No Photoshop Needed

We have been in French Polynesia for 4 days now and it’s like living in a postcard. We landed in Papeete, Tahiti and took a ferry over to the island of  Moorea. On Moorea we stayed in a small bungalow near the beach. The island of Moorea is so close to Tahiti that it is almost like a suburb of Papeete with many of the locals commuting there to work. Moorea has some wonderful white sand beaches and exquisitely blue water so we spent most of our time on the beach getting cooked lobster red. It probably wasn’t smart for two people coming from an Oregon winter to spend that much time in the sun, but it was hard to resist. C’est la vie. We went into a black pearl shop on Moorea and were discussing our occupation with the guy that runs the shop and he told us that French Polynesia has a real need for good accountants. We probably should learn some French and how to triple our billing rate.

After two days on Moorea, a 30 minute flight took us to Huahine where we are now. We are staying at a bed and breakfast run by Juanito, a local, who is extremely accommodating and charismatic. It’s a little bit of a walk to the beach, but I think we’ll live. Huahine has far fewer tourists (and locals) and is even more relaxed than Moorea. The locals on Huahine all wave and say hi which is definitely a nice change from Moorea where it was more like we were tolerated. Huahine is a gorgeous island with a wonderful lagoon, but the beaches we have seen aren’t the most comfortable as they are made of large chunks of coral.

It’s funny how even though two places are totally different you can always find similarities. It’s the rainy season here so there have been several downpours and the fresh smell after the rain reminds me of Oregon. There is a slight floral scent in the air here that reminds me that I am somewhere else. The amount of green also provides a certain familiarity even though the plants are new to me. When we took a drive around the island today we saw lots of road kill and were constantly dodging small animals in the road, but instead of chipmunks and squirrels it was crabs.