French Polynesia
(Tahiti And Her Islands)

Papeete airport from the air. It doesn't NEED to buy a vowel...it's called FAAA.

The R-4 from dockside.

Papeete from our private balcony.

And again.

The pool and jogging track above.

R-4's spacious outdoors smoking lounge.

A bike race in downtown Papeete celebrating Independence Day.

More of the bike race.

Moorea from the boat.

The boat from Moorea.

Headed down for an exploration dive. Second dive of day. On the first dive (shark feeding), I left my camera topside.

A fish (well, DUH).

More fish (hmmmm).

And some coral.

Moray Eel. EEEEL!

But, he/she was friendly.

Huahine from the boat.

The boat from Huahine. :)

After a short bus ride, a walk about town (since there weren't any taxis for hire).

Bob found some fish to shoot.

On the tender back, local talent.

The younger local talent. They loved those little umbrellas that come in fru-fru drinks.

Dad and the younger local talent.

Dinner time at the Captain's table. The folks...

... Judy & Jan ...

... JoAnn & Pat ...

... Rick & Joan ...

... Peggy & Bob (& crutches) ...

... Jeanne & Peter.

Starting our AT SEA day.	The Boys.

AUGH!	JoAnn takes a break from playing cards.

Judy feasts on the Pool BBQ fare.	Jan just got word Judy didn't bring HER anything from the BBQ.

Playing Innocent.

Rick fell asleep on the noodles as Pat & Jeanne stacked the remaining noodles on top of him.

Gaming outdoors.

And Tanning.

And Not.

Fruit Carving (of course).

Waiting for dinner at the Club (and for the rest of our party.

Before she hurt her leg.

Almost the whole Fam Damily.

Raitea dockside from the boat.

Dockside businesses.

Headed to a Pearl Farm.

The pearl Farm... kind of.

Implantation of a nucleus (from a Mississippi River mussel) into an oyster.

Pat, Jeanne & Peter get a closer look

Joan went for a walkabout and stumbled INTO somebody's garden.

We then headed to a private Motu...

...for an afternoon of swimming.

The underwater picture we missed getting was the eel that tried to eat Jeanne & Peter.

The abovewater picture we missed getting was the current that tried to eat Peggy.

But it was a beautiful motu.

Some of the natural splendor.

Joan went on another walkabout, and got these (and many more) beautiful shots.

Rick got picked-up at the motu for a scuba excursion. Nobody heard from him until... [look above the lifeboat]

Look closer. He's pooped.

Lenny (and son Benny) took JoAnn, Pat, Joan & Rick on a "'round the island" tour.

Stopping for pictures, from time-to-time.

Like this one from somebody's backyard/driveway.

Motus that make-up the atoll around Bora Bora.

Up in those hills, gun emplacements guarding the one deep-water channel to the island.

A cottage industry: Pareo Dying.

Each one is hand-dyed.

This may have been Mrs Lenny & Mrs Benny.

After being placed on a drying table with stencils on top to create "shadows" (foreground), they are hung out to dry.

Pat with the finished product.	Lenny, Jr or Benny, Jr.

The Public Beach (panning right-to-left).

Headed back to port.

Bungalows at a local Hotel. US$350/night.

Should scare away just about ANY evil spirit.

World Famous... since 1986.

Bloody Mary's interior.

Waiting for our flight out at the Papeete Sheraton.

A pool side lunch by the pool that melts into the Pacific.

JoAnn and Pat and somebody I hadn't noticed when I took this picture.

Painted toes. Duh!

Farewell to Tahiti.