Paradise!

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Day One:

We began our trip to paradise when we arrived in Papeete, Tahiti, at 4:30 AM. We spent a long time waiting in lines to clear customs. While waiting, though, we saw a crab walking around the airport floor. How funny!

From the airport in Tahiti, we had to take a 10 minute plane ride to the island of Moorea. I knew we were going to have a wonderful trip because as we were boarding the little propeller plane, we saw a huge rainbow in the sky! 😊

We arrived at our hotel, the Intercontinental Beachcomber, about 8 AM....however, our room would not be ready till 2 PM. They gave us some delicious fruit juice and a transit room, where we showered and felt human again. Then, we lounged in the lobby; I slept while Bryan read. I would have liked to read but my eyes just would not stay open.

Luckily, our room was ready by 11:30. So, we grabbed our bags, checked out our room and promptly took a nap! Afterward, we ate some lunch and walked around the beautiful hotel property. We also snorkeled right off the beach in front of our bungalow. We only saw a few fish, not too exciting.

After snorkeling, we ate dinner in the hotel's restaurant. Bryan had chicken and I had roasted duck. Both were good. After dinner, we were still both exhausted, so we went to bed for the night....at 9 PM!

Day Two:

We woke up in time to see the gorgeous sunrise. Then, we walked in search of a store on the island that we had read about--it supposedly had chocolate croissants that were to die for. We did find it, 45 minutes into our walk. It was in Le Petit Village, about a mile from our hotel. In addition to the croissants, we bought some apple pastries and a fresh baguette too. On the walk back to our hotel, I could not resist and ate pretty much the entire baguette. Freshly baked bread is so good! We did save the pastries till we got back to our room--they were, in fact, to die for! 😊

I am glad we went for the walk because we got to see how the locals live. Some interesting things we encountered:

• We heard roosters crowing....they actually said "cock a doodle doo!" It was very cool. (Then, we found out that the roosters do this all day long. By 4 PM, it was not as neat.)

• There were chickens everywhere!

• There were many dogs who just wandered all over the island. We even saw one look both ways before crossing the street!


After breakfast, we rented a tiny yellow Fiat Panda for the day. It was a great idea because we got to see the entire island in one day. It took about 2 hours to drive the island. We stopped in various gorgeous places to take pictures. Everywhere you looked, the scenery was postcard perfect!

Once we had the lay of the land, we went back to our hotel and changed into swim suits for snorkeling later in the day. We got back in the car and hunted down the Chicken Man's van. Basically, this guy sells super yummy chicken sandwiches out of his van. He travels all over the island and sets up shop somewhere new each day during lunch. We had rotisserie chicken and rosemary potatoes on a fresh baguette. Mmmmm....and we topped it off with a banana milkshake.

Next, we drove to a spot called the Belvedere. It is a lookout place high in the mountains. We took tons of pictures overlooking Cook Bay and Oponohu Bay. We also stopped at the ancient maere archaeological site. Thousands of years ago, the civilization built temples by stacking stones. It was neat to see.

The agent at the rental car place gave us a map of the island. She showed us where the Belvedere was on the map and explained that there were 2 roads to get to it. One road was the "good" road that we were supposed to use. The other road she crossed out because in a rental car it would be too rocky and potentially dangerous to navigate. What road did Bryan decide to take down the mountain.....yep, the dangerous one!

We got safely down the mountain. However, while Bryan had a giant grin on his face the whole way, it was a terrifying experience! Next, we drove to the Sofitel Ia Ora for what we heard was the island's best snorkeling. The hotel was much like the one we were staying in, and the snorkeling was okay. We saw some cool fish and some coral, but it was not that impressive.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped and got some Hinanos (local beer) and some pineapple juice to go with the rum I brought from home. We got back to our hotel just in time to enjoy an amazing sunset, while drinking beer. 😊

For dinner, we left the hotel and headed to Les Timpaniers for Italian food. I had shrimp in a coconut ginger sauce and Bryan had a steak. The meal was great and so was the dessert that followed--vanilla ice cream filled pastries drizzled in chocolate sauce.

What a great day we had!

