Crusing French Polynesia and the Tuamotus: Back to Papeete

The first words that come in my mind is Bon Voyage, we have gone full circle all around the beautiful islands of French Polynesia and the Tuamotus Islands and unfortunately it is are last day in this paradise. Today we leisurely woke up and went in to the downtown of Papeete, we found out our suit case was not going to make it for another flight, the zipper was broken. So Mike and I headed to search for a new one and lucky for us we found a large duffel for 23.00 US dollars WHAT A DEAL! We headed back towards the ship and repacked our clothing in the new bag and then headed back into the ship for our last lunch on the ship with our friends Pinky and Mikie. Shortly after our lunch we were transported to our day hotel the Radisson to spend the remainder of the day there before our flight at 11:59 pm this is one of the great perks of traveling with the Paul Gauguin cruise the leave no details out, we had this beautiful room on a black sand beach for us until the evening and it is included with the price of the cruise. Once we checked in we headed straight out to the pool to squeeze out as much more fun as we can have until we had to depart. Around 6:30 pm we met our friends back in the dinning room for our farewell dinner and prepare our minds for the long long journey back home.

Now it is 8:00 pm and we are being transferred to the airport, you would have though that all the tourist in Tahiti were leaving that night, there were people everywhere and we were in a long long line waiting for the Air Tahiti Nui desk to open for their 3 flights they had that evening. In my head I thought well we have had a great trip so far so why not just walk up to the host for the airline and ask if there was an upgrade available and this would possibly get me to the front of these 500 or so people , so I did and immediately she said they were all sold out, but 15 min later she came down the line looking for me and said guess what there are two more seats available on your flight for business class and she escorted Mike and I to another area for Mike to wait for me while I dealt with the upgrade, and the fun began! In another country and things are just not done like the good old USA but that is par for the course when you travel out of our Country, so I go into this small office and there are about 5 other with issues and 1 guy attendant that IS NOT a Multi Tasker at all, he kept starting things and forget about them and could not get 1 thing done at all for a long time so I was getting worried while standing in there it was now 45 min and I finally got a call from Mike he thought I was abducted! But I was just getting started with my upgrade that I thought was gone because he was taking so long to do, my nightmare was that I was going to have to get back into the back of that long line again after the long wait but it all worked out and we were upgraded.

We had a great flight home especially since we got the upgrade, we were able to sleep for 6 hours and woke up to a nice breakfast. We arrived in Los Angeles and moved right along through security but unfortunately our flight was delayed for 3 hours because there was a fire at the Miami airport 2 days before. So it took us a little longer to get home. We arrived Miami at 12:30 am , we walked into our home around 3:30 am so approximately a total of 26 hours to get back, yikes! But I was so happy to see my Kitty Cat Momo.

So now looking back at our adventure I can say that Mike and I have discovered many new places and created new memories that will last a life time. My heart and mind burns for travel I love adventure and I especially love life and feel so fortunate to have been able to see all we did and share it with a person that I love and that is my best friend. My words to all of you that have read my blog is to never ever feel like you cant do something the World is out there for you to explore, remove all your negative thoughts from your mind, and I know that I tough since they come to us on a daily basis but always think positive and know that you can achieve anything in life you strongly put your mind into it, its not about how much money you have or going to have, it is how you live life and choose to be with other man kind. You can create a new life starting today it is your choice , the power of right now is strong so put out positive energy into the world and it will be returned to you. This is the main reason for travel for me, to experience culture, nature and the ways of others and the energy of the world to enrich my life. Material things can not be taken with you once you depart this world but my memories will go with me in my heart forever and can never be taken away.

Peace out my friends,, until my next adventure!