Aitutaki Day I
The next morning was the Saturday Market in Rarotonga. I was very excited. It turned out to be pretty good, too. Jim got a fish and chicken kebab and a steak sandwich. I got a gross egg and ham sandwich. We both got coconut buns that were delicious. Then we got a coconut that the lady put a straw in. It actually tasted kind of gross, plain coconut juice. We ended up throwing it out after we took pictures with it. We both had fun. There was music and it didn’t seem disgustingly touristy.
It was also the first sunny and hot day and I wanted to go in the water, but we had to get on our flight to Aitutaki!
Zee plane!
We hitched a ride to the airport and got on the tiny tiny plane, only three seats across! It was a 40 min flight and when we first took off, I almost freaked out, because it was such a tiny plane and we were flying right over water…it was just weird! I had to force myself to breathe and calm down. I honestly felt a tiny panic attack coming on, but it went away.
View from the airplane!
The views were awesome, though, from the plane. We landed in the tiniest airport ever.
“Tiniest airport ever.” Aitutaki International Airport. However, it is not international; it only flies to and from Rarontonga. I heard it was supposed to get the int’l flights but Raro does instead.
We landed and the bus took us to our hotel and I was furious to find there was NO water! NO water at all! Apparently, sometimes the town shuts off the water randomly and unfortunately our hotel didn’t have it’s own water supply so we were subject to random lacks of water. The strange British guy in the room next to us (when we first saw him, he was hanging up clothes outside only wearing tighty-whitey underwear. Ugh.) said that when the water is off, you go to this big tank that collects rainwater behind the hotel and crouch down and you can sort of shower like that. It was like freakin’ Survivor. I was still extremely angry that no one mentioned this to us, and I was needing a shower.
Finally I put on my swim suit and went out with a bar of soap and held the tap with one hand while crouching, splashing myself with the cold water, and soaping up. It didn’t help that I didn’t have my glasses on so I couldn’t see much either. One time I dropped the soap and when I picked it up and used it, it was gritty. Not to mention that the mosquitos were VERY bad!! It was awful. And I didn’t wash my hair. The guy also told us that the mosquitos are so bad that he couldn’t even lie on the beach.
We got another scooter and went to “town” which was only like 3 small buildings by a dock. We actually passed it the first time and has an argument about whether it was “town.” I said he was crazy, “town” must still be up ahead because there’s no way 3 little run-down buildings are “town.” We tried to buy food at the only store but there was hardly anything available and it was very pricey since it’s obviously imported. You also have to watch for expiration dates when buying food on remote islands. (Says I, Expert of Remote Islands or something…)
Later that night we went to an “Island Night” at the Blue Nun restaurant. We were seated with Rarotongans Theresa and her son Charlie. They were nice and we ended up seeing them several times on the island. We had a huge buffet dinner including traditional food like raw fish with lemon, taro, arrowroot, and a jelly-like dessert made simply of cooked bananas or pawpaw (papaya)with a little coconut. It was great to sit with them because they explained the food to us and chatted about things. Charlie, her mischievous 10-year old (?) made some sort of comment about how Jim is dark, or that he looked like one of them or something. Charlie proceeded to say a bunch of things in their language, thinking it was the funniest thing in the world. Jim responded by rattling off some rapid Spanish that sounded so cool, to which Charlie was stunned and amazed. heh.
Us with Theresa and her son. Go ahead and laugh at my shirt and plastic watch.
Then the performance started and it was GREAT!! The girls wore coconut bras and the guys had lots of um..banana of coconut leaves or whatever all over. They danced so awesome! I actually thought the best part was the music, because those guys drummed on those wooden things (called pua, I think) and the beat was so strong and loud and great!! It’s like you can feel the beat inside of you.
There were two cute little girls who danced too, and a boy who danced and twirled with fire and was also good. The best part was that they all had so much energy, they smiled and sang along and were sweaty by the time it was over.
Then the dancers came into the crowd and all picked a person to come out on the floor. A guy got me and I was excited because it would be fun but I knew I would look like an idiot, but who cares. Then they played the music and every “couple” went out and danced. I tried to sway my hips and my guy said, “faster!” but I couldn’t, mainly because my tummy was so stuffed with food! Then the next thing I knew, I saw Jim was dancing with the tiny little 10-year old dancer girl!! I laughed my head off. Later he said there were all these hot Polynesian chicks picking guys out of the audience and then HE gets the little girl. Ha ha! I wish I had pictures!
Later when we got back to the hotel, we were greeted by a millipede on the floor and one crawling on the wall. Jokingly, I went into the bathroom and said, “I wonder what I’ll find in here.” I picked up my bathing suit that had fallen off the shower on the ground and of course, a roach was underneath.
Then we realized, oh yeah, we don’t have water and we couldn’t drink it even if we did. I was so glad Jim had bought a 6-pack of beer!
The ants that crawled on the soap and up the wall.
Tags: Cook Islands
Kelly
long layover in LA?!
let me know if there’s anything I can do for you guys while you’re in town…
maybe you can get in some quick sight seeing! heh 🙂 give me a heads up and I’ll try to work something out.
Hi Jenny!
Oh no!!! I wish I had gotten your email earlier!!!! Darn! I’m actually home in Michigan right now, and I didn’t get to check my email again until now. Thanks so much for the offer… I’m sorry I missed out!!!
Glad to hear you’re home safe, but i’m sad I missed you guys when you were in la!
maybe next time…
Me too, Jenny, that would have been cool! I didn’t realize you lived there, for some reason I thought you lived somewhere else in Cali….well if you are in NY sometime give me a holler!