Tahiti is a small island within in the nation of French Polynesia which itself is a territory of France. As expected, there is a huge French influence in the island. The language is predominately French and they even use the French Franc (which France no longer uses). We found the island to be very crowded with narrow streets, lots of noise and not very appealing. It felt very much like a big city even though the main city of Papeete only had a population of about 26,000. The outlying areas were less crowded but lacked the beauty that we were expecting. It was obvious that the island is relatively poor and has an unemployment rate of about 25%. We did not find the people to be particularly friendly and welcoming like they were in Samoa but of course the language difference is a barrier.
Before we even reached the dock the friendly guy came alongside to welcome us to Tahiti
Tahiti gets lots of rainfall so there are spectacular water falls. Some areas of Tahiti have received 8” of rain in a hour and the daily totals have been measured in feet!
Much like Samoa there were lots of churches in Tahiti
With so much rainfall it doesn’t take long for the jungle to eat away at an abandoned car.
A local group of Tahitian dancers came aboard to demonstrate some of their traditional dances
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