Friday, February 1, 2008

Tahitian Pearls

Welcome to French Polynesia!  We docked on Wednesday at Raitea.  Again, calm seas, a little overcast and weather in the 80's.  Here you see the welcome we received from the locals as we took a pontoon boat out to the island of Tahaa where there was a pearl farm.  We enjoyed the demonstration, learned that it takes 4 years with a 2% success rate to obtain a saleable pearl, and bought no pearls!   BUT, the island of Tahaa is the largest producer of vanilla beans!  We were successful in buying Tahitian vanilla beans in Papeete, a few days later!

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