First stop: Tahiti

Hi Everyone,

Bonjour from French Polynesia.  I arrived last night around midnight, and even though finding a hotel was a sweaty and frustrating disaster through the streets of downtown Papeete, I finally found a place and settled in.  I haven't seen much of the town or the island yet, but I'm hoping to get to that today.

Papeete itself is kind of strange... it's kind of poor, but it's surrounded by shops and boats that target Westerners on their honeymoons, so it's kind of hit or miss.  It's only 7:45 am right now, but the streets are clogged with traffic.

Got a bunch of e-mails and messages from a few of you, and it was so nice of you to write.  Keep them coming, and you know I'll get back to you whenever I can.