Day 1,873 of Traveling the World | Moorea, Tahiti, French Polynesia | March 20, 2023

Jan and Mike

This island! Its name, Moorea, is taken from the Tahitian words for Yellow Lizard (Mo’o = Lizard; Re’a = Yellow). We have long told people that in our opinion, this is the prettiest island in the world. Its volcanic mountains, which rose from the sea millions of years ago, resemble shark fins. The beaches are gorgeous, and the people are friendly. For this visit, we didn’t spend too much time ashore, as we are returning in 10 days or so to spend a week here.

The big shock we had, as we walked through the market in Opunohu Bay, was seeing a woman we recognized! We thought Manette was beautiful, with a crown of flowers on her head, and so we put her photo in this blog more than four years ago. Her reaction, when we showed her her own photo, is related under her photo. It was priceless.

We will have more photos of Moorea (readers are hereby warned) and more information in a few weeks when we return to what is called The Magical Island. Below is just a teeny-tiny taste!

A rather iconic view of Mt. Tohivea, taken from the stern of the cruise ship.
Some more of the French Polynesian crystal clear water.
Opunohu Bay…tropical vegetation, calm water, boats anchored in the bay…heaven.
Lucky homeowners on the bay.
The skies and water are both impossibly blue.
This is a little “living room” float, with two chairs! What a great idea.
The marketplace where the ship’s tenders dock. There are quite a few sellers, including souvenirs, clothing, and jewelry, jewelry, and more jewelry. See the last photo for their most famous commodity.
This photo is from the marketplace – four years ago! We loved her flower crown. And since we recognized her because we put her in our blog in 2018……
…we recognized “the woman in purple” as today’s “woman in green.” Her name is Manette, and we told her that we put her on our travel blog four years ago. She was astonished. We pulled it up on our phone to show her. She held onto our hands tightly and thanked us over and over, tearing up. Then we took a few photos with the three of us and showed the surrounding vendors the first photo – everyone agreed that she really hadn’t aged over four years.
Walking out of the market, we had views of the volcanic mountains and a choice of right or left. We chose right, where we got most of the ocean photos from land.
A tiny shed with a tiny mailbox attached – it says, “Lettre.” Our fledgling French (after almost two years of study) is coming in handy in these French islands. We don’t really understand this, though. We checked the nearest house and it had its own mailbox, so this mailbox wasn’t for that. Does this tiny shack get mail service? I guess we have no right to criticize. The only place we have to get mail is in a tiny mail slot in L.A. Well, at least we think that is what it is. We have never really been there.
As we walked along the road, there were many makeshift fruit and vegetable stands. This was the prettiest one, so nicely decorated.
A cool wall drawing showing the history, mythology, and traditions of French Polynesia.
St. Michael Church, adjacent to Opunohu Bay. We saw the orange roof in the distance from the ship and wondered what it was.
THIS is what most vendors were selling – Tahitian black pearls. So come here to get your reals pearls. Note the yellow lizard logo across the island. We aren’t just making this stuff up.

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