Our next stop was Papeete on Tahiti the capital of French Polynesia and the only real city on the islands and we decided to go off on our own and explore the city rather than take a tour. We had lots of time since Tahiti was the end of one leg of the cruise and the ship was dropping off and picking up passengers. Normally we leave port around 6:00 to 8:00 but here we left at midnight.

We got off the ship and went directly to information center to find an atm and where there was an internet café. The problem was that it was Saturday and many places were either closed for the day or closing early. We found the atm — it was at a bank across the street from the pier but the internet was another story. By the time we got there the owner had closed up for the day.

So instead we wandered through downtown Papeete, looking in the shops and watching the people. There is a gigantic market Le Marche that sells just about everything you could name. It turned out that Sunday was Mother’s Day in French Polynesia and traditionally women wear flower headdresses so the market was full of stalls selling flowers. We found some up-scale clothing shops where Laura got a couple of tops and some pants.

We dropped our purchases off and took a long walk along the waterfront over into the city to Bouganville park. By the time we headed back to the ship it was getting dark.