Here we are! Day 7 in Tahiti is about to be retold. Every time I look at my pictures from the paradise of the South Pacific Ocean, I can’t help but be thankful for how blessed I was to explore this side of the world and take it all in. Not everyone can/wants to travel, particularly 6000 miles away from home, so it causes me to appreciate my adventurous nature and what I encounter along the way.
My Day 6 in Tahiti was composed of going to the church, driving around the island, discovering the most beautiful waterfall I’ve ever seen, and connecting with people from all over the world with different opinions, ideals, and backgrounds. Day 7 would be my last full day in Tahiti so I had a few more things to do before I began preparing myself for the transition back home. If you read the blog post of DAY 1, you may have recalled a part in the post where I was on my way to Tahiti from San Francisco and was talking with another Tahitian named Alfred. Now Alfred informed me about the Papeete Market which was a huge market area where a little bit of everything was sold from food, clothing, souvenirs, and other Tahitian items. He specifically told me about how Monday is the day in which most of the deals are initiated. I had made note of that because Day 7 was Monday, and I wanted to make sure I checked out the Papeete Market.
I awoke that day early in the morning but not as early as before. Perhaps my body was finally adapted to the place I called home for that week. No more jet lag. And even better yet, my pink eye was finally cleared up. Praise God! I was finally 100% for the time since Thursday. That morning around 10 am I walked over to the Papeete Market, which was only 1 block over from my hostel, to see what they had that I could take home for souvenirs to my loved ones. It was somewhat of a cloudy morning which provided a cooler difference in temperature from the very hot and humid sunny days that I had grown accustomed to. I went over to the market which was very vast, filled with many booths and spaces of merchants selling their products. I walked around to look at things that caught my eye for souvenirs that. The merchants were very friendly. In fact, I can remember ordering an item from one of them, and then they gave me an extra added item to take home.
I left the market and proceeded to walk over to a couple of other shops in Papeete. I was walking down the sidewalk of Rue de l'École des Frères de Ploërmel which is the main street going through the city when I stumble upon a performance by several men with guitars and ukuleles. They performed so well as you can see in the video that I had to slip them a few francs. I stopped at the other stores around the area and then went back to my hostel. Of course, being it was my last day, I had to help myself remember where I stayed by taking pictures of the hostel, specifically my room, the sayings on the walls and the flags.
The early afternoon had arrived. The skies finally cleared up and I decided to take a walk to the beach where it all began. I arrived at the beach to land in the Tahiti signature black sand, bake my skin a little more, jog along the shoreline a little and enjoy the water with my snorkeling mask on. I mean, again, I found myself in awe that I got to experience the paradise so far away. God was good to me and I gave thanks for it all. Then I saw some clouds coming in, headed for Papeete so I knew it was time to go back to the hostel. Low and behold at the halfway point of my over a mile and three quarters walk back, it started to rain. I placed my towel over my head so my clothes and belongs in my snorkeling mask bag wouldn’t get wet. I arrived at my hostel and relaxed a little longer before it was time for me to eat dinner.
Before I ate, I wanted to get some more pictures of the unreal sunset over the bay from the Place Vai’ete across from my hostel. The rain and clouds had cleared out and the scene was set for some really good images of the glory of nature. I arrived by the bay around 5 pm, waited for a few minutes before Evelina walked up to me. She was the American girl from DC who arrived at the Mahana Hostel the day before. She asked “Waiting for the sunset?”. “Yes”, I replied. We began to talk some more as we both waited for the sunset to arrive. It turns out she hated Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins (no surprise that it came from someone from Washington DC and yes she is a Capitals fan, and a Detroit Red Wings fan). She expressed her comparison between Tahiti and Hawaii, how similar they were, minus the language difference. We had talked for some before the sunset finally arrived and I don’t need to say much more about those, as you see in the pictures below.
So then we decided to walk around the park and see all the different food trucks. She said she was going to the get Crepes at the one food truck which I agreed to get some with her as well because hey, who doesn’t love Crepes. We ordered our selections and let me tell you, they were soooo good (mine at least!). The kind I got had cocoa beans and banana’s in the middle with the French whipped creme on top as you see. It was so filling and satisfying. After we were done, we began walking back to the Mahana when she asked if I could walk with her to the grocery store nearby, which of course I agreed to. I wanted to get a couple of items for myself as well for lunch tomorrow, but also remember that Papeete is like any city where a girl/woman wouldn’t want to walk by herself, especially in areas she’s not familiar with at night. So I found a store a couple of blocks away from the hostel, picked out our items and walked back. We went back into the dining room on the top floor, sat and talked with the other people there.
A guy named Fred had arrived, so I decided to strike up conversation with him. He explained to me that he was from Switzerland, originally from France and he had moved to Tetiaroa recently. Tetiaroa is another atoll 2 hours boating distance from Tahiti. The unique thing about the atoll was it contained “The Brando” luxury resort which is located on a private island legendary actor Marlon Brando had purchased from the time he fell in love with Tahiti during the filming of “Mutiny On The Bounty” where he also met one of his wives who was a local Tahitian. And Fred was a chef there. He gave me and other people in the room, pens from the resort with “The Brando” engraved on them.
So by that time, it had gotten late and it was time for all of us to go to bed. I went back to my room, laid in my bunk and tried to sleep. But I couldn’t. All I kept thinking about was how the next day I was going home, and all that I had experienced. It had been an adventure for the ages. A dream that I didn’t want to wake up from. I will continue to share my thoughts in Day 8 before I leave out the boring details of the super-long flight home. Till next time!
Much love
Joe Gardonis