Tahiti

After a one week holiday from sailing and boat maintenance at Rangiroa, we sailed on to Tahiti. We had a great sail. The wind was on our nose for the short 200 mile trip. The 15 to 20 knot winds were backing around continuously so did not produce much wave, and gave us a fast trip.
The city of Papeete is on the island of Tahiti. Upon arriving we found Papeete was a real city supporting close to 170,000 people. We were excited to find it’s grocery stores, pharmacies, chandlers, as well as bars, restaurants, and shops. Unfortunately it is very expensive to partake in the tourist activities (beer on patio) here, but a little too tempting to pass-by. For us, Tahiti is a good place to get things done. We had a few stitches repaired on our main sail batten pockets, and found a treasure trove of stuff at the chandlers to do minor repairs of modifications to things. With moderately priced internet access we also started our tourist visa application for Australia.
During the month of July there are cultural celebrations with events almost everyday. Dancing, music, and sporting competitions. We attended one day of the ancient games where they had javelin throwing, rock lifting and a foot race. A band played folk music while the events were underway.
The javelin throwers tossed wooden sticks at a target on a coconut. The coconut was atop a pole about 50 feet in the air and 100 feet from the javelin throwers.
Rock lifters lifted rocks to their shoulders in a timed event. Women lifted 55 kg, men 100kg.
Foot racers ran about a mile carrying weights of roots, and fruit. Women carried 15 kg and the men carried 50 kg.
Tahiti, is apparently the birth place of surfing. To prove that fact it seems that it has the highest concentration of Billabong labeled wear I have ever seen. The locals wear everything Billabong.
In the shops, or on the bus we would often see young men made up as women. They call them Mahu. Cross dressers or transvestites, I am not sure what we would call them. Sometimes it is difficult to tell who’s who and what’s what, but mostly they are just too girly so they stand out. During a trip downtown we would always see a few. It must be socially acceptable, as they are in abundance.
For sailors this is a great place to meet up with many of the friends we met in the Caribbean or Panama. People seem to slow down here to get repairs done before moving on to better digs.