They started disembarking passengers at 7:30am. This was the end of the Trail of Captain Cook cruise, and the start of the Pacific Passion cruise. So, of the 590 passengers on board, about 420 disembarked here to fly home, and about 450 new passengers embarked. We stayed in our room in the morning to stay out of the way. Papeete is the governmental center for French Polynesia and is the largest city in the islands. They even have stop lights! After an early lunch, we went ashore and explored Papeete in the area of the dock. There were two other cruise ships in port disembarking/embarking people as well. When we got to the main street, we found a series of booths set up along the street selling local items. We noticed many of the street shops were closing up at it was just past noon. We wandered over to the main market to find it shutting down as well. David talked with one of the vendors and found out the market was closing until Tuesday (this is the location of the famous night market!) except for the produce section which would open Sunday Evening! We found many of the restaurants were closed as well. We are not sure if it was normal to close this early on Saturday or if it was associated with the Easter Weekend. But we found a few shops still open and found some more gift items and a few things for ourselves. We headed back to the ship since we had reservations on board this evening at the Polo Club and would need showers after being out in the sweltering heat and humidity. We don’t understand how these folks live with this day after day, all year round! Around midnight, the ship pulled out of the harbor.
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| Polynesian Street Band |
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