcony as a parade of American pick up trucks and sports cars and Harleys, some bearing flags, cruised down Boulevard de Pomare right along the waterfront. We found out later that a local club holds these parades twice a year or so, and we had a front row seat. 

After I changed clothes, we walked over to the cruise ship pier. We've seen the Oceania Marina before, in St. Lucia two winters ago, but it's always fun to see a familiar ship in another part of the world. This ship was just built in 2010, and is just slightly larger than the HAL Statendam, so it's the largest ship we've seen since we've been down here. It just crossed the South Pacific Ocean from Valparaiso, Chile and is doing a few 10-night runs around French Polynesia starting with the cruise leaving today. We ended up having a nice conversation with a local Tahitian black pearl salesman who was on the ship for the past few days and was taking the ferry back to Moorea today. 

It was warm early today, and so we returned to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti for our afternoon rest. I read and G surfed the Internet and it was quite restful, which, you may recall, were two of our goals for these ten days (sleep and catch up with Internet stuff). We know that, en route from French Polynesia to Hawaii and perhaps from Hawaii back to California, we will be without Internet on the ship for days at a time while the ship loses satellite contact. Sedate me!

By 4:15pm we left our hotel room to walk along the waterfront park. The day started to lose its heat by then and the evening was perfectly pleasant. We backtracked to Les Roulottes for our dinner; I had Chinese and G had BBQ, and, tonight we ate dinner right there at the tables, enjoying the view of the Oceania Marina and the sunset over Moorea.

The Chinese ship is still docked at the second cruise ship berth, and les roulottes were flooded with young, mostly male people from that ship. Les roulottes owners, especially those who made Chinese food, were cleaning up tonight.

The local families were also out en force, with kids riding scooters and bikes and trikes and skateboards and even two kids on something we'd never seen before, like a unicycle without a seat, that seemed to be powered like a Segway. It's exciting to see something like that for the first time, and they were getting a lot of attention from the passengers from the Oceania Marina who were out for a stroll. 

Evenings on the waterfront...my very favorite part of staying in downtown Papeete!

Things I learned today:

Le Retro is the only cafe reliably open for business on Sundays and holidays. 

We fixed up a cheat for the electricity in our room. A simple key card in the slot didn't work, but some card stock from a brochure folded several times and jammed in the slot did. It was just too disheartening to return from the heat outside to a hotel room in the mid-80s. 

The French Polynesian people are among the friendliest we've ever encountered. Every one of them has been friendly and welcoming, and we are very comfortable staying here. Likewise, we've never felt one bit unsafe, even walking back to our hotel after dark. It's been a very easy place to spend 10 days. 

WDG Internet is crap. Only use ManaSpot...it's much, much better. We buy 10 hours worth at a time for about US $3 and hour. 

Day 77: Papeete (and Moorea)

I've made no secret of the fact that Papeete has been hot. Hot and sunny. I don't know where all this sun was on our turnaround days in Papeete but we've sure had it all this week.  But the sun and heat have taken a toll on me. I start out the day feeling strong but fade by 1 or 2pm. We needed a change of venue today, and we got one.

Following breakfast (we're getting bacon now, too, for unknown reasons, but between the omelet and the fruit and the juice and the croissant and the baguette AND the bacon, it's a heckuva free breakfast), we walked down to the cruise ship pier to see the Paul Gauguin, which had come in early this morning. The Paul Gauguin is such a small ship that there's never a hubbub around it. People were disembarking today, but it was all very low key. And there was no tourist activity on the wharf at all, so nothing really to see. 

We decided at that moment to take a high speed Terevau ferry to Moorea this morning. We checked the schedule...we had exactly 21 minutes to return to the hotel, grab our swimwear and get back to the ferry terminal. We flew, but we made it. For just under US $50 total, we bought two round trip tickets on the ferry. While the locals settled in the air conditioned interior seating, we were right up front on the open deck for the roughly 22 minute crossing of the Sea of the Moon. 

Now, ferries are exciting things to us because we don't have them at home. In fact, my past ferry experiences are limited to Sydney Harbour, Australia; the Outer Banks of North Carolina; Lake Champlain; Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC; and between St. Kitts and Nevis.  So the simple act of taking the ferry was fun. 

Our destination:  Moorea, as seen across the Sea of the Moon

The harbor at Vaiare

Once we arrived at the ferry dock at Vaiare on Moorea, we wasted no time taking an Alberts Shuttle for the 5 minute ride to the Sofitel Moorea (500 CFP per person). There we first had lunch overlooking the water and then settled in by the infinity pool for the remainder of the afternoon. Oooohhhh, I needed today. Gorgeous views, gentle breezes, not too hot, tropical drinks and that incredible infinity pool. 

