For much of the last week, we shopped. As interesting as that may sound to a few of you out there, it really wasn’t. Everyday, we’d make a list of things and head over to the Carrefour to see if we could find stuff that somewhat matched the items on our list. Some days were a success, others not so much. I’ve read warnings in many other blogs to not over-provision here in Tahiti. As you know by now, it’s expensive and apparently much of the same stuff is available down the road for less. However, it’s pretty difficult to walk around a store the size of Walmart and not think about buying stuff in bulk. Speaking of bulk, there’s no such thing here in Polynesia. If a box of wine (yes, we drink the good stuff) costs 650 cfp by itself, a case of twelve costs 650 times 12. Same goes for beer and anything else you can find in cases. So anyways, we’re walking around trying to only provision for the next 45-50 days and all we can say is, “damn, we love these pretzels…they probably won’t have these pretzels on _____ island. We should buy at least 7 or 8 boxes.” So twelve go in the cart and we’re right back to “over-provisioning.” Oh well.
We met a kid on the docks the other day. He was a little scraggly looking but nice so we stopped by to talk with him. Turns out, he’s from Austin, TX and has been living in South America for three years. He jumped on board a sailboat in Colombia hoping to get all the way to Thailand but his owner is slow and out of money. They’re behind schedule and now he’s low on cash and headed home to work. He worked for one year in the oil/gas industry and made enough money to bum around S. America. Now he’s become a true bum. When he started telling us how about the food and leftover bottles of wine he finds in the dump behind the Pink Coconut, Margie’s eyes glazed over and we dipped out of the conversation. So many interesting characters out here.
Speaking of the Pink Coconut, we had an excellent meal there last week with Mark and Sherri who we randomly met at happy hour. Marge heard them talking English and saw they looked a little lost so she invited them over to join us. They were from Long Island, NY and it turns out Mark surprised Sherri with a trip to French Poly for her birthday. They were flying out the next morning after a week in Bora Bora and Tahaa. Marge invited them to join us and in return they took us to dinner! Now that’s hospitality! Thanks guys…you’d better stay in touch!
Monday, we had dinner on Honeymoon with Seth and Elizabeth and another guy named Tuomo who works on one of the mega yachts docked at Marina Taina. They met him in the Galapagos where he works with a yacht agency. Elizabeth made an outstanding….and very healthy….lasagna and Marge fell further in love with catamarans. Seth’s parents fly in today and we’ll see them again this weekend in Moorea.
We’d planned on leaving Tahiti today but Pascal hasn’t brought down the little Honda generator. He wasn’t able to fix it without ordering in some parts and we aren’t waiting! We’re stoked to cast off from Tahiti tomorrow. All together we’ve spent over 3 months on or around this island. It’s enough time to realize Tahiti IS NOT Papeete. There’s a whole other side of this island most cruisers don’t see. If you get the chance, I highly recommend a visit to the south side. It will change your entire outlook on the place. We will truly miss our friends Lydiane and Youri and all their friends and family we were introduced to. I’m still upset we never made it back to the Marquesas to visit Fara, Paru, Moana, Tino, and the rest of the Bruno tribe. I guess that means we’ll have to go back through there one day…right Marge? So long Tahiti. Thanks for the experience.
