It’s Polynesian. It’s French. It’s Chinese. It’s the capital of French Polynesia.
French Polynesia is made up of five different archipelagos in the South Pacific Ocean. Papeete was founded in 1818 by whalers, but the islands were first visited by Europeans in the late 1700s. Captain Cook arrived during this time – where didn’t the good captain explore? – and Tahiti became under colonial rule. Around 1840, the ruling queen feared the English presence and signed on as a French protectorate. The country remains a self-governing French region.
French is the main language and a local dialect is also spoken. English is also very common. Papeete is more citified than I thought it would be. I was thinking of a sleepy village with quaint buildings near the docks. Papeete is anything but. There are both foot and car ferries that travel between the islands as well as cruise ships, naval ships, and freighters sharing the harbor. The harbor is very sheltered and is surrounded by commercial establishments. I took copious notes today and I don’t think I can write a comprehensive blog because the information I received from our guide is all over the place, so I will just throw out the facts and my observations as best as I can.
The culture is very interesting, the town a disappointment, and the countryside we saw was lush with tropical vegetation but lacked any charm. The island is mountainous and the people live along the shoreline. I did not see anything that would encourage me to come back someday. We did not see any sandy beaches. The “suburbs” were shabby and unkempt with rusted tin roofs to peeling paint to lots of graffiti (actually some of it was pretty darn good). It looked like homes were one step away from being reclaimed by the jungle. There didn’t seem to be any pride of ownership. I think it might be a cultural thing as this observation has been made on other tropical islands I have been to. There were no zoning laws that I could see.
Family is very important to Polynesians. They live as multi-generational units sharing the same house. Only Polynesians can own the land and it is passed from generation to generation. Our guides said her home has been in the family since the 1700s! As I explained in the Moorea blog, relatives are buried on the land and they just keep adding the deceased up to three layers deep. When they need more room, they take the bones from the oldest and put it in a little box. Awwww, ewwww.
Most people are Protestant and Sunday is dress up day for church. All businesses close in observation of the Sabbath. Traffic is horrific: our guide can made the drive from her home to work in 20 minutes on the weekend; during the week, the same drive takes her three hours! Gas is $7 per gallon. It is very expensive to live here as everything must be shipped in. They do not grow any vegetables here, but have lots and lots of fruit. They eat fish, but little meat. There are three McDonalds on the island. The population is 180,000 and 16% is Chinese. Chinese are now natives as they have been on the island since the 1700s when they were brought over to work in the cotton fields. Today, most commercial stores in town are Chinese owned. There is a gardenia plantation, and bananas and coconuts are farmed. There were many, many different varieties of palm trees, but no date palms. Almost every house we saw had solar water heaters on the roof. Roadside fruit stands were everywhere, and mangos grew wild and were plentiful. There are no spiders or snakes. Cats were brought to the island to kill the rats (and they also killed the birds). Wild chickens are everywhere and they are used to kill venomous centipedes. I don’t know if they eat these chickens. They burn palm leaves to kill the mosquitoes.
We had another warm and humid day in the Society Islands. With friends Gerald and Robin, we went to the Public Market to look for souvenirs. We had to cross the main street and I was astonished to find that the cars actually stopped for pedestrians in the sidewalk! You put one foot in the street and the cars stop. Just like that. Six lanes of traffic. Wow, I don’t think I have ever experienced something like that before. The sidewalks in town were part tile, part cement and part holes. I stepped on a large sheet of plywood on the sidewalk and could feel the board give way; a huge gaping hole was the size of a refrigerator. Not only do you need to really watch your step while walking because of the holes, but the sidewalk can end and you find yourself right in the middle of a restaurant; you have to walk in the street and then the sidewalk begins again.
Back to the market. Women were making leis with fresh, fragrant flowers and weaving baskets. The lower floor was mainly food vendors: fruit, vegetables, fish, bottled sauces, etc. A HUGE rat scampered right by us near the fish section. Gerald saw it, I felt it. He said it was the largest rat he ever saw, must have been at least a foot long. I kid you not. Upstairs was clothing and jewelry booths. I bought a black pearl and mother of pearl pendant.
Michael and I were on the afternoon Paul Gauguin bus excursion. No escort duty; it is nice that we get to go on the excursions without having to babysit. The bus had good air conditioning thank goodness because all of the stops didn’t. We went to the Museum of Tahiti and learned that the islands are sinking.
Our next stop was to the Temple of Marau. Male “volunteers” were sacrificed to honor the god Marau. They were either beheaded or burned alive. Don’t worry about how horrible the pain must have been. They were given Kava to drink to numb the pain. Any “volunteer” was given land as a reward to pass on to his family. I think a down payment and a mortgage would be a better choice.
Our final stop was to the Paul Gauguin Museum. I am not a big fan of museums, but the amount of driving to get here was adding insult to injury. This is an open air museum so there are no original paintings by Gauguin because of the elements, just posters or other cheesy reproductions. One thing I did learn about Gauguin is that he brought syphilis to the island and almost wiped out the entire native population.
After two days of riding in buses, I am really feeling the fatigue and pain in my back. People who know that I have had surgery have been so sweet and supportive, and offered me the last row of seats across the back of the bus so I could lie down and rest. I am not going to ride another bus for the rest of the cruise -- well until the next time there is something I must see.
