PEARLS, PARTY AND PARTING IN PAPEETE

July 23

Nancy

We awake fresh and rested in the Papeete Marina to the sound of the 6 am ferry arriving from Moorea. Hard to believe it only took him 30 minutes maximum compared to our 9 hours yesterday. But it does not matter - Martina and Florian are resilient and determined to celebrate another day. Especially today -it's my birthday and last day on the Esperanza. We have coffee to a song on Florian's new ukelele while watching the early morning athletes on the outrigger canoes and paddle boards glide past the large container ships and super yachts, looking so small and resilient themselves against the massive boats. 

We dress for a day on the town. Martina appears in a lovely sundress and Florian is elegant in his pressed shorts. Clearly a key to successfully circumnavigating the world is to balance the rough life with pleasures from time to time. What they pull from their closet on board is like a magic carpet bag.

Florian says I am to decide the program for the day. How do you spend the last day of a wonderful adventure vacation with friends you might not see again for a while? One last snorkel? Shopping? Walking and talking? After bestowing a birthday flower garland on my head (a gift from Florian and Martina),

we decide on a treasure hunt together...what can we learn of the best Tahitian pearls and where to buy them? We have heard the same description of grading scales from the vendors at the  street markets and artisan fairs. Now we find our way to the Pearl Museum of Wan, the pearl "emperor" to see if we find the same story there. 

We learn how to distinguish value by shine, size, color and shape and see exquisite examples of each from all over the islands. Come here to try on a small but exquisite necklace of highest quality, selling for over $80000 euros (or more!).   Then decide which of the lesser but lovely gems you might be happy with.

The most important criteria seems to be is color, then size, then shape. These are hard to match if going for many stones as each can take several years and many gratings. Then you have to decide if you will go out and barter on your own or trust the stores. We choose the former - everything is negotiable and we have done our research well.  I find some lovely gifts from family artisans in town for the Haeva  festivities  but once these end, these local craftsmen may be harder to find, and not all are to be trusted or believed.

Martina will keep doing reasearch.

Happy with our treasures, we wander through the serene park along the Marina Boulevard, and marvel that only a week ago it seemed all the islands were here competing in the fruit races. Now Papeete is back to a port city where locals gather in the park for birthday parties, tourists land to find their ships and ferries to resort hotels, and sailors land to fix their ships.

We choose another dinner at the roulottes, as there will be no time for a longer dinner even though my plane does not depart until 23:45. The food is good again, but even here you have to be very firm if you have a schedule to keep.   After very sad good byes I depart for the airport, as Florian and Martina stroll back to the marina and Esperanza, and all the hopes that wait for them there.   I must head back east and hope it will not be as hard as our journey yesterday. I think not...our currents have crossed once and will again but for now we each go with our own flow.

And it is good to arrive at Faa'a airport more than 3 hours early as the lines are very very long! It takes me 2 hours to get through all of them for the international flight. But all is well, I have learned one cannot change time in French Polynesia. Just treasure it and the friends and beauties it brings.  A wonderful birthday indeed!  Thank you Florian and Martina!