Thursday and today is our last day in Moorea. At 10am we have to leave Motu Iti bungalow and before 9 we have to give back the car. We asked the lady of the house if she could arrange transport to the airport and she did. 1.35pm and flight is leaving at 2.20pm. So we have until 10am to enjoy the quietness of our bungalow and from 10 to 13.30 to sit down in the on-water terrace to write the blog.

First thing we drove to where we rented the car. In addition the the negotiated price and the 3 entries to the tiki village the previous day, we also got a voucher for a free perl in the shop around the corner. So we went and got it. The lady drove us back to Motu Iti and we packed, paied and moved to the terrace to write the blog.

At 1.25 the guy with the van came, with 4 other tourists and dropped us at the airport. Only us, probably he was taking the other guys around. At the airport, which can not be called airport… we saw Desiree, the nice lady from Air Tahiti that helped us with Steve for the lost bags from Steve. Looked like they had little faith in finding them. Poor Steve. He had a bible with 20 years of annotations in it… We waited a bit and then a little plane, very very very small from air Moorea, came. We had nearly a private flight (of 10 minutes because Tahiti is very close by). We were 4 in a plane of 20. It was quite an experience. Of course we saw the cabin (we sat in the first raw). 

Once we landed in Tahiti we realized that we were in the domestic terminal. Smaller than our flat. We walked to the main terminal (50 meters) and went asked where was the car rental section. We rented from a local company, Daniel rental. They gave us a peugeot 107, 4 doors and air conditioned. Nice car!! Tahiti is more expensive than her islands. We paid around 8.400 (I’m not sure now). The plan was to give a tour around the islands. Tahiti are two islands, and the south one is nicer and smaller than the other one. They are linked by road. The whole tour is around 160km and we wanted to go to the south island, west coast where the Vanira Lodge was located. Remember that we blogged about the Vanira lodge before. We never confirmed the booking with them because as you might remember (if you have been following us) we improvised on the routing we did in the French Polynesia. Anyway, we reached the Vanira lounge by 5. Traffic was pretty awful around Papeete. The property of this vanira lodge is astonishing. Incredible surroundings and views. Unfortunately the Karine was not there. Her husband (who built the bungalows) told us that she was having her dancing lessons and she was going to come back in an hour, so we took the car and went to the end of the road of the west side of tahiti iti (iti is small) to see where the billabong surfing championship is done. Now the see was pretty flat, but there is where you get the famous kumbaia wave. We saw the sun going down there. Beautiful. Then we drove back to Vanira (5 minutes) and there she was. Nuria made the arrangements while I went up to the bungalow to take pictures with the nikon of the end of the sunset.

The bungalow are ART. Every little detail is taken into account. All different. All beautiful. Ours was like a hobbit bungalow, a dream bungalow with views over the ocean. I have no words. I will try to put a photo but they are in the nikon and now I am writting this from Auckland from the Aspen Lodge and I want to buy some internet to post it and we are supposed to pick up the car now at jucy. I can always go back to the post and edit it.

The day ended with us going out with the car to buy some take away food at a place 1 km away from Vanira and eating in the terrace of our bungalow. Beautiful.

Wednesday, we woke up at our great bungalow seeing the lagoon. I wish we could wake up with the sound of the sea more often ;-)

We had our succulent breakfast on the terrace watching the waves breaking far away. We had bought loads of different things in the supermarket, so actually the 90 minutes walk was worth it. Like the stressed Europeans we are, we were ready for the rental car at 8.00, though it had to arrive at 8.30. But this is Tahiti and its islands, so time notion is very relaxed. It arrived at 8.55 and we went to the rental place to pay. We had to negotiate a bit to get the ac car at 7000 francs, which we thought it was a good deal, as in the paper it  said the cost was 9000. We also got for free the entrance fee to the Tiki Village ( which was 1500 francs per person). All set and without any control from the car rental company (Albert rentals) we left to pick up our new friend Steve, the Californian. He met the owner of a very fancy hotel when he was cruising the Marqueses and the Tuamotu for 1 month. This guy also knew the manager of a very good hotel in Moorea, the Pearl Beach Moorea Resort and Steve got an upgrade to a bungalow on the water, so he was extremely happy about it and wanted to show it to us on the way back.

So we started our tour around the island (62-km circle road) going up to the Belvedere view point, which is probably one of the most spectacular panoramas in the world. It has impressive views of the Cook’s and Opunohu (which is actually the one where Cook anchored in 1777) Bays and the mount Rotui (the sacred mountain of Ancient Polynesians) in between. We stayed admiring the views for a while and then went down the road to stop in Marae Afareaitu which is the oldest in Moorea and dates back to year 900. This one was bigger and better preserved that the ones we saw in Huahine. I also heard that the  Polynesian  islands were populated by navigators who  arrived in large double outrigger canoes from Southeast Asia1000 years ago. They formed a triangle between the Polynesian islands, Hawaii, and New Zealand, and that is why the culture, songs and even language are similar. We visited the Marae and served as a succulent lunch to the mosquitos smiling and welcoming us.

