This entire adventure began because Jason and I wanted to charter a catamaran sailboat. We looked at Mexico because it’s pretty close and easy to get to, but the water wasn’t going to be tropical warm. So where else could we go? Caribbean? …nah. How about TAHITI! Yep, the same Tahiti associated with those swanky hotel huts out over the crystal clear blue water. It snowballed from there! With only a few more hours of leave from work, we could have three whole weeks off and spend a bonus week on the island of Tahiti itself before flying out to get our boat. It would be stupid not to, right?
The rental house really does sit on top of a mountain overlooking a steep valley and the Pacific Ocean. It’s all hand built by the owner (who lives just above us in another super cute little cabin) out of what’s probably local wood. The entire side facing the ocean is windows and the shower is practically outside. It’s amazing!
Driving here isn’t too bad. They have roundabouts practically everywhere and traffic isn’t terrible. We still haven’t figured out when the actual rush hour is but everyone has been super friendly so far when we need to merge into the correct lane. The big Hertz sticker on the back might help our case. Obviously we have no freaking clue where we’re going!
It rained a little bit the first day, which is fine because we wanted to sit around and drink coffee and relax anyway!
We finally got rested up enough to want to go to the beach and play in the water. The island of Tahiti is more mountainous than the smaller islands and a bit more rocky. There are only a handful of public beaches. We found one that the local dive shop said was good for snorkeling, geared up, and dove on in! It was pretty shallow with big chunks of coral and fish everywhere. Reminds me of Guam quite a bit. I tried to leave my underwater case at the house, but as usual, Jason was right in nagging me to bring it along. I like taking photos of the fish!
We took a guess on a building that looked like a grocery store and were, amazingly, correct! Jason and I are pretty unimaginative with food while traveling so we ended up with spaghetti and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…and coffee! Lots of coffee! 🙂