Fantasy Island - part 2
Due to difficulties with the internet, we are now doing part 2 of Thursday's blog. Things seem to be working better now. So, following our time on the 'Fantasy Island' motu (our name, not its real name), off we went on our speed boat to Tahaa island to visit a vanilla farm. Tahaa is a beautiful tropical island and after a short walk from the dock, we arrived at the vanilla farm.
Vanilla beans come from a vine and the flowers last only one day in which they must be hand pollinated or the flower dies and no beans grow from it. We learned about the different types of vanilla and things like vanilla paste, and vanilla powder.
It was very interesting and then we had a snack of breadfruit chips, which were very good. We visited the small vanilla shop and Karen came away with some Tahitian vanilla extract.
We had a perfect day and found out that the cruise that took place right before us had many rain days and had to have several of their excursions canceled because of the rain. We are very grateful that we have not had much rain and we could do all we planned.
After our return to the ship, we watched a show of Polynesian dancers with some very cute children dancers. The were very good and we enjoyed watching them in their very colorful costumes and floral headdresses.
Later we enjoyed dinner in another of the Marina's specialty restaurants - Jacques, a French themed restaurant. We ate with two Chinese sisters who travel a lot together and really enjoyed talking to them. We found out that one of them had taken 56 cruises plus other non cruise trips. It seems she travels almost constantly even though she has a home in Los Angeles. So for those of you who think we travel a lot, I guess we have a lot of catching up to do.
Karen doesn't think she could keep us with those ladies!
We were given a short 'class' on growing vanilla.
Vanilla beans come from a vine and the flowers last only one day in which they must be hand pollinated or the flower dies and no beans grow from it. We learned about the different types of vanilla and things like vanilla paste, and vanilla powder.
The vine.
We had a perfect day and found out that the cruise that took place right before us had many rain days and had to have several of their excursions canceled because of the rain. We are very grateful that we have not had much rain and we could do all we planned.
After our return to the ship, we watched a show of Polynesian dancers with some very cute children dancers. The were very good and we enjoyed watching them in their very colorful costumes and floral headdresses.
Later we enjoyed dinner in another of the Marina's specialty restaurants - Jacques, a French themed restaurant. We ate with two Chinese sisters who travel a lot together and really enjoyed talking to them. We found out that one of them had taken 56 cruises plus other non cruise trips. It seems she travels almost constantly even though she has a home in Los Angeles. So for those of you who think we travel a lot, I guess we have a lot of catching up to do.
Karen doesn't think she could keep us with those ladies!
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