This was the view from the tour bus. It is very expensive to live beyond the main road because of a lack of utilities and no easy way to get building materials up into the mountains.
Anything docked off shore has to be lifted on stilts so sea worms don’t eat holes in the hulls of the boats. Boats and jet skis are up on stilts all around the island.
Tahitian pareo drying in the breeze. A pareo is a traditional tie-dyed cotton fabric used as a wrap. They hand dye the fabric with dyes made from all natural materials from the islands, mostly fruits and flowers.
Fresh bananas. Every house has their own fruit trees because produce is so expensive in the markets. Each home grows bananas, mangoes, papaya, bread fruit, grapefruit, coconut and noni plants. Those are the staples in a typical garden. Oh, and they grow the best pineapple in the world—I’m not kidding.
The harvest from the garden: mango, papaya, grapefruit and that screwy looking bumpy one in the front is breadfruit. The locals throw it in the fire until the skin is black then it’s ready to eat.
This breadfruit was as big as a football.
The ladies room at the famous “Bloody Mary’s” bar. No door to go in. No walls on the one side. You can look outside as you wait for the stall. The stalls have low saloon doors. There is a communal hand towel for drying your hands.
The sink at Bloody Mary’s isn’t a sink but a fountain– a rock fountain. You pull a wooden circle on a string for the water. The pull sets off a timer with a trickle of water.
These are the natural dyes used to make the pareos. Artisans twist the cotton fabric and dip it in various colors to get the desired pattern.
This is the drying process for the pareos. They have to be stretched tight, and black plastic cut outs are added on top. For some reason, the sun darkens the exposed parts leaving the part under the plastic faded.
This is the island’s Protestant church. The island has every denomination and on Sunday, nearly the entire island is at church singing.
Pretty bromeliads growing at the pareo stand.
Paroisse Saint Pierre-Celestin Church, which is across the street from the dock on the island’s main road. It is surrounded by pearl shops.
View from the small port dock. We had to take a tender boat in from the ship. No large vessels can fit in the area.
Another pareo drying in the sun. Many homes had them drying in their yards.
