Tatoos and Flowers

Keith Haring type stele on a stele 


Sacred Eel
Lovely polynesian women.

 This place reminds me of the Hawaii I knew as a kid.  Here are some of the flowers but there are so many types of hibiscus and gardenias.  

We dove again on a reef yesterday but there was lots of current and we ended up grabbing rocks to keep from being pulled down current but while hanging on a rock we saw a huge school of large barracudas. Very stunning with their stripes. Done diving on Huahine for now.

Today we rented a car and went to a small museum of history and culture. I loved the illustrations of tatous.  There is a huge tatou festival in Tahiti held once a year. Lots of tatted people show up and are tatted on site.

Apparently the Marqueses had the best tattoo.


Sorry I don’t know how to rotate these but you get the idea. Some of the designs are styalized faces and were to protect them from evil. others are images of animals representing qualities like health, luck, fertility or strength.  Herman Melville wrote a great novel called “Omoo” that is a good read about the southern seas.

Here is a photo of why I love Polynesian women.  They hang out together making things and just sit in the ocean, talking and telling jokes. Love it!  Unlike them I am covered from head to toe out here in the sun.

We also went to see the sacred eels that have blue eyes. They are supposed to be the reincarnation of royal ancestors.  I’d rather be a rooster than an eel.  They rule the roost here and can be heard before sunup in a great chorus followed later by the quack of ducks. Late but present.
Bougainville 
Nice flower
Hibiscus
Nice flower

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