January 13, 2011

Last chance to fish in the lagoon. I got up at 5 and biked over to the pier again.

I had a great morning experience with the sun rising and a fresh wind blowing. The morning is really the best time of day in this climate.  I only wore my shorts and did not have to worry about getting sunburned. It even rained a couple of times which was good for cooling down. I was starting to get used to this “wet is good” thing.

However there were no hungry fish around. Just like yesterday I returned empty-handed.

Alexandre had been to see the mayor yesterday about the shark killing. The mayor was upset and had said that this did not give tourists a good impression of Tikehau and had to be stopped. He had called a meeting the same day to do something about the situation. A few days later I got an email from Alexandre where he said that the mayor had decided to have electronic shark repellent devices installed on all the fish traps on Tikehau. I don´t know who will pay for those devices or when they will be installed, but hopefully my filming will save some sharks.

We spent our last day on Tikehau on the beach and in front of our bungalow. Adrian found a boule (aka petanque) set and Iseline, Adrian and I fought it out:

Iseline was very proud when she scored two points in a round (both her balls were closer than any other)

It was another hot day (I had just put the watch back on, so that is air temperature in the shade (For you yankees:  31.4 C is 88.5 F)):

Helene had a hard time at the beach:

Some photos of the perfectly placed bungalows and their surroundings:

Adrian found a hermit crab on the beach:

Iseline said good-bye to the cat:

and we said good-bye to our fantastic hosts. We had had a week we would never forget:

Vanina drove us to the airport where we waited in the waiting hall of terminal 1, next to gate 1:

until our ATR-72 arrived from Papeete:

Luggage transport Tikehau-style

Last glimpse of Tikehau:

We landed safely in Papeete.

When we were in Papeete last time we had not managed to use our credit cars in the ATMs. They just said “operation not possible.” Strange, we thought there might have been a network problem. Luckily there was an automatic money exchange machine and we had used our emergency US dollars to get the CFP francs we needed. This time we really had to get some cash. It is much less common for businesses to accept credit cards here and we knew we needed cash to pay for the bed & breakfast we were going to stay at tomorrow in the Marquesas Islands.

The same thing happened again. There were two ATMs at the airport, from two different banks, and we tried all combinations. We thought we were safe with 4 different cards: VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Diners. But no, nothing worked. One of the banks was still open and I asked if I could do a withdrawal. Negative. They used the same electronics system as the ATMs and the transaction was refused.

The guy behind the counter was completely indifferent to my problem and offered no energy or advice to help me. He just confirmed neutrally that the transaction did not go through. I had to drag words out of his mouth, trying to find out what other options there might be. We saw this in the shop in Tikehau and at check-in at the airport also. The Polynesians working in service positions here have in general been indifferent to us. Sometimes they will not answer a question until you have asked it the third time and it seems like their job is a never-ending pain. However this seems to change completely once they serve other Polynesians.

I have a sneak feeling the problem might be that I speak fluent French and come over as a representative of the colonial power. I don´t know for sure, but that is my guess. It has also struck me how all Polynesians here speak fluent French, they learn it in school, whereas I have not met a French yet who speaks Tahiti Polynesian

It must be very special for the Polynesians in French Polynesia to live in a colony in 2011, when almost everyone around them gained their independence a very long time ago. I managed to bring up the subject once with a Polynesian and the answer was that they cannot become independent because they are completely financially dependent on France. Therefore the status quo is the best solution for the Polynesians. I wonder if the story might not have a few more facets over a couple of beers.

We had to give up getting cash. We still had our other backup, our emergency traveller´s checks. They would be just enough to cover our expenses on the Marquesas, but not comfortably so.

We checked in at the airport motel again.

A couple of days ago Helene had discussed with Sophie, one of the other guests at the bed & breakfast. She is French and works as a teacher on Tahiti. In the conversation Helene had mentioned how difficult it was to get gluten-free stuff out here in the islands of the Pacific. We had stocked up on gluten-free flour in Argentina, and Helene had used the kitchen at the bed & breakfast to bake her gluten-free bread. However, after Easter Island and Tikehau she had now run out of it.

Sophie was going back to Tahiti before us. She knew where to get gluten-free flour in Papeete, but that shop would be closed when we were back. Sophie suggested that she could buy it for us and drop by the airport motel.

Sophie, the angel, showed up at the motel in the evening with flour for Helene. When discussing our further travel plans we mentioned the difficulty of getting cash. She immediately offered to go down to an ATM and withdraw money we could borrow from her. We could just transfer funds to her French bank account later. She had known us for 4 days and was offering to lend us a significant amount to help us out. There is hope for humanity.

Helene went with her to the airport:

Thank you, Sophie!

Relieved we had a great meal at a Chinese restaurant nearby. I can start to feel the effects of the good life here now. In Argentina we were very active and I managed to at least keep my weight. The same cannot be said about Tikehau,

Tomorrow a new adventure awaits us in the Marquesas Islands, another stronghold of the ancient Polynesians.

Eirik

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