Travels with 'X' | Twice To Tahiti - French Polynesia in Photographs and a few words | Part 2 of 3
This is the second part of French Polynesia in photographs and a few words. The context is introduced in Part 1, where the photographs are of the island of Tahiti. Click here if you would like to read the first part in this series. I have sized the images to a width of 1680 pixels, so if you'd like to zoom in, you can use the right-click (CTR-click) options to 'view image' for more detail.
In this post I present photographs from trips to the islands of Mo'orea and Rurutu. Mo'orea is visible from Tahiti, and a short ferry ride away. Rurutu is the northernmost island in the Austral Archipelago, 572 km South of Tahiti.
Island of Mo'orea | 17 km NW of Tahiti
Mo'orea is one of the Windward Islands, part of the Society Islands. The name Mo'orea means "yellow lizard" in Tahitian. The island, with an area of 134 km2, has a population of around 16,000. The highest point is Mont Tohive'a at 1207 metres. It is a popular honeymoon destination.
Mo'orea | Land
We drove around the island and went into the lush interior - up towards the viewpoint near Mont Tohive'a. A lot of the beaches are accès privé and you have to consume something in order to use them. We stopped at the same place in 2005 and 2007 - photos for comparison :D. We also attended Tattoonesia, a festival of traditional tattoos, Polynesian style. Bottom-right is a person being tattooed in this manner.
Mo'orea | Water
The colour and transparency of the water is for you to see. Fish everywhere and we visited a Lagonarium, where we chilled with the rays. I also saw my first shark - a 6-foot black tip - when we were out swimming. I froze, nearly shitting myself. M had been trying to de-condition me from fear of sharks, and I was a lot more relaxed after this initial encounter. The Dolphin is not a free bird, but a retired worker for the US Navy, living a life of captivity 😩.
Island of Rurutu | 572 km South of Tahiti
Rurutu is the northernmost island in the Austral Achipelago, with a population of just under two and a half thousand human beings. Seismic events shifted the coral shelves around and in time spectacular caves were formed. The historic inhabitants of the island were cave-dwellers. We visited one such cave.
We were taken around the island, which has an area of just over 33 km2. We went horse-riding (I fell off :) and looking for Tiger sharks which were in breeding season, but didn't spot any. You'll see the little airport at Rurutu, with 2 flights per week to Papetee, the main connection to the outside world for this utterly remote island. The runway is just over the wall from the home of our hosts and the view is from where I am standing on the balustrade.
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Hey @barge
I'm slowly working to get caught up on your blog here. The thing with Steemit is, the more connections you make, the harder it seems to be to keep up with everyone. It's not necessarily a bad problem to have, but nonetheless, I am doing my best to stay up with everyone.
Firstly, that upsets me about the dolphin. Knowing how the military is, I doubt that dolphin had a very great time during it's "service" to the Navy. Hopefully the individuals who took part in it's use treated it halfway decent, and with some level of respect. The fact that they would not release it back into the ocean makes me wonder what they put in it. Sad.
Aside from the poor dolphin, it looks like everything else was awesome! You seemed to be really enjoying yourself.
For whatever reason, the Island Of Rurutu really speaks to me. I bet your cave dwelling experience was memorable. I think if I was to visit this wonderful place, visiting the caves would likely hold a higher level of interest over anything else to me. I'm not sure why this is. It just has a certain level of mystique to it.
Really nice photos too. There is never a dull moment visiting your blogs.
Well done my friend. I will try to visit tomorrow to check out the third installment. For now, it's off to bed for futuremind. Much love, peace!
Hey @futuremind,
Not sure about the dolphin's backstory, but I imagine it was used and discarded :( ...and Rurutu, there was something special (and actually also rather dark) about it that I didn't quite understand. I had read on wikipedia that the original inhabitants (which would be the polynesians who set sail from SE Asia and spread out across the Pacific, including Hawaii and New Zealand - (image wikipedia)) were cave-dwellers. We just breifly visited one cave, I didn't have the guts to venture very far inside.
It's great you're into the stuff I post, and it's always a pleasure to see you here. I know your interest and presence is genuine and I'd like to point out that I have no expectations for you to read or not, or to let me know that you have or not. Why take on any more stress? I too find that I cannot keep up (and I'm only following 50 atm :), but I go on the feeling that what's for me, won't go by me.
🚣
You strike me as the type who would listen to gut instinct. Perhaps not venturing further than what felt comfortable for you was a wise choice.
Indeed my friend. I like the way you perceive things bro.
Much love,
@futuremind
What beautiful islands enjoy your stay!!!
Thank you :D
Love the photos! I wish the dolphin can escape captivity and be free. He's missing the beautiful big ocean.
For sure the poor thing is. Apparently the dolphin had been used by the US navy (dunno what exactly, radar-type experimental spy-shit I guess :) and was 'retired'. It lived in a pool (from where it could see and smell the big ocean) next to a resort.
🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟 🐳🐳🐳🐳🐳🐳🐳🐳🐳
Rad. As you said, paradise. Is French the main lingo there?
Yup, French is the lingua Franca, but Tahitian is spoken in all its flavours across the region, and some words have crept into Fr usage too. Everyone understands Fr.
Hey @camuel, just heard from 'M' who has read the blog - and she likes it YAAY!!! She made a couple of corrections which I have implemented. She also read your comment about the Linguistic Situation in FP and she sez:
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