On-the-Road Tales

Did lots of exploratory walks and swims around Hauru Point where the campground was.
Took a jeep 4X4 tour of the island in the afternoon with 6 other tourists and met (surprise) a pilot and a lovely brasilian couple. The island has these lush green mountains, rivers, and temples where they used to sacrifice people as offerings to the gods etc. The jeep climbed up through the forests and we got a great overview of the bays and saw the island Marlon Brando owned. Then we climbed down inside the volcanic crater and were able to appreciate the enormity of the cone and you could imagine the force of the explosion that created the land we were standing on. Went to a polynesian dinner and dance show one night in which they cooked the food in an underground oven (yummy) and they jumped around in costume with lots of fire twirling involved, very neat. The islands are famous for their black pearls and perfect ones can sell for tens of thousands of dollars each. We got a demonstration at the polynesian village of the pearl farming process, ie helping out nature to make sure the pearls come out they way jewellers want them. After much research, it was determined the little sand seedling-ma-jig they use to oyster pearl making process comes from Mississippi. Nice. Skipped out on that purchase.

Otherwise, the island was rather quiet. A respite for retirees and honeymooners, not much night life or day life for that matter going on in Mo’orea. My accomodation turned out to be as good as any with a great waterfront and perfect perch to check out stars at night. No one turned up during the week share my dorm so I had the room to myself – well me and mr gecko. Yes, I rushed in the first night to shut the windows so not mozzies would come get attracted to the light. I quickly realized this was a futile attempt since there was a huge chunk of wall missing above the door for…well I have no idea the purpose – let the breeze through? Anyway it served as a personal gateway for my lizard friends. I decided there was really nothing Mr Gecko could possibly want from me, so I dozed off hoping whatever critters planning to join me during the night were not too poisonous or scary looking.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, April 16th, 2007 at 12:13 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.