Ra'iatea: The place where they banned bikes for visitors (also known as the Sacred Island)

I have to say that this was my least favorite island. It's mostly an administrative island so there isn't a lot else going on. I heard it is very beautiful in the mountains but guides will only go if there are at least 2 and so I found myself out of luck. The also banned bike rentals for visitors and the island is huge so it is quite impossible to get around without anything...can we say forced car rental conspiracy. Too bad every car on the island is a stick shift and I am apparently the only person that does't know what to do with that. The nice people at the hotel snuck me a bike though, after I was followed around all afternoon by "guide" who kept trying to take me into the mountains. 

 A church built in front of a Marae using the altar stones. 

Every time I ventured into a valley to get closer to a distant waterfall, my view would actually get worse. It was my week of chasing mirages. 

The 1.5 hour kayak journey to this deserted Motu was not disappointing though. 

I met a lovely couple Ian and Pennie from New Zealand and they let me tag along on their car ride around the island so I could see the most sacred site in all of the South Pacific the Marae Taputaputatea. 

Huahine French Polynesia (The Rebel Island)

It's been a terribly long time since my last post. In my defense, I made an 8x12 ft painting, gave 2 artist talks, bought a house, and moved my studio to said house. But I am still going to post about each island and throw in a transcript of my talk about the French Polynesia as a reference. 

When I came to Huahine, I instantly loved the people and the way of life there much more then the previous island. It's not really a tourist island but it has the most archaeological sites and the people are very proud of their heritage as well as being the one island that never willingly became a French Colony. 

This was also the island where I was able to establish a contact person Dorthy Lubin-Levy who runs the beautiful Fare-Pote'e. She helped me with information, finding a great place to stay, and introduced me to some wonderful people.

This is at the Marae Paepae that was built in the hills so the people could be more protected from the colonists. 

I found the Marae Tefano to be really magical with the huge tree that is growing in the Marae. It is also hidden in the thick jungle hill of Mata'ire'a away from the colonists. I was lucky enough to have met a great American painter Melanie Shook Dupre and her Tahitian partner Cesar Delord who live on the island and he was kind enough to take me around the island and show me his favorite places. 

The Fare-Pote'e was really great to see. It is built in the traditional way with artifacts and Maeva people who weave and talk about their traditions. It was amazing how cool it felt inside.

This are all Maraes around the Fare-Pote'e. I visited several times to get different lighting. 

watermelon fields. 

These lava slabs are found at the outside edge of the islands. Huahine is unique because part of the coral ring is still attached to the main island so I was able to bike to the beach and see the slabs that they would stand up to make the Marae. 

Marae Manunu overlooks the beach. 

 Because of the small bit of land that is still attached to the outer ring, there is a long narrow bay that looks like a lake where the people still use the fish traps of their ancestors. 

These traps are stone mazes that the fish swim into but can't get out. 

The best snorkeling on the island was at an abandoned hotel. I was able to get in a few photos before a man started waving his machete around and yelling at me.

By a stroke of luck, I happened to be visiting during the presidential elections. They held the first round while I was on Huahine. It is great how they decorate everything with flowers, have music, and lots of food for the occasion. 

The Island of Moorea

I decided do a blog post about each island that I visited in the French Polynesia since each island was so different. Moorea has a sort of special situation to most of the islands. While Moorea is not particularly large and the tourism is way down (a bit shocking on the west side where most hotels, resorts, and store are abandoned and I was eerily alone for many hours), it is only 10 miles away from Tahiti so it has become a desirable suburb to the main island. 

This is the Opunohu Bay. 

This is looking back to the island from a Motu I kayaked to one of the days. In my mind, the kayaking was going to be a snap since it would all be done inside of the coral ring. I did plenty of lake canoeing in my early days, so what's the difference, right? Oh man, it was much further then it looked, plus there are massive drops in the water where it got very deep. All of that is fine because I have quite a bit of upper body strength. However, the kicker is that I was given a 2 person plastic kayak so it was very back heavy and I became convinced at one point that I was slowly sinking from taking on too much water. Add the motor boats that would speed past and knock me around and it got a bit hairy when I was somewhere in the middle of the lagoon. 

This is what much of the West corner of the island looks like now. After the old Club Med scandal happened, a lot of business's went under. I actually stayed in one of the 2 bungalows have been restored by some of the family that owns the Club Med land. It was an interesting experience because most of the family lives on the property with at least a dozen dogs. The bungalow was really nice and it's the best corner of the island, but sadly there is still a lot of work to be done, a lot of the property is still blocked off and many of the buildings will have to be torn down. But it is hopeful to see people reclaim it. Most of the time, the land isn't cleared or the parts that people want are auctioned and carried away (the bungalows are sold as homes) and the rest is left to rot in the tropical humidity. 

