Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia

Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia

 

Well, another day in paradise.  Today we arrived in Tahiti. The port area is much more commercial than yesterday, yet still more like a very small city with a little downtown.  Ty had been waiting for today the entire trip, today was scuba day.  He had gotten his scuba certification this past summer and today would be his first post scuba school dive…in Tahiti.

We were picked up by boat at the port by a local Polynesian company called TopDive which hosts dives throughout French Polynesia.  We were brought back to the local dive shop for registration and outfitting.  Once everyone had their gear set we were ready to go.  We rode out to a site called the Aquarium which was in about 10m of water.  There were small coral formations as well as a plane wreck and small ship wreck. As Ty was diving with others and his instructor another woman and I were snorkeling the same area with our guide.

 

 

 

We saw many fish, an eagle ray, eels, sea creatures and the wrecks.  Since Ty was diving the area, I was left to take the underwater pictures which are usually his job. I was able to get some good snorkeling pictures as well as some of Ty.

After the dive we were brought back to the dive shop, were the remaining guests from our tour were going to enjoy some leisure time before the next dive (a more strenuous ocean drift dive) later in the afternoon.  Since there was still room on the later dive Ty was offered to join as well, but one was enough for him today.  The dive was tiring for him as they were using steel tanks versus aluminum and the lengthy dive just wore him out! They returned us to the ship where we enjoyed a few hours of downtime. 

After we rested and showered we decided to head out again for some nighttime fun.  We could hear the music playing from the ship and could see a night market set up in the park at the end of the pier.  Ty and I have consistently and purposely broken the one rule so many told us before we left for this trip, “Don’t eat the street food, you’ll get sick.”  For us, in so many of the places we visited, eating the street food has been a must do and tonight would be no different.

The night market had several food vans called roulottes, meaning caravan in French, set up with tables next to each creating a small outdoor restaurant.  There were street singer and band playing, children running and dancing, and many locals in attendance.  The roulottes serves everything from Chinese, sashimi, Mongolian wok, burgers and fries, pizza and crepes. Street food heaven.  Ty and I decided on a table Mongolian wok for dinner.  We ordered the chicken and beef wok combo and tuna tartar.  The wok was set up where a small tabletop grill was brought out table side, then plates of raw meat, and sides of lettuce, turnip and cucumber to create your own lettuce wraps.  A fun dinner. The tartar was amazing, a mix of tuna, avocado and tomato. So good. 

After our great dinner we walked around the market a bit until Ty spotted the crepe truck. No brainer for him…Nutella crepe, but tonight it included bananas, pineapple, and coconut. Since we were still full from dinner, we got it to go.  We leisurely made our way back to the ship to get ready for another busy day tomorrow as we head to Mo’orea.