The van I bought was full of all kinds of toys to pass time. One of the things was a kids swimming ring. Couple of weeks ago I found myself at the end of a dirt road. The van worked perfectly through winding roads and sketchy river crossings. Hot springs and hiking kept me busy for couple of days. One day I came up with an idea to come down the rapids with the swimming ring. I had no idea if it would work or not.

The river looked quite strong and I had never done any rafting. The water was freezing and I was told the rapids were probably category 3. I had a memory of the scale going from 1-5, excluding Grand Canyon, so I it at least sounded doable. At the end there was only one way to find out what would happen. I ran the hiking trail with slippers and shorts. On the way I met lots of locals coming down from the mountains with heavy backpacks or hunting gear. It was the end of labour weekend and the trail was buzzing downhill.

After jogging for an hour and a half I arrived to a hut by the river. A young couple was at first looking me weirdly. The girl smiled and wished me luck as I launched myself to the rapids. There were some butterflies in my stomach as I sat on my ring. I was a bit worried for my bottom. The rocks were scraping it every now and then. After making through couple of kinky spots I fell and while climbing back on top of the ring I realized that laying on my stomach was a better way to avoid bone-rock collisions. After that it was pure pleasure-mayhem. I felt like flying 10 centimeters on top of water. Who wants to walk on water if you can fly on it! Rapid sections went by and I got a few bumps and bruises on the way down but other that it was just pure fun.

After an hour of flying I was getting cold. My 2mm wetsuit was just and just enough. Then I saw my red shopping bag hanging from a tree and German guys from the camping ground fishing by the river. I saluted them, climbed out of the river, took my shopping bag, stripped, put on my shorts, and walked 50 meters uphill and jumped into a hot pool.

Arriving to Marquesas Island of Fatu Hiva having just suffered some set backs with health was quite the experience. Amazing landscape and friendly people all around. People practicing for the annual dance festivals was quite intense experience. The landscape in Fatu Hiva was spectacular. Then again that was the case in every place.

Next up was Hiva Oa where I just jumped of from the first catamaran and changed to another one of the same manufacturer, just a one step bigger. Oh and the catamaran was missing it’s mast.

We motored to Tuamotus which is an island group consisting of tens of atolls. I always thought that atolls are small places where you can swim across the whole ring. Well it turned out that these atolls where huge and you couldn’t even see the other side. I saw my first world cup football match on an atoll called Ahé. Ghana – Paragua. Epic extra time and penalties!

The idea of stopping at different atolls was to search for waves to surf. We found some but my skills were gone or had never existed the way I though. The South African boys were killing it and I was just sitting on my board and trying to figure out how it all was suppose to work.

After a more than a week in Tuamotus we arrived to Tahiti. Oh man, it all looked so unreal. This crowded island with an actual city on it was something else. They even cleaned the phone booths in the morning. Big yachts and expensive everything was the norm. They even had a mac-store to change my blown up hard drive. My yearly e-reboot was over due. Some stuff was lost but not as much as a year ago in Mexico when unfriendly men mugged me.

Pretty soon after arriving to Tahiti it was my birthday, It also happened to be an epic wave day at the local pass and it’s reef break. I almost got a sweet wave but ended up getting hammered by the waves. Now I know what it feels to be scratching reef while moving high speed underwater and getting sandwiched by a board and big wave. Also it was the solar eclipse and football final so all and all it was a good day.

After so many months living on other peoples boats it was hard to let go of that easy feeling of not having to plan about tomorrow. I practiced independence on a 3 day hike on an island right next to Tahiti called Moorea. Beautiful island where I went walking for 3 days just with my tent and too much stuff.

First night I slept without a permission on someones forrest nearly getting lost there. Next night a beach guard invited me to his house because the beach was apparently dangerous place to sleep. Last night of that trip I slept on some river bank. All beautiful places.

