On Tuesday, we bade a very fond and reluctant “adieu” to French Polynesia. Probably not to your surprise, we found French Polynesia most similar to Hawaii, but with a quieter lifestyle, no Walmarts and supermarkets, and with the French language. We had spent a week visiting five of the beautiful islands, from Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands to Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, and Raiatea, all in the Society Islands. After departing Tahiti and Moorea which were quite close to each other, we arrived in Bora Bora with its coral reef and striking coastline. We anchored in the caldera of a long extinct volcano. Since we were there for two days and had the good fortune to have the better “view” from our side of the ship, we enjoyed looking at the mountain which dropped to the water.
The first morning we took another off the beaten path tour in a four wheel drive vehicle. We have found that, while bumpy, we see things other don’t have the opportunity to see and much of the scenery is breathtaking. We have done four of these types of excursions in the last couple years and this was the roughest driving by far! We drove over huge rocks and through some muddy ruts but the confident driver assured us that he had done this for years and was the company’s mechanic in case of any difficulty. He guided us successfully on three trips off the main road and we would not have missed the views. The first took us to the site of a World War II bunker and some guns to protect the harbor.
Those who know World War II history may know that Bora Bora was used as a strategic site in the Pacific defense because the reef and lagoon made it easier to protect and guns could be located on top of the mountains to oversee the area. It didn’t have battles fought there but was significant in the Pacific theater of the war. Our guide told us that before the war, there was a population on the island of about 900 people (today about 9,000) and that the approximately 5,000 American servicemen did much more than the French had done to advance Bora Bora. Admittedly it was in the US self interest, but Bora Bora became the first island in French Polynesia to receive electricity when the Americans came. While the mystical Bali Hai from the musical, South Pacific, was a mountain in Moorea, the setting of the musical was Bora Bora itself.
After a return to the main road, we were given a demonstration at a pearl farm which showed how pearls were cultivated from the oysters. We then took another off the road adventure for a spectacular, nearly 270º view of the lagoon and its blue, blue waters. A number of exclusive hotels have been built bungalows as the rooms which extended over the water.
On our second day, we took a tamer bus ride along the coast where we saw a bit more of how the working people lived. There was surprisingly little overlap between our two shore excursions but the beauty was so great, if there had been overlap, we wouldn’t have minded. Again, the coastal views were picturesque and the photo stops were literally post card quality. On this excursion, we had a chance to stop at a place that made the pareos (called sarongs in other areas) and we could see how they were made. We made a stop at the most famous restaurant on Bora Bora, Bloody Mary’s, which is named for the character in South Pacific. We both bought tee shirts to commemorate our visits, but I paid about $37 for mine. I can’t believe I spent that kind of money for just a tee shirt. I made the tourist mistake of not thinking about the dollar value of an item that cost 3,400 French Polynesian francs!
Our final Polynesian destination was the lesser known island of Raiatea. It’s not that far from Bora Bora and in fact has the best hospital on the two islands. We were told that when a woman from Bora Bora is 8 months pregnant, she is sent to that hospital to deliver her baby. High school students from Bora Bora go to Raiatea for school, spending their week in dorms and returning home to Bora Bora on the weekends. Here we again did a four wheel drive off the road tour. We saw some tropical fruit plantations, including papaya, lime, coconut, and grapefruit. The roads were lined with flowers and flowering trees of all colors and hues. A stop at a vanilla plantation showed us how the vanilla beans are harvested, dried, and separated by quality. Women who wanted to buy some inexpensive vanilla to take home were disappointed with the very high price (far higher than people have paid in Mexico). Our final stop was at a Maori religious site. Raiatea is considered to be the “sacred island” for their religion. Raiatea was the first destination where we experienced cloudy skies, and after we returned from our excursion, some rainy weather.
Today has been mostly cloudy with some rain and definitely rocky seas! Tomorrow we visit Cook Islands and Saturday our destination will be American Samoa. Having taught the circumstances of how the US acquired Samoa in the late 19th century, I will be interested in seeing how geography played a role for the US in Samoa. Since their currency is US dollars, there's no chance of $37 tee shirts!
Chuck
No comments:
Post a Comment