Saturday, April 02, 2005

 

French Polyne$ia

The last four days we've been on the island of Tahiti. While Ray was making all the bookings for the vacation, an actual person on the phone, not just a website, assured him that yes the Europcar rental counter at the airport is definitely open 24 hours a day for our flight which arrived at 1:30 AM. Of course, when we got there it had closed at 1 AM and we had to take a $50 taxi 15 km to our hotel. The next morning they did send someone to get me and take me to the airport, but still.

Pension Te Miti is a very sweet little place with backpackers and Swiss surfers and owners and customers that don't mind being woken up by dogs barking at 2 AM at other arriving customers. If you're ever in Paea, stay there.

We rented a Suzuki "Jimmy" 4 wheel drive jeep and drove up the Papenoo river valley to Relais de la Maroto, which was originally built to house workers making the hydroelectric projects up and down the valley. It was converted to a hotel at some point, and its wine cellar has 3000 bottles of 320 different wines. (Our old Lonely Planet said it had 6000 bottles, so maybe they're winding down.) When we got there they guy asked us if we wanted a drink, and I said, "No, we have reservations." He then showed us to the "suite", two large rooms with huge picture windows over the valley, and a hot tub. He didn't ask our name -- we were the ones with reservations. It was a little like The Shining, driving up a long way to an apparently abandoned hotel in the mountains. That night we had raclette in the wine cellar with another couple who was apparently spending the night as well, a local from France with a Tahitian woman he introduced as his "vahine". She didn't seem to like the wine or raclette, and adjourned up to the bar. We swapped tastes of wine, and the maitre d' opened an additional bottle for us to check out.

The next morning we saw a small truck with his company name on it perched off the side of the road. A little while later we saw him in another jeep. He gave us some story of what happened but from what we pieced together it actually seems like he went up there with his employee's wife; the employee followed him up there the next morning, punched him in the face, and trashed his truck. We didn't catch up with him later in Papara, so we'll never know for sure.

Romantic intrigue aside, the relais is in the central volcanic caldera of the island, and the rainforest-clad mountain sides are stunning. There are waterfalls almost everywhere you look, and the landscape is constantly changing as the clouds drift past, casting sun and rain on different parts of it. There are also some archaeological sites where Tahitians lived, some of which are somewhat restored. We took a couple small walks to look at them and to admire the scenery and take pictures of the various plants. And the 4 wheel drive definitely came in handy.

Now we're back in Papeete, and our luggage is checked onto the Paul Gauguin for our cruise. We're in a little Internet Cafe spending our last few French Polynesian CFPs, it being about the last chance to use the Internet until we get back from the cruise in two weeks. Hopefully we'll send occasional dispatches from the boat.


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