French Polynesia

French Polynesia travel diary: Papeete, Moorea, the story of the return journey the parallel zero.
The wonderful beaches and islands of French Polynesia.

 

We arrived at Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, to one in the morning. Although we had arrived at a improponibile, this time we decided not to make any reservation and spend the first night in "comfortable" chairs at the airport. Unfortunately, the available seats were occupied and nearly all those remaining were scrapped. There was nothing but inflate our mattresses on the floor and afford.

But it was the first of April, and something had to happen ... before we sleep well thought of picking up some 'of money from an ATM. Unfortunately just at that moment there was a decrease of current, the machine spits money was jammed and swallowed our credit card. There was no back to the back: the only solution was to wait six or seven hours until the opening of the bank. With pive in the bag that there was retreat in our corner to nap for a few hours.

At eight o'clock in the morning we were positioned in front of the bank to reclaim the stolen goods. It was not easy to explain what had happened during the night, but in the end the employee has assured us that within the week we regained our paper ... a week! But how did survive for a week without penniless? Perhaps seized by an act of piety, has mobilized people of competence and within half an hour we had what we needed just a little, which ce vò!

Solved the problem we went to the port to embark Morea. Already ah, there we said that among all the available islands in French Polynesia was our choice fell on Morea, obvious choice. In fact it is just 25 km ferry from Tahiti (the island where we landed), has affordable even for people like us, and above all one of the most beautiful lagoons of the archipelago. Thinking of going to other destinations was to say the least, prohibitive, both in terms of cost (many islands are reachable only by air) with regard to the distance. And so within mezz'oretta we arrived in our island: it was necessary to solve the usual problem of finding a house where to spend the next six days. We read and reread the various possibilities of accommodation that brought the various guides, and ultimately the solutions within our reach were very few. Three of these we chose the campsite Chez Nelson, who not only offers the possibility to mount the tent, put at the disposal of its guests a series of small terraced bungalow. " Basic, with nothing more than a bed in them and the shared bathroom, were located in a corner of paradise, right at the foot of a green mountain and thirty meters from the beach ... and you want more! If one thinks of the prohibitive prices of French Polynesia that we could consider ourselves more fortunate: we have paid approximately fourteen euros per person, a figure almost negligible if you compare the prices of the resort bordering our campsite: 120 euros a person who climbed up to 600 in resort that stood little further away from us ... We had gone to luxury!

Even Morea, as the island that we had just left, was of volcanic origin, but with the mountains even more fraught and full of vegetation. Another nice difference was in the lagoon, especially in that area of our campsite reached very substantial size. Inside the lagoon were some scattered Motu (which is so called small islets within the lagoon), which designed a postcard landscape. The water was surprisingly clean and transparent, especially a few meters from the shore took unlikely colors and shades, which ranged dall'azzurro to green to blue to cobalt: incredible, breath-taking!

And how can we not take advantage of the situation to dive and swim among the myriads of tropical fish and coral formations? And it is this activity that has marked our stay in this island. Every day after breakfast started the expedition "back to zero parallel" to the discovery of new scenarios enchanted, between the scattered islands in the lagoon, toward new deserted beaches, back to the sun and pointed at the screen bottom. It was in this way that the third shipment landed us in a stretch of sea that divided two motu in the middle and there it is envisaged a marvel of nature. Complice a flaw in the barrier reef, the current was strong and with it also the marine life. Parrot fish, clown fish, butterfly fish, stingrays and huge in size and some sharks ... things to remain open-mouthed!

For our fourth day we were well thought of us not miss the opportunity of a tour to discover the island. It was a boat that has brought us to swim and touch the rays, to infringe against the huge waves present out of the lagoon in the company of a colony of dolphins. We then returned to the lagoon and landed on an island called Lagunarium where we had a close encounter with the many species of fish that inhabit these waters, in particular with succulent tuna, magnificent turtles, moray eels and some sharks too large. We could not ask for more.

Il giorno successivo non ci siamo fatti mancare neppure un'immersione negli abissi marini. In realtà siamo scesi solo fino a venti metri, ma è bastato per circondarci di vita marina e soprattutto da una innumerevole quantità di squali che ci ruotavano intorno come se dovessimo diventare il loro pranzo. Come ormai già sapete, il tempo vola quando ti diverti ed in un istante è finito anche questo sogno.

The last day we spent on sbaraccare backpacks and return to the main island where tardissima night we expected the flight to LA Ah, for those who do not know, we're talking about the City of Angels: Los Angeles!