Pétanque and Hinano

Hi from the South Pacific! I stepped off the plane after an eight hour plan ride from LAX (most confusing airport ever btw) at 9:35 pm on the 27th of June. I made my way through customs pretty easily, they didn't go through my stuff which I was grateful for since I had way more coffee than I was allowed to bring in duty free. No taxes for this girl! Unfortunately I wasn't able to bring copious amounts of duty free booze as I was expecting and hoping. The only duty free shop in LAX in my terminal was closed so no whiskey for the boys on Ardea. It's ok though, we're making up for it by drinking lots of Hinano beer, pretty much the only available beer in French Polynesia except for Budweiser, and who wants to drink that crap? 

Ardea motored from Papeete Tahiti to Cook's bay in Mo'orea (Tahiti's neighboring island) two days ago, and the scenery here is unreal. It's been less than a week and I'm almost adjusted to boat life. Still a little jetlagged but what are you going to do? Everything is exactly and nothing like I expected. The French culture is abundant here, for example fresh delicious baguettes are available all the time, everything written is French first with Tahitian under, and things here are deliciously slow paced. So unlike the fast paced American culture. It's wonderful. I haven't picked up much Tahitian as it's very different than any language I've learned, but I'm working on it. Friday night was spent at a local party spot, where we were the only white people, let alone americans. The Hinano was flowing, the native music of the live band was loud, and all the men were deep in a Pétanque tournament. Pétanque is their version of bocce ball. They take it very seriously here. Connor and Dana were brave enough to play a round, but were shown up pretty much instantaneously. As for me, I conversed with as many locals as I could in French. It was wonderful to not have English available as a back up, it forces me to speak French which is much needed.

Last night was spend with another cruising boat named Off Tempo who hails from Seattle. It was nice to be able to talk about home with them. Today, Taylor and I have already finished our boat projects for the day; he installed a new stereo and I a new salt water hand pump for washing dishes. We have many more projects to work on, but maybe we'll start them later. My free time will probably include lots of reading, drawing, maybe some slacklining and definitely Hinano drinking.

Thinking of everyone.  I'm already missing live music and dancing, but I got a little taste of that on Friday. I hope everything is wonderful back home. Much love.