THREE DAYS BEHIND

PAPEETE, BORA BORA, PAPEETE!!!  The last three days have been a whirlwind for me.  No Sea days AND several tours AND very spotty internet service which nearly made blogging impossible so I quit trying!  I also had a book to read.  More about that in tomorrow’s blog post!

Arrived in Papeete, Tahiti.  Beautiful!

But first I want to share our experiences in Papeete, Bora Bora and Papeete!  Yes, I did repeat Papeete!  We headed there first because of a medical emergency.  Kudos to Viking for getting our patient there safely and on a timely basis.  The ambulance showed up very soon after docking and we watched as the gentleman was put on the ambulance and his wife escorted to a separate vehicle.  Then they both headed out to the hospital.  Praying that he makes a full recovery.

Because this was an emergency stop with zero pre-planning, Viking did their best to provide some kind of activity for us.  There was an “excursion” to a nearby museum!  It was actually fine because we were able to see a part of the island and learn some of the island’s history.  We started with a bus tour en route to the museum.

 

Below are some photos of the museum and of Gary, our tour guide.  He is originally from California but has lived in Tahiti for 30 years, so knows quite a bit it about the island.

The museum featured artifacts, carvings, tools, tapestries, etc. from the Polynesians in their early lives on the island.  The native islanders became very proficient with their modest tools.  

We were told that the current islanders are proficient with their up to date tools and can maintain their current lifestyle with only 6 hours of work a week.  Hmmmm…… something to ponder……

Following our museum tour, we elected to spend some quiet time reading until dinner.  We ate at the Captain’s Table Restaurant with our new friends Geoff and Alison.  We enjoyed it very much!  Tonight the menu was Asian cuisine and was so good!  Small but exquisite portions are served at The Chef’s Table.

 We had scallops for starters followed by melt in your mouth beef tenderloin.  Good dessert and great wine served with each course.  Geoff and Alison are a fun couple and we had a great time!

Up early the next morning (Sunday, January 19) as we arrived in Bora Bora.

 Then off to a morning excursion which was a glass bottom boat!  This was so fun.  We arrived by tender and received a warm greeting before getting into our boat!

We really had a nice view of all the colorful fish and coral from the glass in the boat.  Photos didn’t turn out very well though.  We not only saw beautiful fish that were very bright colors but also stingrays and sharks!  At one point we counted five sharks on the side of the boat!  Following are photos of the sharks and coral as viewed from the glass in the boat. 

The sea was just beautiful!  I especially liked the purple sky folding into the teal and dark blue colors of the ocean.

We were serenaded by the tour guide and captain of the boat.  They sang “island music”!

Also admired the tiki huts on stilts along the shoreline.  These are vacation rentals.

After our wonderful 2 hour boat ride we walked around town for a bit.  Honestly, there was not much to see. Stopped in a grocery store to see what types of food was for sale there and also to pick up a couple postcards.  The bread must have just arrived because we noticed people carrying out French loaves by the dozen!  We also were amazed at the number of chickens and dogs wandering around the town on our walk.  The following photo is the police station.  Pretty typical of the buildings and atmosphere of Bora Bora downtown.

Back to the ship and watched as we left port and headed out to sea for the night. Bye Bye Bora Bora!

Back to Papeete!  Arrived there early the next morning (Monday, January 20) and this time our excursion was a walking tour.  Harbor was pretty.  Here is the view from our balcony:

We met our guide and he showed us some city sights.  On the way we passed chickens on the busy street!

We spent a lot of time at the City Market.  It is a large, mostly one story structure with booths on the main level and shops on the upper perimeter.  The vendors had a vast array of beautiful fruits and vegetables, meats, flowers, spices, flowers, jewelry and woven items.

We left the market and walked through the downtown past many shops and restaurants.  For such a small town, I felt that it was very busy.  We were the only cruise ship at the port, so most of the people in the town were locals.  It was a Monday, so typical workday.  We passed by several fabric shops in a row on our way to City Hall. I loved all the colors and patterns!

We stopped at Papeete’s City Hall.  It is a very pretty building and is a replica of the former Royal Palace.  Inside the lobby area is a large wall mural that depicts Polynesian life.  There is also a wedding chapel and lovely enclosed garden in the back courtyard.

It seems like almost every city has a church honoring “Our Lady”.  Here is a church called Notre Dame.

We finished the tour and stopped back at the market to buy some flowers on our way back to the ship.  Here is a photo of Mark with the flowers by a big Banyan tree.  Trees and flowers seem to be everywhere and are just lovely!

We have our Notre Dame shirts on!  It is Championship Game Day!  We headed back to the ship to try to watch the game.  No Luck!  Wasn’t televised here and we couldn’t stream it, so we just occasionally checked the score.  Not happy with the outcome.  Oh well, there’s always next year!

Our Pilot boat arrived and guided us out of the harbor and on to our next destination.

Good Bye Papeete- AGAIN!