Christian went to a throat specialist in Tahiti, had a scan done and was declared healthy–quite a relief after a few weeks of worrying (especially after a friend who had had throat cancer told us he’d had the same symptoms…). We also used the chance of a visit in Papeete (the capital of French Polynesia) to buy 12 kilos of cat food in the gigantic Carrefour supermarket and a few items from the chandlery. We were a bit disappointed by the ‘big city’: traffic jams, rubbish, a few homeless people, no sign of the polynesian hospitality we found on the smaller islands (we tried to hitchhike back to the airport, watched the traffic jam go by for 15 minutes without a single car stopping for us…).
Now we’re happy to be back home on Pitufa, appreciating the freedom and possibilities of our cruising life even more than before.
Today there’s quite something going on in Taiohae with a giant cruise ship parked outside the bay and shuttles going back and forth all the time to take the 1200(!) passengers ashore, where a dance group welcomes them and all kinds of stands offer local art. The people only have this one stop in the Marquesas and just a few hours time–by noon they’ll be gone again 
