Our day of exploration started with a fantastic rainbow just before embarkation, a great sign that another awesome day awaited us in French Polynesia.
The day was a deep dive into the rich and fascinating Polynesian culture. In Huahine, where local traditions are still alive within the 6500 inhabitants, we left the pier for our first stop, the incredible maraes of Maeva and Pote’e. The former is a sacred site once used for ceremonies, and the latter is a traditional Polynesian house converted into a museum.
After the cultural dive, we went to admire the sacred blue-eyed eels near the village of Faie, where myths and animals dance together. Our last stop was visiting the traditional fishing lagoons which are artificial pools where fish have funneled in naturally for hundreds of years.
In the afternoon, we disembarked in the enchanted Ra’iatea, the head of the Polynesian octopus, the heart of the Polynesian triangle. Visiting the vanilla plantation was much more than vanilla because we discovered the secrets of coconut and tamanu oils, cassava and taro. Next, we spent time in the Taputapuatea marae, the most incredible and soulful marae of Polynesia.
