Bora Bora - January 30

Land Ho!

Well, you'd think after 9 days at sea we would be eager to set foot on solid ground, but the first thing we do is get off the tender to board a snorkel boat!

Bora Bora is a volcanic island about 6 miles long by two and a half miles wide nestled in the South Pacific in the Leeward Group of the Society Islands of French Polynesia.

This morning we passed off the Northern most point of Bora Bora leaving Tapai to the North on the starboard side. We navigated through a 150m wide gap between 2 reefs to reach our anchor spot.

The sail in was BEAUTIFUL!

 getting the tender boats ready

on the ship tendered

Since this was an added port I had nothing set up in advance. We can’t thank Bob (a fellow Cruise Critic member) enough for hearing about the change even before we did here on the ship and setting up a snorkeling tour and inviting us. He and his wife have taken the same tour with the same company and they really enjoyed it last time. We also got an email from Jeff & Julie saying they were looking into the same trip, but we already had it booked with Bob.

We have always wanted to do a Motu Picnic on this island, but since we don’t arrive until noon the timing just won’t work. Snorkeling here should be incredible so we are excited about experiencing it! Thanks again Bob for setting that up for us! www.puresnorkeling.com

We actually got in about an hour early today, but since our tour didn’t start until 1:00 we didn’t rush off the ship. We grabbed a quick lunch and met Bob & Phyllis and Rick & Janie at the Casino Bar to get our tender tickets.

We had time to do some token shopping at the craft market as we weren’t sure if they would be open when we returned. (they were not, so it was a good call)

The speedboat arrived and Manu our guide assisted us as we boarded and got us situated on the boat. We were glad we didn’t have more than 6 of us on the boat so we could spread out a bit. Our first stop was out to the ocean to snorkel with the Black-tipped Reef Sharks. We have done that before, but these were really friendly and swam right up to us and all around us. How fun!

Here is the video that Greg got with the Go Pro: https://youtu.be/4dJVB5L-4S0

 notice this one is missing the dorsal fin (taken to make shark fin soup)

 me with the sharks

Back in the boat we sped to our next stop at Coral Gardens. There were a few fish there as well, but the corals were the main attraction. It was shallow and it was fun to navigate through the corals.

 Greg, me & Janie (and part of Bob)

 sea cucumber

Our 3^rd stop was with tons of beautiful fish. Manu gave us some bread to feed them once we got in the water. We are used to the Sargent Majors coming up to us, but the small parrotfish came up as well as some other colorful fish.

 Greg feeding fish

 me feeding the fish

 Manu - our guide

Our last stop was to see Eagle Rays and only Greg, Janie and I went in. It was a bit murky and I saw a ray soon after we got in the water, but it took off. We continued on and weren’t seeing any. I heard the guide shouting “Annette they are over here” from the boat. The 3 of us snorkeled over to the boat and we were rewarded with around 24 of the beautiful Eagle Rays. They didn’t swim away and we stayed with them quite a while before climbing into the boat for one last time. With my feet it is very hard to do the small ladders, but the guide was so helpful and grabbed fins, masks, cameras or me if needed.

 we passed our ship in the speedboat

 Rick, Bob, Janie & Greg

 Manu

Here is the video of the fish & rays: Bora Bora Fish & Rays

I would recommend this company to anyone who wants to see a wide variety of snorkeling sites and they will take great care of you. After the tour we wandered the small town for a while. I really wanted to see the Bloody Mary Restaurant & Bar, but it’s not in town and we had been told it was walkable. Carrying our snorkel stuff we started to walk in that direction, but it was not easy walking and I eventually said let’s go back. I had hoped to find the local bus that could take us there, but one never came by. On our way back a truck stopped and asked if we were headed back to the port and we said yes. He said he had made his last run of the day, but would take us back for $10 (USD). We eagerly jumped in and chatted with a nice gentleman that is an artist and he let me take his photo.

 they were selling fish

We got back on the ship and showered and went upstairs for dinner. My face got sunburned today. Since I had a pre-skin cancer thing treated with meds over a couple month period of time I hadn’t gotten much sun on my face in about 2 – 3 months, so it was an easy target for the intense sun.

Thanks again Bob for setting up such a great day!

Bora Bora is a gorgeous spot with incredibly beautiful water. It is small and uncrowded, but IS stupidly expensive. We definitely would have loved way more time here!

We missed our scheduled dinner and the evening entertainment tonight. We did check out the Polynesian Festival of the World Party. It mainly was for the people that had been doing the crafts and the ukulele lessons. They wore their leis and danced for the people that were there. We left after a short while to upload photos and get ready for our tour day tomorrow.

Picasa will still not let me upload photos to the web albums. I can do it by hand from a folder on my computer, but you can’t access that. It also takes an enormous amount of time. So, until I get a resolve for that I will be adding pictures later. I may have to switch to Flickr or something else to display the photos. Until then I will post the text and as I can I will add the photos. Sorry, faithful readers!