Tahiti! Tahiti! Tahiti!

For our honeymoon, husband and I went to Tahiti and stayed at a Sofitel right on the beach (http://www.southpacificdirect.com/sofitel-tahiti-resorts.html), a lovely hotel on the western coast of Tahiti. The rooms were large and comfortable and the oceanfront was very, very pretty (see above). The sand was soft, the water was warm and crystal-clear and our first experience snorkeling was fantastic. We were lucky that the weather was so perfect - not too hot, but perfectly warm.

We'd heard from numerous people how expensive everything would be in Tahiti, but we were pleasantly surprised that it really wasn't much more than LA. Plus, since Tahiti was once a French territory (and still boasts a huge population of French residents and travelers), the food is terrific! We had chocolate croissants every morning for breakfast, and paired it with fresh tropical fruits bursting with flavor. We had breakfast at the hotel each morning, and we had most lunches from fresh sandwich, fruit or other stands. I even suckered husband into trying a horsemeat burger (due to, among other things, a beef shortage). Since husband does not speak French, I decided to wait until after lunch to tell him to get a more honest assessment of the taste. He liked it, but said he would not eat it again knowing that it was horsemeat. At dinner, we enjoyed several of the bistro-style restaurants in the Papeete area, most of which we later learned were actually owned by French ex-pats. We also had fresh fish at the hotel a few times.

As far as shopping, we didn't bother with much of it. We did buy the obligatory Tahitian Black Pearls (http://www.perlesdetahiti.net/site/en/home.html), which we were pleased to learn were quite a bit less expensive than in the U.S., and we also bought two hand-carved wooded tiki warrior men statues for our parents, who had contributed to and helped us with the wedding plans and preparation. The tiki statues were supposed to ward off evil spirits and protect its owners. But mostly, they were darned cute.