Day 49 - Sun 10/28/18 Papeete, French Polynesia

Protestant church

After a final breakfast onboard and after our Green 1 luggage tag was called, we scanned off the ship for the final time, collected our luggage, and waited for our shuttle to the hotel. Another couple was also waiting for the same shuttle and a little after 9 it showed up. It was a short drive to the Hotel Sarah Nui where we dropped our luggage off for storage until we could later check in. And off we went to walk to the Protestant Church of Pā'ōfa'i to attend the 10am service. It was about a half hour walk. While the service was conducted in Tahitian, French, and a little English, the singing was frequent, loud and exhuberant! And communion was served. The service ended at 11:30 and I was a little surprised that nobody greeted us.

From the church we walked another 25 minutes to the Carrefour (like a small Walmart) and did a little shopping. We see these stores frequently in Europe when we travel there. The store and the mall it's located in closed at 1pm (virtually nothing is open on Sundays). On our walk back to our hotel, we stopped at McDonald's as it was one if the few things open. We reached the hotel around 3pm, checked in, showered to cool off and relaxed for the rest of the day.  

Around 7pm we wandered down to the food trucks at the harbor where we enjoyed a crepe and conversation with a young couple from Slovakia and Portugal who were computer security professionals here on vacation. Before we knew it, two hours had passed. We finished the evening walking the mile back to the hotel. All totaled, we walked around 7 miles this day.

Tomorrow is going to be a full day! We have reserved a spot on a 4x4 jeep tour. Stay tuned!