Jan 24th, 2023 Day 22 of 128

Raiatea, Society Islands, French Polynesia

We are still in Raiatea this morning.  This was our second overnight of the world cruise and an opportunity to do two different excursions in the same port.  We were up dressed, grabbed a quick breakfast at the lido and met our group at the Mainstage by 8:15am.  Today we ventured right around the corner from the ship and hopped directly onto a boat for our adventures for the day.  Four day, four boats, four days of snorkeling and lots of time in the water for Megan and I.  We aren’t quite sure how we let that happen.  Best we can decide is we hopped all over the calendar when we were booking excursions and never realized we put these four all in a row.  We took the boat across the lagoon to the island of Tahaa.  Also known as the Vanilla Island due its’s large vanilla productions.  The inhabitants of Tahaa rely largely on Raiatea for secondary schooling for their children, hospitals, ad for employment.  So much like Moorea and Papeete share a symbiotic relationship, so does Tahaa and Raitea.  There is also a ferry that goes back and forth several times a day.  Elementary and Junior high students are in school till 11:00am every day, think minimum day every day.  High school students catch the 7am ferry to Raitea and usually don’t get home till around 6:00pm every evening.  Our first stop was Pearl farm.  This one was not out in the middle of the water though.  They spent some time teaching the people on our excursion how the farm pearls, and we had that education yesterday, so we walked around, took photos, and played with the dogs.  Don’t worry we had all our shots before we left home. After the educational portion of the morning, we went inside the shop and were free to make any desired purchases.  Having already made two pearl purchases this trip I did not choose to buy anymore. Next, we drove to a high peak in the mountains for a vista view of a beautiful harbor.  We were each given a personal bowl of fresh mango, papaya, pineapple, coconut and banana.  We were then taught and performed a Tahitian dance.  As we were getting ready to leave I was taking pictures of the hibiscus they used to decorate the table and the gentleman handed it to me and told me I could take it.  I enjoyed wearing it for the rest of the day.  Our last stop was at a Vanilla Plantation.  We learned all about the vanilla bean industry here in French Polynesia and how they must pollinate each flower by hand.  Vanilla originally came from Mexico and there is a bee there that pollinates the vanilla there.  That bee was introduced here, but it did not thrive so the farmers do it all by hand.  We did purchase some vanilla infused sugar and I am looking forward to trying it in my tea.  Then it was back to the pier and onto the boat.  As we made our way back to Raitea we anchored for about thirty minutes giving everyone a chance to snorkel and coincidentally swim with black tipped reef sharks and sting rays (again for us, but not for others).  We had quite a wet ride back to the ship on the boat as the trade winds had kicked up and frequently a wave would splash across the boat and got wet some guests who had preferred to stay dry.  All in all another wonderful day in this tropical paradise.  I know I used that analogy before but it really is.  This whole part of the trip has been very reminiscent of my time in Hawaii and I really felt like I was “home”.  Megan and I spent the rest of the afternoon reading, showering, resting and working on our project Linus blankets.  We went to dinner at the main dining room and were met there by our friend Ginny who we hadn’t seen in four days.  Again I will reiterate how sometimes the ship feels so big and sometimes it feels so small.  Being all port days and out of normal routines we hadn’t seen Ginny nor Gail and Marty since our last sea day.  And since Tuesday’s have become “Dinner with Ginny” day it was nice to see her and catch up on all her adventures over the last few days.  We were back in our cabin right after dinner.  I am writing my blog for you all and we are ready to crash after our adventures of the last few days.  Sending you love and hugs as we venture back out to sea.  We waved goodbye to the islands, and we will be back again another time.  Just as we will be back home to all of you before you know it.