These overwater bungalows are just over $1000 per night.

The infinity pool

We've visited the Intercontinental Moorea, the Hilton Moorea and now the Sofitel Moorea and the Sofitel was, without a doubt, my favorite. The setting with Tahiti right across the Sea of the Moon and a long, crescent stretch of beach is perfect, and its proximity to the ferry and Tahiti can't be beat.  I'll be honest, we did check on bungalows at the Sofitel. The cheapest ones were about US $650 per night with no food. The overwater bungalows go for almost $1500 a night. They had nothing available until Monday night, which is the issue we dealt with when we first were looking at hotels for these ten days off the Pacific Princess. We're paying $150 a night with breakfast at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti; we simply can't justify an additional $500 plus a night, even for just two nights. We can go there from Papeete for the day for around $100. We may well go back, maybe even tomorrow. We enjoyed it that much. 

The mountains above the ferry dock 

Sleeves of coconut, papaya and mango available for purchase at the ferry terminal on Moorea

We took a shuttle about 4:15pm to return to the ferry dock. The last ferry was at 4:40pm, and we didn't want to miss it. The roulottes were just setting up as we walked back to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti but we're worn out. After a full day at a beautiful resort, we're having chips and sandwiches washed down with beers on our balcony. Don't feel too sorry for us; we had a gorgeous sunset viewed right from our table. 

The streets of Papeete look their best in the glow of the early evening sun

Sunset view from our balcony at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti 

There is a strange Chinese ship in port tonight, next to the Paul Gauguin. We've seen a lot of what look to be students from the ship walking along the waterfront. We suspect it's an educational ship of some sort, but are thrown by the many and huge satellites. G wants to knock on their gangway and ask if they can get any TV channels in English. ;-)

Day 76: Papeete

We awoke to a surprise today:  the Holland America cruise ship Statendam sailed into Papeete harbor, right outside our balcony. We knew that we would have a cruise ship in port on Saturday and Sunday (and were quite excited at the prospect of tourists), but the Statendam was a surprise. Once again I had missed checking on the website Cruise Timetables.com for ships just passing through Papeete, as opposed to those initiating cruises here. The Statendam had left San Diego mid-December, visited the Hawaiian Islands and Fanning Island, before stopping at several ports in French Polynesia. It will then have seven sea days back to San Diego.  We have been on the Maasdam before, and the Statendam is very similar. It carries 1250 passengers (vs. 680 on the Pacific Princess), certainly a small cruise ship by today's standards, but- wow- did it look big when docked. It's the largest cruise ship we've seen down here. I can't imagine how huge the Sapphire and Diamond Princess (2500 passengers) looked when we stopped here on our transpacific cruises in 2004 and 2006. 

Holland America Line Statendam

Following breakfast, we walked over to the cruise ship, first to see our security guard friends, and then Harold selling his circle island tour on Papeete and Celine selling Hiro's Tour in Moorea tomorrow; and Julienne selling her circle island tour on Moorea. Two cheek air kisses and several Bonne Années later; we continued on to the bus stop, intending to take a bus to the Le Meridian Resort, then stop at the Intercontinental Tahiti on the way back to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti. Well, we were told the buses weren't running today. We're not sure why, exactly, but many stores and most restaurants were also closed. That put an end to that plan. 

We enjoyed the folkloric show taking place near the visitor center. There was a little guy about 5 or 6 years old who was dancing and he was absolutely darling. He was also a bit of a ham and all the grandparents (and great- and great-great grandparents) off the Statendam were loving that.

G spent some time feeding our old, dry baguettes to the fish near the Statendam, and I was amazed how clear the water was. We could even see coral growing off the seawall there, a shocker in a busy harbor. We left there to walk to Le Marché to purchase some souvenirs, but it was also closed today. Still celebrating the holiday?  We don't know. But it certainly shut down our plans. 

It was only 1pm by then, but was already hot. I was like a horse heading back to the barn, walking toward the Hotel Tiare Tahiti with single-minded determination. We have an established routine when we first walk into our hotel room; first I help G pull his soaking wet t-shirt over his head and then he assists me. We spray them with Fabreeze and throw them over our travel clothesline to dry out a bit. Luckily, they aren't stinky so much as just soggy. 

We made sandwiches and had a small lunch and then spent a couple of hours making up a calendar for the rest of our cruising winter, listing ports and times, and flights we have booked. This is the sort of thing we usually do before we leave home but...well, you know how our plans have changed. G is definitely a visual person and it helps him to have it all written out in one place. Then it was time for another haircut for G (taking advantage of all the space in our bathroom, room and balcony). 