Next stop was the Agricultural college where we could visit the plantations. The tour lasted for 2 hours and it was too hot to walk, so we read the first 10 trees and we went straight to the pineapple plantation. The plants are some 80 cm tall and the pineapple is in the middle. They were quite small, but with a very sweet taste. Then we continued along the circle road trying to find a nice place to eat, but it is so small we reached the Tiki VIllage that was going to be our next stop.

In the village we saw the Ahima’a or underground oven where they cook the food for 4 hours. We were also shown different fruits and vegetable like the uru or bread fruit, papaya, starfruit, mangoes, the plantan banana which is to be cooked and others I cannot remember.  We got an explanation about the Monoi de Tahiti which is obtained by macerating Tiare blossoms in refined coconut oil. The flower is used fresh and macerated in refined coprah oil for a minimum of 10 days. We stopped at the theatre to watch the show with Polynesian dances, the best so far. and then we went to the pearl farm with a canoe just to show us the process, as the real farms are in the Gambiers and Tuamotu islands because here it rains and that affects the salinity degree of the water so it is not suitable for the culture. We continued to the south of the island looking for the mysterious Afareaitu waterfalls, that we never watched, though we tried really hard, risking the underside of our car as the road that leads to them was used for the last time probably months ago, given the size of the bushes on the 2 m road…

Never mind, we saw other nice views and on the east side of the island you can see Tahiti.

At 6pm Steve invited to his bungalow to have some rum with Rotui mango juice that we bought previously in the supermarket. The bungalow was spectacular, with a glass on the floor to watch the coral and the fishes. We did some snorkel and then after a very nice conversation we went for dinner and to watch the Polynesian show where I got  another flower necklace. We had the tourist dinner with a tuna tartare that was in my opinion delicious.  The waiters came at least 4 times to ask Steve wether he had finished, the poor thing had to rush to eat his tartare so they could bring us the beef… We were the last ones in the restaurant when we left and the waitress smiled very much when we finally wet back to Steve’s for a final staring at the stars. We thought we saw Orion, the planet Venus and the Cross at the end of the Via Lactea.

We had a lovely day with Steve. He is a great guy with a big heart. After a while we went back to our bungalow.

    Our last morning in Bora Bora and our first day in Moorea. Another piece of paradise lost in the pacific ocean. I started the post today with who needs roads in Paradise because in our way to the airport, with the boat, we crossed a truck! a truck in a boat and it reminded me the t-shirt my brother bought 15 years ago from "back to future" saying who needs roads, meaning the delorian traveling through time.

The next picture is nuria, blogging from the beach, in front of our bungalow in bora bora.

This morning we tried to fix our visa problem. Lately is refusing all payments… and we wanted to pay all the car rentals with the American visa gold because it has a great insurance. Finally we managed to talk to them. We called them with skype by buying some more wifi time. The connection dropped several times but they called us back fortunately. The fact is that we have reached the limit! how embarrassing!! and it won’t be reset until the 7th of March. The good news is that in 48 hours the UNFCU will transfer the funds to the visa account so we will have credit again. If I manage to have Internet before I will try to do it via e-banking. Something good about the US visa is that it is like an account. You can top it with money so you can spend more. Anyway, the fact is that this morning we took the "truck" or local "bus" to Vaitape, which is sort of the "capital" (more than two houses) where we took the boat to the airport. There I took the photo of the truck ;-)

Once in the airport we checked in and we had a mango drink. Bora Bora’s airport is without no doubt the most beautiful airport in the world. It is small, traditional, but having a drink in the little bar with the view over the lagoon and the mountains has no price. Look at nuria having her mango drink ;-)

After a while we took the plane, always these little planes with helixes, and went to Huahine and then Moorea. In Moorea we left the plane and surprise, in the Airport and looks like he was going in the same flight, starting in Huahine, Steve!! our Californian friend we met at Fetia’s. They lost his bags… incredible in a 20 minute flight…. We went outside but after 30 minutes waiting for the "truck" in the main road 5 minutes from the airport we were told that it might not come, so we went back to the airport and Gino took us in his taxi. The three of us. Gino will bring a rental car for us tomorrow here at Motu Iti, where we are staying now. We will have the car for 24 hours starting at 8.30. We will go an pick up Steve and go and visit the Island that has around 60 Km of circumference. They make us a good price. 7200 for the day.

Today when we arrived at Motu Iti guesthouse we were like… wooooow. Our bungalow is top of the class. Look at the picture on the right…. We are actually 2 meters from the sea with a fully equipped bungalow. Beautiful place this Motu Iti. The owner is a Japanese old guy with a lot of taste and attention to detail. He has a restaurant here also by the lagoon. We have free kayaks and just in front we have plenty of coral reef. We just had a shower after snorkeling a bit in front of the bungalow. Incredible. Nuria is having a shower while I am writing. In an hour or so we will go to the restaurant to have dinner.

Today after we arrived to Moorea we went walking looking for a supermarket to buy breakfast and something for lunch. 1 hour walking!!!! aarrghh. We did not mind as the views are astonishing and it is worth to walk around.