July 29, 2012
The main town in Huahine is Fare. It’s small, but it does have a couple of eateries, shops, a small resort hotel, and it’s famous among cruisers for its large grocery store. (Cruisers are crazy about large grocery stores!) We headed in and found a small town that reminded me of the old section of La Paz, a favorite town in the Sea of Cortez area of Mexico. It was pretty and had a peaceful, even sleepy feeling. Of course, that may have been because it was Sunday and nothing was open.
We wanted to find a spot for lunch and after striking out in town, we headed to the resort in hopes their restaurant might be open. It was, and it was a really pretty spot. We ordered some food and a couple of beers and relaxed while we watched a mom teach her joyful child how to dive into the pool. The waitress came by with small ramekin with something in it. Was this some complimentary taste treat? I pulled it over to look at it, and she said, “For the flies.” There are flies? I smelled it and it turned out to be a vinegar-soaked paper towel.
We soon got our food, and it was delicious. It turns out the local flies share our opinion as they showed up soon after the food did. It wasn’t too bad as we mostly waved them away or ignored them. I don’t know what the vinegar cloth was supposed to accomplish, maybe repel them? I don’t know how well it worked, but I suppose it made the hotel feel like they were doing something about the problem. We enjoyed the lunch in spite of the intruders, but I did wonder if they’d be an annoyance during our stay.
That evening, things improved in the anchorage after a couple of boats left and it suddenly felt a lot more roomy. Now we had space around us, nice conditions, and felt very comfortable. The next day we planned to motor down to the south end of the island to an anchorage reputed to be one of the nicest in French Polynesia.
