Coco and I was at Maupiti Express (the boat) promptly 30 min prior to
sailing off, which was a good thing as we had to figure out where to
buy the tickets for both of us before handing over the luggage and get
on board.
Dogs are only allowed on the top, which suite me fine as I rather
breath fresh air, but the stairs up are kind of steep. But with a push
in the butt from the captain himself, Coco made it up! As we sailed
away Coco thought it was very exciting with the wind in his face.
Coco behaved like he was borne on a boat, and had quickly charmed most
of the people on the top. He was even photographed by one girl! When we
came out of the pass and the sea was a little bit more wavy he crawled
up next to me on the seat and laid down on me!
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| Bora Bora as we left |
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| Coco on the boat |
In Raiatea, they really do have roads with lines on them, and also a few
roundabouts! We arrived in Uturoa, the main town on the island, which
is the administrative center for the Leeward Islands. Busy, busy!
Still very small, but at least nice. No dirt parking lot here! We talk
about cobble stone and "real" restaurants (ok, a Chinese restaurant!) ,
a few shops and the nicest
grocery store I have seen in 1 year! I'm telling you, live in Bora
Bora and suddenly small things become very exciting!
The house my friends are renting has a big, fenced in yard so Coco
felt right at home. Plenty of crabs to play with and making sure the
neighbors knew there was a new sheriff in town, and Coco kept busy.
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| Raiatea "Town" with cobble stone! |
First day, when I arrived, Elodie had her Tahitian dance class.
Elodie, 3 years old, was a little bit more interested in the big mirrors
on the wall during the "shake the hips" exercise,
but seemed to enjoy the arm exercise better!
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| Elodie mastering the Tahitian dance! |
The following day after the kids had been dropped off at school,
me and Isabelle decided to climb Tapioi. It's a whopping 294 meters (964 feet!)!
Took us less than an hour to get up, and what a great view from the top!
You could see Tahaa which is another island sharing the lagoon with Raiatea and also
Bora Bora in the distance! We took a long nice break up on the top to enjoy the view.
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| Ready to hike Tapioi |
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| I made it to the top! |
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| View from the top. Tahaa is across from Raiatea and way in a distance you can see Bora |
On Friday our men came from Bora (Daniel and Olivier)! We all
(with the exception of Coco) greeted them at the boat.
Back at the house the evening included dinner and relaxation!
On Saturday we were up early (as usual), got breakfast and then
we headed out to Taputapustea Marae, which is ancient religious site which
is believed to be the religious center of Eastern Polynesia for about 1000 years ago.
Sacrifices were made, mostly animals as pigs, but now and then
even a human was offered!
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| Taputapustea Marae |
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| They even sacrificed humans here! |
Saturday afternoon Daniel and I decided to head in to town to check it out,
but as we arrived we realized everything was closed!
We had lunch at a snack place across from the water, managed to
find 1 souvenir shop open before we entered the GROCERY STORE!
Everything looked so fresh!
We headed back to the house, played a very fun board game,
had dinner and then a round of ping pong, on a slight curved table!
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| Ping Pong on a different level! |
A lot of cooking and eating, and Sunday evening it was time to
head back to Bora Bora. Coco, again, behaved as a star on the trip back.
This time it was dark and when we turned in through the pass to Bora,
the rain came and the three of us was taking cover in the front of the boat
(remember, we still had to be upstairs/outside!) I think all of us had a good
vacation, but it's always nice to get home and crawl back down in your own bed!
Cheers my friends!
Camilla
