It has been a busy couple of days. Yesterday we took the non-tourist jeep tour of Moorea, filled with activities that no tour company in their right mind would ever offer (though it would be great at raising awareness of the things local people have to deal with just a few meters inland from those fancy over-water bungalows). Tropical disease tourism… Million dollar idea! Treatment afterwards is free!
Anyway, along with a few locals, we visited the houses of families living in three different villages. What wonderfully hospitable people, to let a bunch of strangers visit them, talk to them and wander around their property. I wandered down to a creek bordering the property of an elderly woman and was greeted by 3 or 4 fresh water eels! We were more frequently greeted by mosquitoes, biting midges and dogs – lots of dogs. I served as the mobile mosquito bait for our group, suffering several bites in areas with confirmed cases of lymphatic filariasis. Perhaps I should seek out some ivermectin when I get home? I’ve also been thinking that the Tahitians are very lucky that they don't have endemic canine rabies, because the density of owned roaming dogs is huge. Luckily, the more aggressive dogs tend to be leashed. One residence had two super-cute little pigs and a family of geese to accompany their five zillion dogs and a few cats.
After visiting a few villages, we stopped to check out where the tupa crabs live. They are pretty shy, scurrying frantically into their burrows as soon as you approach. By this time it was way after noon and we were pretty hungry, so we stopped at a white sand beach, where a few of us waded into the water to cool off, despite our lack of swimsuits. I felt kind of silly traipsing out into the ocean in corduroy shorts and a tank top, but what the hell! The water was perfect. Unfortunately, it meant that I had to finish the field tour in wet corduroys. After a couple more stops, we finished the tour with a drive up to the Belvidere lookout, with a nice view of both of the bays on Moorea, as well as the steep hills and basalt cliffs all around. We all went for a short hike from that point and made it to a low open ridge with another spectacular view. I discovered that I was no longer in stealth mode, with my wet corduroy shorts and squeaky wet sandals. Not my usual hiking outfit.
We finally returned to the bungalows, where I was able to change into a swimsuit and dry clothes before returning to the water and jumping into a Polynesian canoe to take a few laps around the bay. That was a blast! I was pretty tired after all the activity, but still ended staying up past 1am, making the 6:30 start the next day all kinds of awful. Despite that, it was a good last day on Moorea. I got one last swim in at sunset, which was pretty much my only goal that day. Tomorrow we leave on a very early ferry. I am already dreading waking up before 6am to get going. Good thing I am in bed writing this at 10:15!
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