Day Three:

Another early morning. We got up at 6:30 and drove to the same pastry store for breakfast. We tried different flavors today, but did get another baguette. We also stopped to gas up the rental car--$12 for a fourth tank of gas....quite expensive for such a tiny car!

We were back to our hotel in time to get ready for our 4 x 4 island tour excursion at 8:45. Our tour guide kept us laughing and told us all kinds of facts about Moorea as we drove around. The first place we stopped was at the Belvedere again. So, Bryan and I took more pictures there. 😊

The driver also took the "bad" road down the mountain, but it was not nearly as scary in a 4 x 4! On the way down, we stopped at a few places. First was a farming school. Our guide showed us how they pollinate vanilla flowers. We also got to see vanilla beans growing. It takes 3 YEARS! to make vanilla beans. We also sampled some local jams there. They were delicious.

Next, we stopped at some beautiful pineapple fields. Our guide picked a pineapple and sliced it for all of us to taste. These pineapples are originally from the Philippines, while the ones in the States are from Hawaii. The Philippines' pineapples are so much sweeter and juicier!

We got safely down the mountain again and headed to the "fruit juice distillery." Basically, a place where they made rum. We sampled at least 8 different flavors of rum--my favorites were Tahiti Drink (rum and pineapple juice) and vanilla rum. The Ginger rum was horrible. After eight shots, I had to switch to Coke.

They like to get the tourists drunk before going on the next part of the trip--a ride up to Magic Mountain, another lookout point. However, there is not really a road that goes up the mountain. It is essentially just a gravel and dirt trail with no guard rails! It was incredibly bumpy and we were maybe 2 feet from the edge of the cliffs. But we just kept climbing higher and higher at a rapid pace, nonetheless. I was terrified and kept my eyes averted from the scenery while holding on for dear life. (not to mention the dizziness and headache from all the rum....) Bryan, on the other hand, had a silly grin on his face the whole time and just kept giggling while snapping pictures.

When the truck stopped, we had to hike up a trail to the highest point of the mountain. My fear of heights kicked in (just like at Chichen Itza). Bryan loved it! He went right up to the edge of the mountain and took picture after picture. At least there was a guard rail here----a thin piece of rope about a foot off the ground. A lot of good that would do! I stayed a nice safe distance from the edge and was happy we were only there for about 10 minutes.

Just as we got back to the truck for our descent down the mountain, it started to rain. So, our driver was driving down a non-existent road, in the pouring rain and he was talking on his cell phone!!! I was quite nervous, but we did make it to our hotel safely.

While I was feeling nauseous, Bryan was starving. So, we ate lunch at the hotel restaurant. I munched on bread while Bryan had a steak sandwich. After lunch, much to Bryan's dismay, I slept off my alcoholic stupor with a four hour nap! I got up feeling much better, but Bryan was disappointed we did not get to go snorkeling or kayaking.

For dinner, we went to Alfredo's. It was nice and even had some live music. Dinner was excellent, as were the fruity drinks we ordered. (I had filet mignon and Bryan had lasagna) When we got back to our room, we had laundry to do. Then, we fell asleep, ready for our last day in Moorea.

Day

Four:

Our last day in Moorea was quite a lazy one--we slept in till 8:30 and then ordered room service. $27 for juice, coffee, pastries, yogurt and fruit. Oh well...

We lounged around our room reading, until Bryan left for his first scuba diving excursion in Tahiti. I relaxed while he was out diving. In the afternoon, we snorkeled again at the hotel, then walked over to the Dolphin Center to watch the playful creatures.

Then, we had the Black Pearl Gem Company come pick us up so we could shop at their store. Bryan made an impulse buy--a pair of black pearl earrings for me! 😊 They are beautiful!

For dinner, we were excited to have a pizza delivered to our room. We had our order ready and called, only to find out that the restaurant did not deliver to our hotel. Instead, we had Les Timpaniers pick us up and we ate there again. We ordered tropical drinks and we each got a pizza. The pizza was one of our best meals in Moorea! We finished our meal with some real Tahitian vanilla ice cream. So good!

That night, we packed and got ready for our next stop, Bora Bora!

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