I left you last with Mary and I planning to walk through the surf to the beach bar for lunch. The wind, at that point, was so strong it practically knocked me over when I opened the door to our patio, so we decided to not try to get there via the beach. After breakfast, I had FaceTimed with a friend who had asked me to get her a black pearl while we were in FP. We FaceTimed with the woman in the pearl shop and Karen picked out an absolutely gorgeous pearl. Back at the room I FaceTimed her again so she could spend more time admiring her pearl. I mentioned all my scrapes and she told me to be careful because you can get a staph infection by snorkeling with an open wound. I knew that this was not theoretical since Colin Jost ended up with a staph infection at the Olympics surfing event in Tahiti. Mary and I had been operating under the completely erroneous assumption that salt water is good for a wound. I did a little web-surfing and discovered that I shouldn’t have been snorkeling the entire time we were there! Of course this would have been heartbreaking and, since I don’t seem to have developed an infection, I am kind of grateful for my ignorance. But I didn’t want to push my luck any further, and the chances of me falling while trying to walk through the surf in 15-20 mph winds, seemed pretty good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we got to the beach bar via the resort grounds and had a delicious chicken pesto panini and some ice cream. It took forever for the waiter to deliver the ice cream and Mary said, “Maybe the waiter has to go to the restaurant to get it.” The restaurant is at least a 2 or 3 minute walk from the beach bar. In fact, Mary was correct, and eventually the waiter appeared, looking sweaty and tired, and handed us our melting ice cream. I never would have ordered it if I knew the work it involved to get it to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had thought we would have one last dinner at the restaurant, but we were both getting quite weary by the end of the vacation and instead we split a room-service hamburger for $35 plus tip plus $15 delivery charge. Without a doubt the most expensive hamburger ever, and we couldn’t even enjoy it on the deck because of the wind. It was, though, a delicious hamburger, and we finished the rest of our wonderful alcoholic Tahiti juice drink and shared a purloined breakfast pain aux chocolate for dessert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We packed after dinner because we had received a letter saying that we were allowed to stay in our room until 11, but a bellman would be coming for our luggage at 10:30 the next morning. We packed our snorkel gear at the bottom of our suitcases because I had decided I was done snorkeling with open wounds, and Mary was pretty tired. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we had snorkeled the minute we woke up around 6 am the next morning, it would have been okay, but pretty immediately the surf was huge and the winds were listed as 18-25 mph. (It definitely felt like 25 to me.) I had wanted to get our delicious panini at the Beach Bar again, but the wind was so unpleasant we went to the restaurant instead, where we bid farewell to our favorite waitress and gave her a little Portland sticker from Powell’s. Earlier in the week I had arranged for us to get 80 minute spa treatments at 1:30 on our last day so we would have somewhere to hang out until it was time for us to be transferred to the ferry at 4:30. We got to the spa around noon and they showed us their “private beach”, a small area with two recliners, mostly shaded. I attempted to read but the pages of my magazine were blown about so much it was impossible. I have always known I don’t like strong wind, but apparently it makes me angry. I was now La Grumpia. Mary and I switched chairs but it was still fairly unpleasant. I tried to enjoy the view of paradise but didn’t do a very good job of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our massages were really great – we got to choose the oil and we both chose the native Tiare oil, which smells divine. After the massages we still had a little over an hour to kill. Mary stayed at the private beach and I sat in a chair near the spa plunge pool, which we were invited to plunge in prior to our massages, but it felt like too much work, plus our swimwear stunk really bad from the ocean water and from never drying out. About 3:45 I went to their shower room, which had doors and windows covered with curtains, which blew open in the wind. The same for the shower curtain. Eventually I decided that modesty was pointless and I took a shower in full view of anyone who wanted to peer in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We were dreading the ferry ride back to Tahiti and the weather did not disappoint in that respect. Mary and I sat in different areas because she wanted to be further back and I didn’t want any chairs in front of me. At first when the huge swells began I told myself, “This is fun! This is just like being on a cruise or a small rollercoaster.” That was a lie, of course. It was a ROUGH ride! I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing but quickly my entire body was covered in sweat, and a nice ferry employee came over to hand me a barf bag and a napkin. She also said that wearing my mask would make things worse, so I removed my mask and basically prayed for the entire journey – please do not barf; please do not barf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We both succeeded in that regard, but it was definitely close. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
More later …<\/p>\n