Sofitel Maeva Beach Tahiti Papeete

... through the generations of Tahitian people tell of how the falls were formed. The way they are told reminds me of the many Aboriginal stories. Walking the tracks to the falls certainly put the knees to work. Thank you Dr. Gallagher.<br><br><br> <br><br><br><br><br> <br> It was good that Jay was able to take his time with some pictures.<br><br> This was an artificial palm tree ...

... and taking life easy....Tahitian drivers are mental and the worst we have come across in our travels to date. We hired a car and, to put it mildly, it would be safer to play "frogger" on the M6 blind-folded than drive in Tahiti at night time.<br><br><br><br>The island only has one road as the interior is fairly mountainous and still largely covered in forest. Everyone in Tahiti seems to work in Papeete and therefore drove past our small "idyllic ...

... as he was wearing a "Rebel" hat complete with a confederate flag symbol on it! The man was a brown-hued Tahitian and most likely has no idea of the significance of what he was wearing but it tripped me out - how symbols have a way of surviving and losing meaning even....<br><br>By now it was raining pretty hard so we decided to go find an internet cafe - but our attempts to get online failed. A bit discouraged we decide it's food time again! The place: Master Sandwich ...

... diary and also downloading and naming some of the photographs I had taken the previous day. The evenings entertainment was a Latin American comedian and singer, Patricio Rodrigues who entertained us for an hour before we headed off to join in a trivia quiz where groups of 6 people had to work together an identify well known Broadway songs and the shows in which they appeared - although our team did reasonably well we did not win the coveted prize of a Princess baseball cap!

... geysers, champagne pools, starred up in wonder at millions of brightly shining glowworms at Waitomo, seen Kiwi's at a bird park, sampled the "best fish &amp; chips in the World" at Mangonui, so good in fact we made a detour on the way back to sample them again. Michael has dived the "Rainbow Warrior" whilst I caught a very handsome, decent sized snapper in the pouring rain all by myself. And finally a big thank you to Tony &amp; Chez for their hospitality &amp; run of their home ...

... with the assistance of our steward, Justino, from Bombay, India, &amp; we're off &amp; running to the market. Cindy is looking to find Jordy's Tattoo parlor, to make an appointment for when we return from traveling. We find that has changed owners, &amp; artists are in Paris for a showing of their work. So onward we go, shopping all the way.

January 17, Thursday We have been sailing for 14 days and are in the sixth day of travel across the Pacific. In a lot of ways, the days have gone quickly. We spend a little time visiting with friends, a little time with Team Trivia and with games, some time reading and writing, and lots of time roaming the decks-and, of course, eating! The ship's Navigator stopped by our table last night and was very pleased to report that the good weather and calm ...

... I called home while Liz went to check out pearls nearby. Apparently Tahiti is famous for its black pearls; I don't know why I didn't know that. I sort of feel like I should have looked at them more seriously for myself - they're beautiful and look good in silver and actually might work on me - but I just never got into it. I guess it wasn't that important. Maybe someday. It was so great to call home but I only had 20 minutes on my $10 phone card. I'm glad we'll be in New ...