After that I returned to the safety of the catamaran for couple of days to get rid of my flue and after that took all my belongings with me and decided to go somewhere. Trevor the South African baker & star observer recommended a beach break in Papara. It was suppose to have some sort of camping place somewhere. I took a bus, saw a river and a wave and jumped off. After 5 minutes of asking around I found a place called Taharuu Surf Lodge. Too easy.

I could put my tent on their lawn crowded by roosters and chickens. The place was cheap considering Tahiti and the owners where extremely polite. “No problem!” Every night I woke up to the sound of roosters at 1 a.m unless it was raining. During those rainy nights instead I just got soaked because my tent wasn’t really all that waterproof.

After almost a week of surfing I had gotten my confidence back and I could call my surfing surfing again. Sweet. Then it happened, I broke one of my fins on the rocks. Without any spare fins I decided to call it a surf. I went to Papeete to buy a plane ticket to New Zealand.

All this time I had some flyers out where I was trying to find a boat to New Zealand. Literally minutes after paying my flight I checked my email and saw an offer. I cancelled my flight and went to see the boat. I didn’t get convinced and called the airline again. The flight was back on. I got another offer but decided the ignore it.

All and all my hikes in French Polynesia were epic. Short and undemanding hikes which made up in the scenery. The last hike of 40km through Tahiti was by far my favorite. 3 nights sleeping in the rain and getting soaked by the constant rain was an incredible walk. The only tourists I saw where once a day coming with 4WD´s and looking at me and scratching their heads. Hiking in Tahiti and French Polynesia is quite rare. Then again when you look at the average tourists in these islands it’s no surprise.

Last morning was Sunday and there were no busses to be seen. I hitchhiked to the airport and hopped on an airplane.

So that is my Polynesia experience in a nut shell. I hope the photos will give some depth to these words.

French Polynesia in 100 photos or 5:27 minutes (No idea why the quality is so bad…)

What did I learn of all this? If you see a bird flying over you in the sea it does NOT automatically mean that land is close by.

I’m starting to repeat myself. Photos and countries keep changing but diet is the same. I’m not talking about just beans and tortillas but about the challenges I’m facing. Mountains, oceans, heat, cold… It’s all becoming one. There are still moments of zen when I’m able to stop and enjoy the surroundings but I feel that my hunger for doing things is changing.

I have this itchy feeling in my chest and it’s not the horrible rash on my chest that is bothering me. Although the rash is pretty god damn painful and it burns like hell. Then again, I can deal with the burning pain but what I can’t deal with is the fact that I’m missing ‘the’ challenge. I do have my surf board and that is physical challenge for life but that’s not what I’m looking for. It took only the worst earthquake UN has ever encountered to realize all this.

I was two mouse clicks away from buying a flight to Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic but then I hesitated for a second and that was enough. After walking back and forth on the porch of my hostel I decided to still continue repeating myself. There is no point on looking back on that decision but still something changed at that moment.

Three hours later I woke up. It was 3 a.m and I took a two day hike. Quetzaltrekkers ( the very same organization that I spent 6 weeks with in Guatemala) also has an office in Nicaragua and I decided to see the local volcanos with them. It was an awesome hike except I got sick. I don’t know what it was but on the second day I was just exhausted and felt like shit.

Still, seeing a long line of volcanos, running down one of them, sleeping on one of them under the stars and finally swimming in one of them was a fun experience.

Overdosing on fun is not that much fun anymore.

Worth mentioning is that I’m starting to hate my computer and internet more and more every day. My interest for blogging isn’t at it’s peak at the moment, as some of you might have noticed. I’ve got tons of nice video clips I’d like to share but just don’t have the time and energy for that. I’m still taking lots of photos but the whole photography thing is starting to turn into to this love and hate relationship. I love taking photos, but I hate choosing and putting them online – especially when it’s not cold and dark outside. The purpose of all that energy spend infornt of computer is becoming a big question mark. In the future this blog might turn into a photography blog. It’s hard to find motivation to write about things when you know that words will never do justice for the places and people you meet along the way.

That’s enough of analyzing. I have to start making backup DVD’s of my photos. Soon it’s time to move on.