August 24/25

The time difference here is three hours behind Vancouver time. So the first morning I woke up excited to start my day at 4:oo am Tahiti time. That is 7:oo Vancouver time. No one else was up so I had to sit and stew for several hours. The plan for the day was that Teremoana and his family would show us around Tahiti.

We got a good sense of the island from our tour. On one side was green rising steeply up, and other side was the lagoon. There is no beach in most places and few of the white sand beaches the south pacific is famous for. But the ocean is beautiful and more than makes up for the lack of beaches. That night for dinner we went to the wharf to eat. There are trucks set up there that sell food and everyone goes there. We went to fish pace where I ordered Poisson Cru, a dish I had heard a lot about, but one that didn’t live up to it’s expectations – that night anyway. Poisson Cru is raw tuna marinated in squeezed coconut meat with vegetables. That night we moved from our little Pension (it was booked) to a big hotel, La Meridian.

The next morning we went snorkeling at the Meridian’s beach. The coral was dead, but the water was warm and the fish were brightly colored. My favorite is the Picasso Triggerfish, a parrot fish that has brightly colored stripes and waves down its body. Later, we took the ferry to Mo’orea and Daddy and I played our duets the whole way across. Paulette and Taufa (her son) picked us up and took us back to the house. That night we also had Poisson Cru, but it was drastically different from the previous night’s experience! The one Paulette made was rich, milky and flavorful. The one from the wharf had few veggies and the coconut milk was more like water. Let me explain a common misconception. Coconut water (usually called milk) is the clear substance that you pour out of a coconut before you eat the meat. It doesn’t taste like coconut. Coconut milk is the coconut meat grated very finely and then wrung through a cloth so the all the meat’s juices come out. This liquid is white and tastes like coconut.

Paulette and Gré own two houses. The one they live in now and a post retirement house. The house they live in currently is owned by the organization Gré works for – he is director of the Economie Rural – the government organization that is in charge of the Opunohu Valley. So when he retires next year, they will have to move to their other house. We are staying in the second house, where Romilda, one of Paulette and Gré’s daughters lives now.