Bora Bora Fin

Well now I'm sick, so we are all scraping by over here in this house. Literally we are all half dead.

FRIDAY

Morning walk. 

This shepherd would join us for a little bit every day along this stretch. 

One day we came upon a husband and wife and their net full of fish! So many fish.

I asked "do you eat all that?" and they said yes.

They call Diet Coke "Coka Light" in Bora Bora and it doesn't taste the same. Way less sweet. 

coka light. I say that over and over.

Today's adventure: kayak to deserted island, visit the sister resort Thalasso.

We took the kayaks out due south from our Bungalows. Our boat guide told us to go check it out. It was deserted of course.

For the THIRD time we have a beach all to ourselves. 

We called it shell island. It was covered in those weird lip like shells. 

The choral was pretty shallow, so I got two coral scrapes on my leg. It's the strangest - you barely touch it and it shreds your leg. I still have scabs from it. 

There was a lot of mouthy corals and spikey black balls. 

We swam to the outer limits of the atoll. It's a weird feeling for some reason. Like it's the edge of the world. 

Then we paddled over to the coral gardens aquarium again, and this time we found this:

Every night they have turn down service and they leave these treats for you. One night our resident lizard was licking the cookie. 

Friday was probably the hottest of all the days! My legs got sunburned. 

We took a massive Siesta that day. 

Jamie and Andy went over to Thalasso earlier than us. Jim and I Siesta'd and exercised. 

We rode a boat over to Thalasso at sunset. 

The view over there is so pretty! Like someone made it on purpose - like Disneyland facade. 

Thalasso is on the edge island of the atoll, so there were actual waves! It was weird to suddenly HEAR the sounds of the ocean. 

We explored the grounds and watched the sunset. 

Then headed back to eat dinner at our restaurant. I got goat cheese ravioli mmmm that was so good. 

SATURDAY

We did all our morning stuff  - walk, breakfast - a little bit dragging our feet. It's sad to leave vacation.

We lingered longest at breakfast, going back for seconds, thirds, fourths. More than one hot chocolate, more than one croissont. We sat at the table until the chair indentions were etched in our legs. 

Jamie and I went snorkeling off our porches one last time. We found some cool shells! My cool shell still had a critter inside it, so I tossed it back in the water with a yelp. 

Good bye Bungalow 73

This is when the water got my shoes wet. 

LARSINGTON!

Once we got kicked out of our bungalows, we hung out by the pool, called the kids from the library, visited the market one last time. 

And then our boat taxi took us back to the airport...

About three years ago Andy texted us:

"Start losing weight and saving money - for Jamie's 40th birthday we are going big"

Jamie only found out about it at new years - a surprise! 

And now it's over and done. All these precious memories stored up. 

Let's all start losing weight and saving money for the next trip! Where should we go? 

Bora Bora by Boat

THURSDAY

Morning walk.

A lot of the "sand" is actually big pieces of coral since there are no waves to smash them up. 

You know it's the end of breakfast when Jim and Andy would get their mugs of hot chocolate.

We had a tight schedule this morning - return the scooters to Avis, be at the boat dock by 9:00 for our snorkel tour. 

Today's adventure: explore via boat.

We hired this guy to take us around the island to see some cool snorkel spots. 

He spoke a mixture of Tahitian, French, and English. 

I understood about 20 percent. 

We told him to skip the aquarium since we had already explored that hot spot. 

So he took us to a place where manta rays hang out.

This water was darker and deeper, so you had to look down low to see the mantas. 

There were lots of scooba divers down there. 

After swimming pretty far (wishing we had put on flippers like Jamie!) we saw the faint outline of the manta. We followed it for a while and eventually were able to see him better. 

So cool!

Next he asked us if we wanted to see sharks outside or inside? I didn't really understand what that meant, 

but he was asking if we wanted to go outside the atoll to where the big ocean is. 

We wanted to be able to really see the sharks, and we thought the outer ocean would be hard to see...

so we were a little bummed when he took us outside the reef through the only opening to the outer ring...

until immediately we could see the sharks! They were bright white against the darker water, and the coral down below was so different and colorful. 

This was the most epic of all the snorkeling we did. 

Obviously pictures don't do it justice, but it was the coolest coloring and lighting, and the sharks swam RIGHT UP TO YOU. They were like the street dogs, they would came near you but were not one bit bothered by you. 

It was so awesome. 

The last spot was to the most aqua waters where the sting rays hang out. 

They came right up to the guides. I think they feed them often because it was basically like a petting zoo.

They were quite domesticated. 

There were also more sharks swimming around in this shallow water. 

They were so big and soft.

Our guide continued around the complete circle of the island and pointed out cool things. 

See the face in the rock?

He also talked about politics of the island. Things like:

His generation loves Americans. During WWII the Americans built the one road around the island and built the airport (the French didn't do these things for the Bora Borans)

Many of the local people make a lot of money from Airbnb their homes - but they don't really have anything to spend their money on.

We passed the King of Spain's giant black sail boat dock in the bay. There are so many rich people visiting Bora Bora. 

Some of the mega rich resorts (Four Seasons) don't employ the local people - they import workers from other countries. (This could also be because they need more employees than there are people on the tiny island.)

Siesta time.

Here are some of my favorite treasures found while snorkeling.

There's our bungalow.

We decided to venture out and eat at Bora Bora Beach Club.

It gets raving reviews online, but we gave it a giant MEH.

Also, the servers did NOT chirp Io Orana! at us, not once. 

But it's all so fun no matter what the food tastes like. Plus the view...