Paradise Lost

Aloha tout le monde! We have spent last week on....Tahiti! I am writing this from the States now, I am running behind with updating the blog:-( So posts about the Sates as from next week!

We didn't come up with the idea of visiting Tahiti ourselves, it was the agent who helped us booking the round the world ticket who suggested to take a break on either Fiji, Cook Islands or Tahiti so we thought: why not? How often do you get the chance to visit one of these 'million-miles-away' islands? As by wonder, Benoit found out a little later that he had a cousin living in the capital, Papeete, so we contacted her and things couldn't have been any smoother. She and her partner invited us to stay  at their place for the whole week, they picked us up at the airport, drove us around the island, took us for dinner, cooked for us....We've truly been spoilt in this heavenly place! 

Tahiti is French territory and it used to attract many tourists until a few years back. The crisis has hit the Polynesian island extremely hard and tourists are staying away now. We saw plenty of luxurious hotels, like the Hilton and the Sofitel that had to close their doors and are now empty, abandoned and overgrown. Lots of people lost their jobs and without a decent unemployment system, fell into poverty. Another source of income, fishing, is being threatened as well since Korea and Japan signed an agreement with French Polynesia and are now allowed to 'empty' the seas. As a result, unemployment on Tahiti is very high and people haven't got many alternatives. It's quite sad because they live in one of the most beautiful and colorful paces on earth.