We had to say goodbye to Maupiti
this morning, as we left on our last inter-island flight on the way to Tahiti. Camille ferried us and two of the French
couples to the airport for an 8 a.m. flight, which was over an hour late. As we spotted our plane on its approaching downwind leg,
the airport fire truck suddenly cranked and the driver pulled out of the fire station
and onto the taxiway. This is not the
kind of scene that gives a person good feelings about this particular Air
Tahiti aircraft. But it turns out that
it is standard operating procedure for the fire truck to be at the ready for
incoming flights. Come to think of it, this
SOP doesn’t give good feelings about any Air Tahiti aircraft.
Anyway, we did finally make it back
to Tahiti, an hour and a half late after a scheduled stop in Ra’iatea. We arrived in the rain, picked up our rental
car, and finally located Le Meridien Hotel, where we checked in early and were
upgraded to the top floor in our nearly free room—OOPS! I
forgot--I promised not to talk about special deals with credit card points.
Because of the overcast and the
opportunities that awaited us in the town market, we decided (OK, one of us
decided) to do a little last minute shopping.
There is a famous two-story market not far from the cruise ship docks,
and we headed there for lunch. The 250-year-old Marché de
Pape’ete covers an entire city block, and contains every product imaginable. We had
been told that the first floor had the cheaper merchandise, and that the high
quality stuff was upstairs. Guess which floor we headed for.
Marché de
Pape’ete—photo by Tricia from the second floor
While Tricia is upstairs perusing
the shops, we need to complete our description of the human side of present day
French Polynesia.
The CIA's web site, while pointing out
that there are no “regular military forces” in French Polynesia, the agency
estimated that in 2010 there were: 82,722 males and 66,053 females age 16-49
available for military service. It also
tells us that each year, 2,498 males and 2,390 females are reaching “militarily
significant age” annually. You might
wonder why the agency takes an interest in the military capabilities of French
Polynesia—are there plans for a secret attack that are being hidden from the
public? You might also wonder why the
agency would actually publish these important numbers for the world to
see. You might also wonder how these
facts have any relevance to the present trip report. And so it must be confessed that this
paragraph was thrown in just to impress you with the breadth and depth of my
Internet research in preparing these all-night missives.
To get back to present day French
Polynesia, there are occasional rumblings about independence, and the person
elected president in 2007 (for the third time in three years) was very much
pro-independence. But politics here are
even more confused and divided than they are back home, and this guy
quickly lost his office in this multiparty democracy. The opinions and positions of the president don't seem to make much difference to
the casual observer, since the government has no authority in justice, education, security, or
defense, all of which are provided and administered by France . You see, France is still pouring money into
the place, although much less than during the years they were kissing up the
local leaders with assistance to atone for the nuclear testing.
Polynesia is a real melting pot, with
marriages between descendants of the original inhabitants and people of every
race, color, and creed. While more than
60% claim to be “pure” Polynesian, this claim is likely greatly exaggerated,
perhaps by a factor of three or four.
There seem to be no open racial or national prejudices here, and most
have the laid back island attitude about many practices.
Exports amount to about $200 million a year, while imports
cost about $2.2 billion. And you
thought we had a trade deficit in the U.S.?
The population is about 270,000, more than 65% of whom are crowded onto
the coast of the worst of the islands, Tahiti.
More than 150,000 tourists per year provide the principal private sector
economic benefit to this semi-nation of islands, and absent the unexpected
discovery of some underground natural resource, that will be true for the
foreseeable future. To split from
France, at least 600,000 will need to come each year and spend their money—and
then there will be no more Maupitis, at least in the Society Islands portion of
Polynesia.
Here in Tahiti the
runoff and pollution, combined with the black volcanic sand, give the water a greenish
tinge from ground level, and it is doubtful we will do any snorkeling. While the overall standard of living is high,
on Tahiti it has come at a terrible price.
The roads are good, goods and services are readily available. But its capital, Papeete, is just another
cruise port and industrial city, with traffic congestion, crime, and
graffiti-covered walls and signs.
So come here as soon as you can. Skip Tahiti and head for Bora Bora or Moorea,
or one of the outer islands while they are still nearly pristine. This is one of the top trips of a lifetime of
traveling, and we hope you can make it.
Tricia’s back from shopping, now, and it’s time to head for
dinner. Last report will come tomorrow,
our last day in the islands.
Charlie and Tricia
©2012
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