Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia

 
We were sailing away from the sunrise and away from the rain toward Papeete, Tahiti. We were there on the 2012 world cruise and also the 2015 world cruise, so see those pages for those adventures.

 
It was good not to have tenders. The port was decorated with tropical flora for us and the sky was decorated with a double rainbow.

  
Some locals and some street art.

The market was mostly quiet when we walked through it on this Monday morning.

 
Some vegetables were for sale and the poles were decorated to improve the ambiance, but too quiet for our taste.

The major bus stops were located just behind the market "Marché." Last time we were here, we headed south. This time our plan was to take a local bus along the north coast.

 
We rode the bus nearly until the end of the line, but got off when we saw a beautiful black sand beach where people were surfing.

We saw these two trees growing in a rock off one of the points of land.

We walked out to this point (the other direction from the two trees) first.

The beach did not continue, so we walked back out to the road and then cut down this road down to the point.

We were a little surprised to find a cemetery out there.

We walked along the shoreline of the point.

We then took off our shoes and continued along the beach in the other direction.

Railroad vines (a type of morning glory) decorated the rocky shoreline.

 
We had black toes...

 
The waves were good and we watched the surfers for a while.

There were 2 paddle board surfers.

 
This guy was fun to watch because as he rode the waves in, he performed a whole twirling routine with his paddle—a war dance of some sort we figured.

 
There were a couple of shade structures built from driftwood on the beach, but this guy looked like he lived on the beach. He invited us up saying he didn't have much, but he'd share his water.

 
Warnings that the beach is not guarded at the side of the road. We'd walked back to the top when the beach ran out at high tide.

 
A small arch...

Dean had climbed to the top of this seawall to take the archway photo above.

 
We'd walked a couple of miles to the next bus stop, which had this interesting lizard made with holes in a metal panel.

 
From the bus: a family gathering next to the road.

 
Also from the bus, a guy mixing cement in a wheelbarrow.

Back through the market that was a little busier at this time of day.

Then I found a cafe that had some timed Internet access for the price of a soda. It was noisy and hot, but every few minutes the misters went off, which cooled things off.

That Internet cafe was in the building with the rounded corners across from the port entrance. I probably should have ventured further away for a better signal, but at least I could catch up on email. My main sky-bolt email was only received on my phone, but I could send out answers from the computer. I was unable to upload any webpages: maybe next time...

We were there until late, so after dinner we went out for an evening stroll. This makeshift ukulele band which used a plastic stool as a drum and a plastic tub as a bass was entertaining people.

 
We liked this dolphin sculpture along the shoreline walkway.

 
Between the shoreline walkway and the dock, a net envelope was suspended just under the surface of the water, which made for a type of on-the-spot aquarium where people could see the fish. There was even a field guide of the fish in the net so people could learn about the fish they were viewing. It was about 50 yards long—a very nice feature.

Many canoe teams were working out in the cool of the evening.

 
The sunset was amazing...

The families of the canoe teams were waiting for them under and near this big tiki shed silhouetted by sunset.

As light faded, we headed back to the ship with a good day's experiences and about eight and a half miles of walking under our belt.

Dean's log on Papeete. Tomorrow morning is Moorea, the island across the harbor as highlighted in these sunset photos.