The first thing we noticed on Tahiti was that we were being treated like an islander! The French «vous», as a polite form, is not known here. This is only needed when speaking in the plural. (In the Lonely Planet we read that this is not meant to be disrespectful, but to show proximity!)

What striked us later, on Raivavae and Rurutu, is that you greet each other when you meet on the road – mostly there is only one that leads around the island. Every car driver, every motorcyclist and every cyclist waves friendly when we met them on our bikes. Everyone knows each other on an island that has less than 1,000 (Raivavae) or just over 2,000 (Rurutu) inhabitants. And after a few days they know the few tourists too!

What is less sympathetic is that you have to wear now a mask almost everywhere you go. After the teachers returned from their holidays in France – most of them without having taken a test, as is required by tourists – and after the schools have reopened, the number of Covid 19 cases increases here. «Mask on» is the order of the day!

PS. I wonder what people will think of this mask-wearing requirement in twenty years? But maybe by then you will be born wearing a mask …