Ah, Tahiti and the Islands, we have fallen in love with you, your people, your style, your abundance, your simplicity and love for life, family, friends, laughter, and the environment.

After we arrived at the airport in Fa’a, we picked up our rental car, and drove 1.5 hours to the town of Teahupoo, which is situated literally at the end of the southern road in Tahiti Iti.  Teahupoo is known for Tahiti’s largest and most dangerous wave.  People travel from all over to participate in and witness the Tahiti Pro Teahupoo competition that happens every year, usually in August.

Taihanihani Village Lodge La Vague Bleue is a small little lodge with bungalows on the beach.  It’s small and super local.  We are so far away from Papeete and the major tourist hubs so most people here don’t speak English.  We had to switch to our broken French pretty fast!

From here, driving around Tahiti takes all day, but we stopped off at some great places and even got lost. Thanks to my stellar navigation skills, we ended up on this long windy road to the Belvedere de Taravao, an amazing lookout point on Tahiti Iti. You can see the north and south coasts of Tahiti Iti and Tahiti Nui in the distance and the city of Taravao that connects them both. The beaches outside of the resorts are mostly rocky or have black sand. The people are beautiful, warm and friendly and in the outlying areas. The food in the tourist restaurants is very expensive so as usual, we found adapted to the ways the locals live.  We bought much of our food for breakfast and lunch from small and large grocery stores throughout the island, and consisted mostly of baguettes, cheese, lunch meats, pineapples, mangos, and coconuts. The roulottes are food trucks or caravans of food, much like Off the Grid, where groups of trucks come together and set up out-door mini restaurants with set menus with everything from chinese food, pizza, ice cream, crepes, bbq, seafood and poisson cru, an amazing dish of raw tuna with vegetables, marinated in lime and coconut juice.  This is where the Tahitians gather with their families to eat good local food at reasonable prices. This is the best place to witness local life.