This is the view from my bungalow. For me it was everything that I wanted because I was on a research trip, but I would think that someone of their dream vacation would be very disappointed since you are really staying in an abandoned resort.

One of things I never got over was the quality of light right before sunset and sunrise. Someone later said that it was the humidity. It was one of the reminders that I was halfway around the world and below the equator.

This was from the far side of another Motu. Notice how dark the rock is. Lava rock.

Soooo much greenery. People were consistently grooming their lawns, gathering and burning the fallen brush and palm leaves after storms and cutting back the what is essentially a jungle (though not native to the islands). 

A public beach on the West side Moorea. This kid and the 2 dogs were the only ones on the whole beach. 

It doesn't take long for things to deteriorate in a tropical climate. 

Trying to Describe my French Polynesia trip

 *This is what most of my days looked like. Every society island has one main road that goes around the island with not much on either side other than a strip of land that prevents access to mountains on one side, and ocean on the other.

It has been difficult to describe my experience of the French Polynesia to my friends and family. One of the barriers is the mysticism that surrounds the idea of the French Polynesia is so deeply rooted in our subconscious. This is the very reason I proposed a project for the colonial territories but I find in describing my experiences I either talk too much about the hardships in my experience and what I saw, or I can't get people out of the faraway, dreamy idea of the fantasy. 

*Cooks Bay in Moorea. 

It's been getting easier especially now that I have my own perspective on what the experience was. One of the first things that I have to remind people is that I didn't go on vacation. I woke up before dawn to catch the early morning light and try to get a few working hours in before the crushing heat and humidity took over. I spent a lot of time (I mean 4-6 hours a day) walking, and biking around looking for places to take pictures. 90% of the time it was chasing a mirage because the view of the mountain, valley, or waterfall were too far for a picture, but close enough to taunt me to go a little further, just over this next hill, just around this curve, just up this funny little road.  

*This is a pamplemousse (french for grapefruit) farm in the hills of Moorea. 

Most of the time there is no way to see the ocean or get up into the mountains. It is maddening when you're in the extreme heat of the day, you've been walking for hours, the town that you were counting on to replenish your supplies has nothing, and you can smell the ocean but there is no way to get to it. Instead, you keep walking. A few times I went on a tour in order to see different sites. In these instances the tour was the only way to gain access to the area. It was interesting to meet people who were actually on vacation and hear what their impressions of the place was from behind the walls of the resorts. 

*The beaches at the resorts come from the coral gardens on the sea floor because there are almost no actual beaches. This is on Bora Bora 

That being said. The place is so truly different then anything on this side of the world. It is nothing like the Caribbean at all. The air is thick and smells like gardenia, jasmine, vanilla, and campfire. Palm leaves, remnants of coconut shells, and other brush are all piled neatly and then slowly burned. It is so moist all of the time that it really just smokes and you never see any actual fire. 

*This is a farm valley on the island of Nuku Hiva. 

The French Polynesia is described as a culture of beauty. Even the men wear bright floral (yes as in hawaiian) shirts or pareos. The women all have long hair and wear floral crowns for special occasions. Flowers are planted everywhere they will grow and they offer a pleasant contrast along the road.

*There were a lot of chickens. 

Steep mountains, cliffs, and valleys were all created by volcanos.  This gives the islands a spectacular mountain line. I couldn't make much sense of until it was explained to me that because there is no lime stone, the land is very soft and some of the landsides in the past were so large that it created a whole new smaller mountain line.   

*This is in the Valley of Kings in Tahiti. It is a favorite for locals because of   the cool spring coming from the mountain

Most of the islands are protected from the huge, wild Pacific with large reef rings where sand builds up into mini islands called motu's. You can watch dolphins play in the bays. Rainbows are common because it might rain two or three times a day during their wet season. This makes large magical clouds with dramatic lighting in the mornings and evenings. Anywhere that you can get into the ocean you can see coral, fish, eels, sting rays at night. 

*This is a private motu on Bora Bora. 

The French Polynesia was a definitely a once in a life time experience that has forever altered the way that I see the world. It was the first time that I went somewhere that is so different in every physical and cultural aspect. As a project about confronting the fantasy and reality of the exotic, I don't think that I could have profiled a better place to research.

Back from French Polynesia

My trip to the French Polynesia went very smooth. I never missed a flight and was never forgotten at an airport. Plus, finding my way around was easy considering that I spoke very little French. It is taking a really long time to sort through my 6000 images but I did get a handful of my snorkel photos from Ta'aha done. 

That is Ta'aha in the background and to the right is a super expensive and only resort on the island. 

Those are 2 red Octopuses. I was told that they are rare to see.

This was the best snorkel spot I saw on all of the 7 islands that I visited. It is in a pass so fresh ocean water is coming in which makes the water very clear and there isn't runoff from the rivers and is also very protected because it is on the far reef.