Tahiti - Day Two

We had a delicious breakfast at the hotel, sitting on the outdoor deck overlooking the water. The temperature and humidity were high, but we were happy to watch the beautiful scenery, check out the fish swimming under the deck, and enjoy time together.

The deck of our room.

The hotel was simply beautiful with a large pool area and all rooms facing the ocean.

Breakfast buffet

There was a medium-sized mall with a grocery store across the street from the hotel. It was easy to access via the sky bridge from the hotel to the mall. We made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some bread, cheese, meat and bottled water.

We had a 4x4 tour of the island planned and our scheduled pick up was a little before 9 am. We were the only ones on the tour and enjoyed having the back of the truck to ourselves. The truck was fitted with two bench seats with a padded back and seat belts. Above, a canopy covered the top of the truck so that we were covered from the sun.

After a quick stop at a boulangerie to pick up lunch and more water, we were on our way with Vaitea of Safari Islanders. Our tour took us across the island and through the inner crater of the volcano Tahiti-Nui.

Once we were out of the city and off the main road, Vaitea rolled the canopy up on the back half of the truck so that we could stand up to see more of the view.

As we drove, Vaitea shared information through a speaker in the back of the truck. He stopped every so often to share info about local plants and flowers; he stopped as well at picturesque spots so we could take pics.

The roads were not paved and often filled with potholes, so our ride was quite bumpy and holding on with both hands was necessary. Every so often we got caught by an unanticipated bump and jarred against the metal frame of the canopy. Ouch!

We stopped for lunch at a swimming hole; we ate and then enjoyed a dip in the cool water. The schedule allowed for us to hang out here for awhile, so we were able to dry for a bit.

Every so often we passed a lady driving a scooter. She stopped for pics and then motored on.

We reached the tunnel about 2/3rds of the way along the tour. From there, the path made a steep descent with a 20% grade. Chris and I were hanging on tight. Vaitea reached a point where he noted it would be “more bumpy”. We have the bruises to prove it.

The lady on the scooter got stuck trying to get up one of the hills and Vaitea said she really should have just turned back at the tunnel. We hope that she made it safely back to the main roads.

Once we finally left the “more bumpy” section and reached the main road, it was another hour drive back to the hotel. We were fairly ready to be done with the “safari”.

We chatted with Kristen who had just had to shovel snow and take out the garbages and make her own dinner. Adulting.

Everyone recommended that we try the “roul0ttes” or food trucks close to downtown. We drove to find them and ended up feeling kind of “meh” about the food and the experience.

Chinese food is a big thing in Tahiti, so each truck had some sort of Chinese food offering. We ordered chicken with vegetables to share and Chris ordered french fries.

Part way through our meal, we were amazed to see rats in the bushes next to us! RATS!

We were happy to leave the rats behind and flop in bed from a long day of our "bumpy" and "more bumpy" ride through the jungle.