From: Joe Huntington
Subject: Barefoot in Tahiti
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 1995 01:25 EST

I recently went on vacation to the islands of Tahiti and Moorea in the
South Pacific with another barefooter, Dave. You can go barefoot just
about anywhere on both islands. Moorea is about a half hour boat ride from
Tahiti. On Tahiti the only major city is Papeete. We walked barefoot
throughout much of downtown Papeete. I enjoyed feeling the different
street and sidewalk textures under my soles. The main streets were
smoothly paved but some of the side streets had a coarse texture. the
sidewalks ranged from smooth cement, to rough cement, pebble surface
cement, ceramic tile, and even some marble.  Most people wore flip-flops
but there were quite a few who went barefoot.

We actually spent more time on the island of Moorea than we did on Tahiti.
Moorea is very laidback.  There are no cities on Moorea, only villages.
Going barefoot is a way of life for many in Moorea. We saw barefoot
construction workers building a house. they were walking on the roof beams
and nailing plywood to the beams. I'm sure they had a much better sense of
balance on the roof being barefoot than they would have if they had been
wearing shoes.  Further up the road we saw a barefoot construction worker
operating a heavy duty construction "caterpillar" (?) that scooped up dirt
and loaded it into dump trucks. Still further up the road we saw some more
barefoot workers mixing cement, loading it into wheelbarrels, pushing the
wheelbarrels then dumping the wet cement onto a new driveway.

Most mornings in Moorea we began the day by going to breakfast barefoot at
a restaurant that was built over the water.  Many of the patrons and
employees were barefoot :) Most evenings we wentto a more formal
restaurant barefoot for dinner. We were always warmly greeted by the
hostess. She wore flip-flops but there were other barefoot patrons and the
waiters were barefoot :) One day I went barefoot hiking on a trail through
some of the interior of Moorea. Parts of the trail were muddy.  I enjoyed
the feeling of mud squishing between my toes. Some parts of the trail were
covered with leaves. Other parts were rocky. There were also sections with
exposed roots which I enjoyed gripping with my toes. I hiked for about two
or three hours then got back to the main road(paved) that circles the
island.  From there I walked about three miles back to the hotel. On the
main road there were more motor scooters than there were cars. Moorea
apparently has a helmet law but no barefoot laws. All the motor scooter
drivers and passangers I saw were wearing helmets, but many were barefoot
and most of the others wore flip-flops.

Joe