Departing Bora Bora, Society Islands, French Polynesia
Leaving Bora Bora spelled the end of our journeys in French Polynesia.
The feeling was…mixed. We had seen so much and at the same time had only scratched the surface of this complex colony were West meets South and Islanders mingle with Frenchmen. We saw about 14 different islands in “the blue continent.” We didn’t visit about 103 islands and 2 of the five island chains didn’t even get a passing glace from us. Because of our limited time here we didn’t even spend much more than a week in a given place.
It would be like saying you understand America after spending a week in New York, Huston and San Francisco. Granted, you’d know a great deal and there’d be a whole lot you missed too.
The decision to leave is pretty easy. The French government will make us vacate the country in about a week and being deported is rarely good for one’s continued welcome at other South Pacific countries. Also, French Polynesia is only the second country we’ve managed to visit in our grand tour of the Pacific; the first being Mexico. Though, arguably, you could say each island chain is a unique culture and you’d be right and while we’ve managed to travel thousands of miles by sea, we’re still on country #2.
We have traveled though French Polynesia under a simple philosophy “we may not pass this way again.” Because, odds are, we will not. Not that we couldn’t, just that now that we have been here there are a lot of other places both of us want to see before we come around for a second pass to our favorite parts of the world. There is a lot of planet out there and the more we see, the bigger it gets. The world is really a small place, right up until the point it becomes huge. Continue reading “Leaving French Polynesia”