About the time we finished that, we got caught up on a show on TV. It was in French, of course, but it was an Aerial America program about West Virginia. It was so nice to see video from home...well; not home, exactly, but closer than we've been in 76 days. Remember, we have five channels, all of them in French or Tahitian; we're more easily amused these days, I guess. We're also fascinated by the local news (all in Tahitian; it sounds painful) and I love the weather forecasts (méteos). They show the forecast for each of the five island groupings in French Polynesia, and then each island in the grouping as if they were cities. G has said since we arrived here that being a weather forecaster in French Polynesia must be the easier job in the world. Partly sunny with a chance of rain, 88 during the day and 78 at night. That's it, 365 days a year. 

We went back out about 4pm and walked through the waterfront park and then over to where the Statendam was docked and les roulottes were setting up. G had BBQ and I had a spinach and cheese crepe (incredible) and we watched the sunset right from our picnic table. We also had the chance to talk to several Statendam passengers (in English! It felt so good!), except for one couple from Quebec who spoke mostly French but a little English. I was dying trying to keep from laughing. Every port they'd been to- the Hawaiian Islands, Fanning Island, Raiatea and Bora Bora- they hated. And they hated Tahiti too.  Apparently they were concerned that they weren't adequately conveying their displeasure because as the wife listed the names of the islands they'd visited, after each one the man would go "Phhhssssst", like he was blowing a raspberry. This went on and on until we had to take a step back, for fear of getting sprayed, and with each one I was dying a little more, laughing on the inside. "Bora Bora?" G asked. Not even Bora Bora was nice?  No, not any of them. Phhhssssst!!!

Between the absolute disdain and the raspberries, I'm laughing just thinking about it. Coincidentally, Harold had needed two more people to fill his van this morning for a circle island tour, and we briefly considered joining them.  We remembered that this couple had already been lined up to go with him. As they walked away tonight, I looked at G said, "Dodged a bullet on that one". 

It's Friday night and the waterfront was host to a lot of activity, most of it family oriented and there are 100 plus kids on razor scooters and little bicycles. G said it well:  this town is at its best in the evenings, when the heat of the day abates. We returned to our cabin to see the lights of the Statendam right out the door. It sails at 5am tomorrow. No alarm, but maybe I'll hear the horn's signal once again and get to see it sail. 

Day 75: Bonne année en Papeete!

Well, we had no fireworks but we had a huge party that spilled into the streets of downtown Papeete and was still going at 6am today. Not us, of course. We watched the midnight festivities from our balcony and were asleep soon after. But that allowed us to wake up while the revelry was still underway. We had an early breakfast at the hotel and I walked just five minutes or so to Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral (it's another of those holy days of obligation, the Feast of the Holy Family). Once again it ran way long...Latin, French, Tahitian, these people like to pray!

I returned to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti to collect G. We had a mission in mind for this morning.  The sun was quite filtered today, and the real feel temperature only(!) in the mid-90s. We set out to do the Papeete walking tour. We had done parts of it in the past, of course, just by walking around, but wanted to use today, a day with cooler temps and almost no traffic (pedestrian or car) to play the tourist and follow the official map from Tahiti tourism. The initial site was, coincidentally, Notre Dame, which is also the location of the kilometer marker 0. These markers circle the island of Tahiti, and are used for directional information. It's quite handy since there is really only one major road, the perimeter road around the island. 

We walked past the Assembly of French Polynesia and several monuments and statues. It was funny to greet other tourists using the morning to do exactly the same thing, all of us with our maps in hand stopping every so often to read a description. 

The Assembly of French Polynesia

The most attractive area was the tree lined boulevard with the federal buildings, and the presidential palace. Blog readers Rick and Monika had emailed me, suggesting we visit it. Tours are offered Tuesdays and Thursdays; we will try to see the inside of the palace next Tuesday. 

We walked back to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti along the park-like waterfront. We had not known, until we read the walking tour map, that our hotel had originally been the location of the American Consulate, and the building next door used to be the Stuart Hotel, where Henri Matisse stayed when he lived on Tahiti beginning in 1930. He painted Papeete harbor right from his hotel balcony, but, given his artistic style, you'd never know what it was. ;-)

The old Stuart Hotel, right next to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti 

It was 1:30pm by then and we were getting weary. We returned to our room (bliss!) and had some lunch. We're glad we had purchased food yesterday to see us through the holiday; we saw only one cafe open today. We had chips and sandwiches and coconut sorbet, took showers and napped a bit. By the time we woke up, it was after 4pm and the city was cooling off a little. It's become our favorite way to spend our evenings...we cross the street to the long length of waterfront park and join the joggers, walkers, bicyclists; in line skaters and razor scooters. Tonight was particularly active as many family groups with lots of kids were at the park. It's still amazing to me to be somewhere where January 1st is celebrated much the way July 4th is at home, with picnics and BBQs and fun in a park (instead of housebound watching football games while it snows outside). 

