Author Archives: Mark
Good Food on Tahiti
The subject of good food is near and dear to me. I think I once wrote about two paragraphs describing steaks we ate in Buenos Aries, Argentina. Just writing that previous sentence made my mouth water. Yes, they were that good. I get a little bit excited when we find a place with some good […]
Ouch!
Things are getting back to normal on Tahiti. I think I already mentioned in a previous post how on July 15th French Polynesia opened the airports to tourists. The government realizes there needs to be a balancing act between allowing tourists and devastating the local economy which is about 85% service driven dominated by tourism. […]
Heiva Tū’aro Ma’ohi, Tahiti
Here on Tahiti, things are changing. The island was Covid-19 free when they decided to open for tourists. The keyword in the previous sentence is was. What a huge difference one week makes! On July 15th, French Polynesia opened for tourism. This included the airport and local cruise ships based here. Many tourists come to […]
Grocery Shopping and Shoes
In this post, I thought I would share some pictures of what a day is like when we buy groceries. It is not like most other people’s grocery shopping days. And yes, it does take us most of the day. In-between the beautiful pictures is a rather weird commentary about shoes. The grocery shopping extravaganza […]
Mo’orea – Part 2
Link to: Mo’orea – Part 1 Chances are you’ve never heard of this beautiful place called Mo’orea unless you have traveled to Tahiti. Surrounded by a turquoise lagoon, the island is utterly stunning. Thunder and lightning are not common in this area of French Polynesia. Our first night in our rental cottage we were awoken […]
Mo’orea – Part 1
Every now and then, we happen to find ourselves in a place rendering us utterly speechless. Mo’orea is one of those places. Located just 16km (10 miles) west of Tahiti, Mo’orea is clearly visible from the western shore and is home to fewer than 20,000 people. Almost every time we catch a glimpse of Mo’orea, […]
Pape’ete Murals and Other Crazy Ramblings
We recently learned that Pape’ete, about once per year, has an artist paint a mural in the town. During our walkabouts, we are awestruck by some of these fabulous giant works of art. Aruba and St Petersburg are a couple of other places we’ve visited with murals. Besides the incredible creativity and unbelievable art, these […]
C’est la vie
C’est la vie. (That’s life) This blog is known for sharing the sunny side of cruising and the sometimes not so sunny side. This is one of those not so sunny sides. Well, it is and it isn’t. Our view of French Polynesian remains cheerful. Others here are starting to hate it. You can judge for […]
Tahiti is Beautiful
Tahiti is beautiful! We have been out and about on the island. The scenery is stunning. Meet Corinne Mc Kittrick, PHD, our tour guide for the day. Corinne can trace her ancestry on Tahiti back to the 1800’s and has her doctorate in Polynesian Languages & Civilization. How much did we enjoy the tour? This […]
Pape’ete, Tahiti
As of this week Tahiti and all of French Polynesia are now Covid-19 free with no active cases. All restrictions have since eased. Even bars and nightclubs have re-opened. This week inter-island travel is authorized for everyone, including private boats. Everything is getting back to normal. Many of the local businesses were forced to close […]
Moving to Pape’ete
Our first two weeks in Tahiti were spent in a nice little cove near Marina Taina on the northwest side of the island. From day one, it has been very educational. The morning following our arrival we got our dinghy ready for the short trip to the marina dinghy dock for our check-in with customs […]
Out at Sea and Out of Touch
You would think to be in the middle of the ocean as a contagious virus infects people all about the globe is be a good place. It is and it isn’t. First and foremost, our crossing of the South Pacific Ocean was awesome. We had great weather and absolutely enjoyed the experience. After leaving Galapagos, […]
Cream Puff is in Tahiti
When we left Galapagos, our destination was meant to be the Marquesas Islands, specifically Nuku Hiva in French Polynesia some 3400 miles due west. Our plans changed because of new Covid-19 regulations made by the French government regarding check-in procedures. About 60 hours out of Nuku Hiva, our agent notified us of the changes […]
Isabela Island, Galápagos
Karma caught up with us. In our previous post, I gave the ARC boats a hard time for not using stern anchors and basically not looking at surrounding boat’s ground tackle before they picked their anchor location. Well, when it came to for us to leave, we had an issue retrieving our stern anchor. It […]
Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos – Part Two
The biggest disappointment so far in the Galápagos Islands is the Darwin Center. We were hoping to learn about Darwin and the details of evolution. Instead, we were made to feel guilty for being human. It is nothing more than a bad zoo with captive iguanas and giant tortoises. It is touted as a research […]
