On our favorite island, Moorea, we wandered over to a hotel by the port and found a tour desk selling 4X4 tours of the island for $40 per person. Albert Tours had already departed, but the enterprising tour desk entrepreneur made some calls and then drove us to the first stop, a pineapple factory, where we joined the group led by Tommy, who was one of Albert‘s nephews.
Missing his front teeth, wild haired and wearing a tattered tank top, Tommy made a worse first impression than the Windstar, but he was certainly personable.
The pineapple factory turned out to have an unexpected feature: a tasting bar. At 9 AM, we were being served a sample of pineapple punch by Tommy. As we gulped it down, he said, “This one’s 10% alcohol.” He quickly poured another shot...and another...and another. The alcohol content of these pineapple and coconut based drinks jumped to 25% to 40% to 80%, with the last being a rum that he assured would make me a hero in the bedroom that night. I couldn’t help noticing the hand rolled cigarette that Tommy lit, and I thought this was really an unusual tasting room, but it turned out that he was just feeding his tobacco habit.
Off we went into the interior of the island, standing in the back of the truck as we bounced along tree lined dirt roads that often required that we duck to avoid being whacked by low branches. We stopped at a beautiful pineapple field in the heart of the volcano that is Moorea. In every direction, the views proved to be breathtaking.
Tommy told us all about pineapple plants, the business of raising pineapples and lots of things unrelated to pineapples, proving himself to be quite knowledgeable, or so he seemed after all the free drinks we downed.
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