Please keep Chikungunya worries in check. People are outside here, all the time. 

Les Roulottes were not set up tonight, so we're having tropical juice mixed with sorbet for dinner. The next two nights should be very active, with roulottes and live music along the waterfront. We are here five more days, and have tentative plans for all of them, now that I'm starting to feel better (am I better or is it just that it was cooler?  I'm not sure...).  Reader Linda emailed that she was bringing more ibuprofen for me (huge thank you for that!) on January 7th. The supply line will be in place right up until the end; in fact, Jill will be driving to the Grand Princess cruise on January 24th and offered to bring supplies, but said she knows that we'll have good (normal) shopping in Hawaii. To think that I was concerned about stretching things to last. We were supposed to be home two weeks ago tomorrow and instead won't be returning until a month from tomorrow. Well, I said at the outset it was time to shake things up a bit, but even I never I imagined how this winter would unfold. 

And thank you to Martha (we miss you!) for sending not only a photo of the Princess float in the Rose Bowl Parade but also a video. We loved seeing it, and. though it was the only float I saw, I can't imagine a prettier one. 

Things I learned today:

A cloudy day in Papeete is 100 times better than a sunny one. 1000 times. It makes the day more tolerable. 

This town is quiet on New Year's Day...at least, until the evening. 

G can happily watch French TV. I'm amazed. He insists he needs the sound on, for the sound effects, even though he doesn't understand a thing. Every so often he repeats, "Mon Dieu"; or "certainment", or "je ne sais pas", then proudly announces he's catching on to this. The funniest thing was when he said yesterday. "Let's go," and I said "On y va!"  I have no idea where that came from, but it was buried in the part of me that is still 15 years old in Soeur Judy's French class. 

Fabreeze is my new BFF.  I've always been a fan, but it is saving us while we're here. 7 t-shirts, 5 pairs of shorts, 10 sweaty days...things I have to re-wear the next day get sprayed with Fabreeze at night and hung up to dry. They're actually tolerable the next day. It's a very good thing. 

Day 74: Papeete

I don't know how many hours I slept from Tuesday to Wednesday morning, but let's just say it was a lot. I am still headache-y; my head feels like it will explode every time I swallow. I was thinking that maybe it was all just due to the heat-AC cycle, but it's possible it's a sinus infection (due to the heat-AC cycle?).  Let's just say I'm not high energy, nor am I a bundle of fun. There is sightseeing we want to do, but I just don't last more than a couple of hours in the heat.

We did leave after breakfast today to walk through Le Marché. On the way there, I was amazed at the number of tables set up all along Pomare Blvd. with ladies making leis and floral crowns.  There are always a couple of these in that area, but today the street was lined with them and the entire area smelled like flowers.  I suspect they were for New Year's Eve celebrations tonight...this city is going to be one big party, and we are most looking forward to that (we're hoping for fireworks over the harbor!). 

There were even more lei/crown tables outside Le Marché, and, while car traffic seemed a little lighter today, foot traffic had picked up. Le Marché was packed, but we followed a line of people to a BBQ stand and brought some back to the room for later in the day. When we returned to the hotel. I went on wifi for a minute to check the temperature; the real feel was 106F!!  No wonder I'm suffering. 

Following our normal routine, we stayed in during this hottest part of the day. I am eating Sudafeds like candy but am having to ration ibuprofen. We have barely enough to get us to Hawaii, so every ache and pain is measured for Vitamin-I worthiness. I actually napped some more this afternoon, but, finally, about 3pm we knew we needed to walk down to Champion Supermarchė to pick up some things for the next day or so.  Luckily, it had clouded over a bit by then and the wind had picked up.  Like grocery stores everywhere on December 31, Champion was packed. G has finally had enough of Le Pain (baguettes) regardless of their low price. Instead we opted to buy sliced bread in bags (imagine!)...for $7 a loaf. We splurged on coconut sorbet; the freezer compartment of our little refrigerator has kept ice cubes frozen for two days, so we felt safe. More Coke, more water...we returned to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti heavily laden but perhaps even good through the weekend. 

Our plan is to walk over to the waterfront about 10pm, just to see what's going on. I suspect the entire roulottes area with be a big party, and that should be fun. I'm not certain we'll stay out until midnight, though. We have a front row seat right on our balcony for the midnight festivities. 

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope to have more to report in the next few days, but need to feel a good bit better before we're willing to travel too far from the hotel.