Life in Tahiti

Promenade along front of marina - palm tree a victim of high

winds, soon upright

Personal yacht delivery!

Lifelike building size mural

Another mural example

Life in Tahiti

May 22 2015

Enough of boat problems! As we sit here working and waiting we have a great view of downtown Papeete. From our cockpit there is the marina walkway, then on the other side of a gate, a promenade walk along the waterfront. Beside that is the main road around the island, then the downtown area. As you can imagine it is not very quiet. It is great to see so many locals and tourists walking, jogging and biking by. We are now right by the marina gate where we can act as host and hostess. The marina has no VHF and has been advertising half price rates now that they are officially open. So it is filling up after having been down to 5 boats. Despite security gates the local kids have discovered a new swimming playground. They jump off the walkway and swim to the docks for after school and weekend entertainment.

Life starts early here. The traffic and buses start at 4:30 am. The large Sun market is also open 4:30 to 8 am. "Stop" signs are only a suggestion.

French Polynesia gets all the French holidays as well as some of their own. This upcoming Mon is the 4th holiday in May. It makes it a challenge when you are waiting to do work.

When you pronounce the local language you sound out all the vowels. So "Ia Orana", hello, is 5 syllables.

There is a real mixture of cultures here. Obviously many are French or Polynesian or both. The French can come for any length of time whereas we can only get a 3 month visa. But we were surprised to see how many Chinese have immigrated here over the years. They run many of the businesses. There are more US boaters and tourists than in the Caribbean. Also many visiting from Australia and NZ. It seems common for Australians to but a boat in France or the med and cruise back towards home. That is one way to avoid the Red Sea.

Everyone has been friendly and you don't see the poverty here as in more isolated spots. Tahiti manages to control most of the money coming in from abroad. Tourists can only arrive in the airport here to check in before taking local flights elsewhere. And the distances are huge. At the museum there was a map of French Polynesia superimposed on North America. It stretches from Canada to Mexico and coast to coast.

Still they must wonder what life is like in the US. Yesterday there was a freighter tied up close to us that was carrying a motor yacht on top. The American owners want to spend a few weeks cruising here so had the boat shipped and it will then be taken home. It took all day yesterday to get it into the water.

A visit to the grocery store reveals different choices in diet. There is almost no pop, chips cookies or crackers. I think what is there is for the tourists. Baguettes are 53 cents so they are in every cart. Lots of pate, cheese and yogurt. There are some awesome canned veggies which is good for us. Also a huge selection of good inexpensive chocolate. Cereal was a surprise. Out of a dozen types 9 will have chocolate pieces. The clerks are wearing dresses of flowered material with flowers in their hair. There are many shops selling just the various fabrics for sewing. Not like Oakville where sewing supply stores are going out of business. The market sells tons of flowers, either as bouquets or head pieces. Many of the buildings in town have huge murals covering one whole side. They are beautifully done. Quite a few look like the Chinese cartoon characters. I wish we had a guide book like the Lonely Planet series. All is in French in the local bookstore.

We are still waiting today to see if we can leave on the weekend or will have to wait until Tues.