Sunday, April 17, 2005

 

Waved Through Customs

We're in LA, our 2:15 AM to 2:00 PM flight having left 15 minutes early and arrived 45 minutes early -- Immigration and Customs were super-fast, and we were actually on the curb ready to be picked up at the time the plane was scheduled to arrive.

The security in the Papeete airport had been much stupider -- maybe they're mad at the US for all its stupid restrictions and so now they get back at them by making everyone go through the metal detector twice, once before checking luggage, and again on the way to the gate. (I don't know if Brazil ever similarly followed through with their stated intention to fingerprint and photograph only US citizens when they come to visit.) Fortunately the Papeete security didn't insist on unwrapping the Marquesan spear we bought, and I successfully avoided mentioning that the hotel packed it for us (instead of us doing it ourselves). The airport is stupid just generally -- the only air-conditioned area is the rental car office, so we hung out there for two of the four hours we waited for our flight.

The last three days were our first snorkeling opportunities since the cruise began. Thursday we were on the atoll of Fakareva, in the Tuamotu group. It's basically a rectangular coral reef with a lagoon in the middle.

Friday we were on Moorea, and we went on an Underwater Walk. This basically consisted of walking down a ladder off a boat, and putting our head in a weighted helmet with air coming in the top. The air pressure kept the water from filling up the helmet (except when this one large lady fell over backwards) so we could basically breathe normally underwater (we had to pop our ears every foot of depth or so). The instructor had made friends with a barracuda, a moray eel, and several sting rays (by feeding them every day, of course). It was interesting to feel the rough upper surface and velvety lower service of the sting rays, but they were pretty attention-demanding and were constantly swimming between us and the other fish we might have been trying to watch. It had the feel of a petting zoo. The barracuda had some cute blue-green fish cleaning its gills; the instructor pointed out that sometimes he lets them clean his teeth, without eating them. On Moorea we also had a nice conversation with a Dutch painter who's lived there 40 years, and who'd sent a guy a few paintings and gotten nine crates of New Guinea artifacts in return, many of which were on display, some for sale. At another hotel, we were happy to notice that a spear half the size of the one we bought at Hiva Oa was three times the price on Moorea.

Saturday they kicked us off the ship in the morning. We rented a car, and explored the Tahiti Museum (which explained how atolls are formed: a volcano rises up, then collapses over a long time, and leaves an outline in coral of its original size). The friendly owner of Pension Te Miti where we'd stayed two weeks earlier pointed out a beach where for $3 we could park, and swim and snorkel. It was Saturday, and hundreds of locals had descended on this beach -- particularly cute were some kids taking their puppies in the water, and several women swimming topless in the typical French manner. You could stand up in the water 50 meters offshore, and just beyond there were some little reefs with several pretty fish we hadn't yet seen. The evening was spent at the stupidly expensive Beachcomber hotel that had bad service and an uninspired buffet they wanted $90 for -- snorkeling had been a vastly better deal.

This pointed out the variety of experiences you can have at $500 a night. For each thing that was annoying about this hotel (where we were only eating, not staying), there was an aspect of the cruise that was extremely pleasant. The ship and the crew were all very nice -- besides the superb packing job, everyone was very helpful and positive all the time (the entertainment was perhaps a little too sparky, but we just ignored it). The itinerary of this particular cruise was great -- besides Pitcairn and an eclipse, there were visits to remote parts of French Polynesia, not just the tourist traps of the Society Islands. The archeologist on board not only tied together all the cruise stops, but also made aspects of our visits to Fiji, New Zealand, and Rarotonga make more sense. And we learned that this was the last trip on the Gauguin for Captain Gilles Bossard, who has led it since it was built in 1997, so he was happy to be able to end up with a special itinerary.

Now we'll have some cheap Chinese food, hopefully a good night's sleep, and tomorrow I'll get to drive my own car to my own house. And stay there for awhile.


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