Papeete - Day 2
We went dockside and bought a telephone card to make calls to arrange some of our own excursions. We set up a 4x4 tour for Moorea day 2 and two excursions on Raiatea. We were in the Tourist Center by the ship when we saw our tour guide from the previous day. We asked him for a recommendation on getting in some snorkeling. He recommended going out to the Beachcomber ParkRoyal hotel, which has an Aquatic Activities Center. We grabbed our snorkeling gear and found the correct "bus" the locals call "le truck". It was a smelly diesel fume ride out to the hotel, but it was only 240 CFP for the ride and we got there after about 20 minutes.
At the Beachcomber we found their dive center, and made arrangements to go out on a glass-bottomed boat to do our snorkeling for 3000 CFP each. They ended up putting us on a dive boat going out with 3 couples making a dive out along the coral reef. The water was a little murky but was wonderfully warm. We saw some small colorful fish, and stayed in the water for about an hour. We got back on the dive boat about ten minutes before the divers returned. After we returned to the dock, we rinsed all our gear off in fresh water, had a hot tea, and got a ride in the back of their truck. 50 miles an hour with no windshield will certainly straighten your hair!
After getting cleaned up in our stateroom we caught lunch just before they closed.
We had the mandatory lifeboat drill at 4:30 pm as required by the international maritime law.
After relaxing a while we went to see the wonderful "Les Grand Ballet du Tahiti" - a traditional native dance show. It was really fascinating seeing the tattooed warrior-like male dancers and the beautiful, seductive women in grass skirt costumes. We got the entire show on videotape.
After the show we returned to the dock and tried out a meal at one of the rolling truck restaurants. We found a Chinese food truck, and got an order of chicken, shrimp and pork stir-fried rice. It was very tasty and very filling. By now we were pretty tired so we returned to the ship, had a Hinano beer in our room, and called it a day.
Since the ship had to leave port tonight, it weighed anchor at 10:00 pm. We had fallen asleep already and woke in the middle of the night to the gentle roll and sway of the ship at full cruise moving over to Moorea.