By Lena.
We all know about Tahiti from our childhood thanks to a parrot from a cartoon. Why did the cartoon makers choose this very place? That’s not clear, as all French Polynesia is famous for its remarkable nature, turquoise water and Tiaré Flower aroma.
However, for some reason, everybody knows only about Tahiti.
Well, Tahiti is a capital island. If other islands are peaceful and have a beautiful nature, there’s civilization here. Therefore, like any capital of the world, it has:
museums,
parks,
supermarkets full of yummy food,
Good restaurants and bars,
with shows on weekends.
They don’t forget about Russian tourists in the bars and offer a special cocktail (by the way, they spell lemon as citron in the menu).
There’s a happy hour when beer is on the house.
The city and its outskirts have sights to see.
You can rent a car, though it’s expensive ($100 and more). A taxi is not cheap, either. About $20 for a ride in the city at daytime. A night fare is higher. You can take a bus around the island (the bus is good enough and costs 200 CFP).
There’re lots of cars. In the morning, there’re almost always traffic jams of a couple of dozen of cars. The policemen are lazily looking around. The locals usually don’t violate the traffic rules.
The city gets empty on weekends. There are practically no beaches in the urban area. So canoes, yachts, boards, ferries, floating houses take everyone to the neighboring island which is fortunately not far away.
It was interesting to know that French Polynesia was once governed by a Russian, Alexandre Leontieff. Moreover, they even have a commemorative plaque to his brother, a popular politician Boris Leontieff (there’s some strange story related to him in the history of Tahiti, as he mysteriously disappeared at the top of his popularity).
Judging by the inscriptions we encountered the Russians come here but not often.
December brought a wet season to Tahiti. It’s warm, but it often rains.
Yet, when it drizzles and you see yellow leaves, it really feels like autumn will come soon.
