South Pacific and Peru -- April, 2015 -- Days 5 and 6

Day 5, April 7, 2015 … Bora Bora … a lover’s paradise.  Yes, we are here!  The island is surrounded by a lagoon and a barrier reef, and in the center of the island are remnants of an extinct volcano rising to two peaks, Mount Pahia and Mount a Otemanu.  Bora Bora is a major international tourist destination, famous for its resorts of thatched huts built on stilts over the water.  It is interesting that the original name of the island in the Tahitian language was “Pora Pora”, meaning “First Born”.  But discoverers probably misunderstood and called it Bora Bora, and the name stuck even though there is no B in the Tahitian language!

The ship anchored off the shore of Vaitape, the major town, and we tendered into the pier.  Musicians again greeted us with their lively songs, all of the gentlemen in local cultural dress. Crafters both on the pier and in town had mainly shell or pearl jewelry, wood carved items, a lot of floral fabric and some very interesting local artist paintings.

The question today was do we rent a car? Do we take an excursion around the island or tour the lagoon with its coral reef, brightly colored fish and manta rays? Do we go to the beach and lunch at the famous Bloody Mary’s?  Well … no rental cars were available to accommodate 6 people, the tours generally took 3-4 hours, leaving no time for anything else and it was very hot.  So the default decision was to take a shuttle to the beach first.  It turned out to be a fantastic decision.  Matira Beach

Barb and Marcie
Matira Beach

exhibited the perfect definition of paradise … long white coral sand beach, not a rock or pebble or anything else on that snowy white sand floor for what seemed to be forever in the lagoon.  The water was so clear you could see the bottom even yards and yards from shore. It was refreshingly warm and the turquoise color was stunning.   We could also see further out perhaps a mile or more where the waves were breaking on the  coral reef leaving a tranquil lagoon surrounding us.  And the swimming in this lagoon was heavenly! 

After about an hour, we caught another shuttle to Bloody Mary’s, the island’s more famous restaurant. It really is cute … architecturally attractive thatched roof, an open building with bright floral arrangements all around, dark wood tables and dark wood “stumps” for chairs, and a white sand floor!  Several of us had their signature Bloody Mary, of course  … quite good.  I had the mahi mahi burger, which was very tasty; and everyone else seemed to enjoy their choices as well.  The only issue was the lack of a breeze, and it really is another warm, humid day which seems to be the rule here.

After visiting the cute little Catholic Church with its dark wood crucifix surrounded in greenery and many gorgeous floral arrangements around the statutes and pictures and in the Mary grotto, we perused the shopping area, then tendered back to the ship for a nice cool shower!  

St. Pierre Celestine Catholic Church
Bora Bora, French Polynesia

Bob and I dressed and attended the Captain’s reception … free drinks and hors'd'oeuvres and introductions of the head staff. We met a nice couple who now live in Hawaii and who had many similar experiences and had been to the same places as Bob while in the Air Force.

Dinner with Skip and Cheryl and Steve ad Barb was at the Red Ginger, one of the ship’s specialty restaurants  … I had calamari with a very good sauce as an appetizer, delicious lemongrass soup and lobster pad thai, plus a rum-soaked cake with cardamom ice cream for dessert … wow!  Bob had an interesting and very tasty salad.  It came in a bowl with the salad itself of duck, various other chopped vegetables in a delicious sauce piled in the shape of a cone over watermelon.  His sea bass also had outstanding presentation … on the narrow oval plate, the sea bass was set on a banana leaf with the ends of that leaf brought over the top and clipped together. The roasted Sea Bass was so sweet it tasted like dessert. What a wonderful experience and culinary feast!

So we leave Bora Bora with many things undone or unseen, but we did experience the flavor of the island – its beauty not only of the ocean and landscape but of the people as well!

Day 6, April 8, 2015 … The Island of Rangiroa.  Have you ever heard of it??  I didn’t either until this trip. It is the largest atoll in French Polynesia (An atoll is a ring-shaped reef formed out of coral).  They say when the island is viewed from the air it looks like a giant string of pearls laying on the ocean, as there are coral reefs completely surrounding the island, with the turquoise and jade-green lagoon in between the two.  The islands themselves are narrow and quite flat … no mountains here, just lush greenery on land, gorgeous blues, blue-greens and turquoise at sea.  It is also considered a divers’ paradise, second only to Australia’s Barrier Reef, to view the coral, the many beautiful fish, rays, sharks, etc., etc, etc.  Black pearl farming, coconut plantations and recent vineyards are important to this local economy.

Glimpse of Rangoria, French Polynesia

The ship anchored off shore in the lagoon which is large enough to encircle the entire island of Tahiti and we again tendered to the island.  As in the other islands, we were greeted with local music and vendors selling their crafts.  We were looking for Seascope, a semi-submersible vehicle in which to view the coral reefs and all its wonder, but there was simply nothing available except some diving and some snorkeling excursions. 

At the local cafe in Rangiroa

After a drink and exploring what little there was in the vicinity of the pier, we came back to the ship. However, Bob did decide to do some snorkeling, so here is his description of that experience:

“We left the pier in a skiff and were transported about a mile away to an area about 30 ft deep with a coral bottom and many, many fish. We were given face masks and snorkels but no fins, because we would swim too far, and went in the water. We could see hundreds of fish on the bottom but when the boat driver threw in some chum, the fish went nuts. Hundreds of fish of numerous varieties swarmed us and the chum. Grey and black and purple, striped. One variety about 10 inches long had a nose that stuck out about 3 inches from their faces. When I asked the locals what they called the fish with the long noses, they replied “long nose.” Go figure! They grill the pink meat over charcoal. Very good to eat, they say. We also saw some small sharks on the bottom, but they did not come up for the chum. After an hour another boat came out and transported us back because our boat had a dead battery. Pretty low budget operation, but the people were friendly and helpful telling us about their islands and families while we waited.”

Our group enjoyed participating in the ship’s Trivia competition, then a drink and then another gourmet dinner, this time a buffet of French Polynesian food … lobster, swordfish, tuna cooked to order, Polynesian pork, spring rolls, and many other wonderful tastes I’d not experienced before!  Paradise.