French Polynesia is made up of five different archipelagos in the South Pacific Ocean. Papeete was founded in 1818 by whalers, but the islands were first visited by Europeans in the late 1700s. Captain Cook arrived during this time – where didn’t the good captain explore? – and Tahiti became under colonial rule. Around 1840, the ruling queen feared the English presence and signed on as a French protectorate. The country remains a self-governing French region.
French is the main language and a local dialect is also spoken. English is also very common. Papeete is more citified than I thought it would be. I was thinking of a sleepy village with quaint buildings near the docks. Papeete is anything but. There are both foot and car ferries that travel between the islands as well as cruise ships, naval ships, and freighters sharing the harbor. The harbor is very sheltered and is surrounded by commercial establishments. I took copious notes today and I don’t think I can write a comprehensive blog because the information I received from our guide is all over the place, so I will just throw out the facts and my observations as best as I can. 
The culture is very interesting, the town a disappointment, and the countryside we saw was lush with tropical vegetation but lacked any charm. The island is mountainous and the people live along the shoreline. I did not see anything that would encourage me to come back someday. We did not see any sandy beaches. The “suburbs” were shabby and unkempt with rusted tin roofs to peeling paint to lots of graffiti (actually some of it was pretty darn good). It looked like homes were one step away from being reclaimed by the jungle. There didn’t seem to be any pride of ownership. I think it might be a cultural thing as this observation has been made on other tropical islands I have been to. There were no zoning laws that I could see. Family is very important to Polynesians. They live as multi-generational units sharing the same house. Only Polynesians can own the land and it is passed from generation to generation. Our guides said her home has been in the family since the 1700s! As I explained in the Moorea blog, relatives are buried on the land and they just keep adding the deceased up to three layers deep. When they need more room, they take the bones from the oldest and put it in a little box. Awwww, ewwww.
Most people are Protestant and Sunday is dress up day for church. All businesses close in observation of the Sabbath. Traffic is horrific: our guide can made the drive from her home to work in 20 minutes on the weekend; during the week, the same drive takes her three hours! Gas is $7 per gallon. It is very expensive to live here as everything must be shipped in. They do not grow any vegetables here, but have lots and lots of fruit. They eat fish, but little meat. There are three McDonalds on the island. The population is 180,000 and 16% is Chinese. Chinese are now natives as they have been on the island since the 1700s when they were brought over to work in the cotton fields. Today, most commercial stores in town are Chinese owned. There is a gardenia plantation, and bananas and coconuts are farmed. There were many, many different varieties of palm trees, but no date palms. Almost every house we saw had solar water heaters on the roof. Roadside fruit stands were everywhere, and mangos grew wild and were plentiful. There are no spiders or snakes. Cats were brought to the island to kill the rats (and they also killed the birds). Wild chickens are everywhere and they are used to kill venomous centipedes. I don’t know if they eat these chickens. They burn palm leaves to kill the mosquitoes.
We had another warm and humid day in the Society Islands. With friends Gerald and Robin, we went to the Public Market to look for souvenirs. We had to cross the main street and I was astonished to find that the cars actually stopped for pedestrians in the sidewalk! You put one foot in the street and the cars stop. Just like that. Six lanes of traffic. Wow, I don’t think I have ever experienced something like that before. The sidewalks in town were part tile, part cement and part holes. I stepped on a large sheet of plywood on the sidewalk and could feel the board give way; a huge gaping hole was the size of a refrigerator. Not only do you need to really watch your step while walking because of the holes, but the sidewalk can end and you find yourself right in the middle of a restaurant; you have to walk in the street and then the sidewalk begins again.
Back to the market. Women were making leis with fresh, fragrant flowers and weaving baskets. The lower floor was mainly food vendors: fruit, vegetables, fish, bottled sauces, etc. A HUGE rat scampered right by us near the fish section. Gerald saw it, I felt it. He said it was the largest rat he ever saw, must have been at least a foot long. I kid you not. Upstairs was clothing and jewelry booths. I bought a black pearl and mother of pearl pendant. Michael and I were on the afternoon Paul Gauguin bus excursion. No escort duty; it is nice that we get to go on the excursions without having to babysit. The bus had good air conditioning thank goodness because all of the stops didn’t. We went to the Museum of Tahiti and learned that the islands are sinking.
Our next stop was to the Temple of Marau. Male “volunteers” were sacrificed to honor the god Marau. They were either beheaded or burned alive. Don’t worry about how horrible the pain must have been. They were given Kava to drink to numb the pain. Any “volunteer” was given land as a reward to pass on to his family. I think a down payment and a mortgage would be a better choice.Our final stop was to the Paul Gauguin Museum. I am not a big fan of museums, but the amount of driving to get here was adding insult to injury. This is an open air museum so there are no original paintings by Gauguin because of the elements, just posters or other cheesy reproductions. One thing I did learn about Gauguin is that he brought syphilis to the island and almost wiped out the entire native population.
After two days of riding in buses, I am really feeling the fatigue and pain in my back. People who know that I have had surgery have been so sweet and supportive, and offered me the last row of seats across the back of the bus so I could lie down and rest. I am not going to ride another bus for the rest of the cruise -- well until the next time there is something I must see.
The rat would have really freaked me out!! The market is much larger thne anything we have here.It sounds like you are not too impressed with Tahiti!!! Hopefully you will have more sea days so you back can rest from the bus! Nice you get to play tourist instead of being a baby sitter!!
ReplyDeleteMarilyn