Raiatea

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We docked this morning (Wednesday) at Raiatea, the first of the French Polyneasian islands we'll visit. Tomorrow is a stop at Bora Bora (think "South Pacific") where we will stay overnight at one of their famous resorts with thatch roofed huts over the water where the room service breakfast arrives on a canoe. This is something we heard about last year when we were here, and we wanted to try it out this time.

These little islands are fabulously beautiful, each one surrounded by coral reefs so ugly things like tsunamis can't get through. The French own these islands, and they treat the native Polynesian a bit like the US used to treat its native Americans,except the handcuffs are more golden. A lot of free stuff and heavily subsidised housing. Unlike most tropical islands, tourism is not heavily promoted and a limited number of cruise ships stop here. The European population is quite small and the American presence even smaller, though Americans are well remembered from WW2 bases here. French and Polynesian are spoken, along with the ubiquitous English in tourist shops around the dock. The dock by the way is lovely, with an exquisite stone pave plaza and polyneasian style pavilions. We were told this is a holdover from Club Med, which had a major presence here on Raiatea before it went belly up.

Dick has some pictures from the last few day - not sure what - which he'll post soon as he wakes from his nap. Mary

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