From Pā’ōfa’i Gardens our plan is to explore downtown Papeete and visit the shops and restaurants. But first we continue along the boulevard to the cruise dock which is empty today. In fact the whole city is eerily empty including the streets. Which is nice for exploring but we are not sure what it means for the shops and especially the market we plan to visit today.
We decide to explore one more thing, Place Vai’ete which in the evening is full of food trucks. But we are not sure how it is during the day so that is why we want to explore it.
Unfortunately it is quite empty today with no food trucks or people or anything else. It is also without shade and quite hot today so we decide it is time to visit the stores on the other side of the boulevard.
Unfortunately all the stores are closed except one visitor center which is open but seems completely uninterested in us. At least we get a map which is quite helpful to find the attractions in the downtown area as we return back to the AirBnB.
First we make our way to the Papeete Market one of the major attractions in Papeete. Which not surprisingly is closed as everything is closed. We at least hope to make it to a cafe which seems to be open online but is closed on site also. So we just look through the grates, take some photos, and move on.
We continue on with everything being closed except one single souvenir shop which predictably is full of tourists. And also very expensive so we move on exploring the downtown area.
Next is the Notre Dame Cathedral one of the major churches in downtown Papeete. Unfortunately it is closed and there are quite a few workers close by so we explore it from outside also finding the zero kilometer starting point for this island. Which is always important here as many businesses and places are marked as how far they are from the zero kilometer stone.
Close by is the Assembly of French Polynesia, close on Sunday obviously and unexpectedly full of homeless people in the nearby parks. But they do not pay us any attention which is nice and we enjoy the beautiful buildings nearby while making our way back towards the AirBnB.
The most dangerous looking park is Bougainville Park that we avoid going through due to the shear number of homeless but enjoy from the entrance which has cannons and lots of statues.
The return is faster as we try to avoid the heat and arriving at the AirBnB we decide to eat from our newly bought provisions before taking our car and exploring the rest of the island with the major goal being the famous Polynesian history museum further away.
