Matira

Beautiful Bora Bora.
We had breakfast on the Aquavit Terrace as we were approaching Bora Bora.
Bora Bora is a dormant volcano. The lagoon is actually the volcano's caldera which is surrounded by a barrier reef.
We chose to do a snorkeling excursion called the South Pacific Lagoon. Bora Bora is a Port that the ship anchors so we used a tender and met our tour in the dock at 11:20 AM. We boarded a small motor boat with about 8 guests. We were given a brief explanation about Bora Bora and the lagoon before we headed off to our snorkeling spot.
Bora Bora proved to be spectacular both above and below the water. Unfortunately, we did not have the Pritchett's underwater camera with us. I guess we were not meant so show one of the few vibrant, healthy coral reefs that we have seen in the last 10 years.
As everyone else in the boat were ready to go on to next stop and staring at Bob and I, we figured that we should get back on the boat before there was a replay of "Mutiny on the Bounty" renamed "Mutiny in Bora Bora because of Bob and Brenda". So reluctantly, we reboarded the boat.
Our next stop was just off the only beach on Bora Bora. We were treated to fruit punch and fresh fruit served to us as we floated in crystal waters with white sand created by the wave action on the coral reef. I was in absolute heaven.
Again, Bob and I were the last ones back on the boat.
We were quickly transported back to the marina.
Our next tour was at 2:45 PM. We had a brief time to spend walking through the arts and crafts market before we had to check in for "Le Truck Island Drive". Le Truck sounds so refined....the actual truck...not so much. Le Truck was an old school bus with its top cut off, no windows, no air conditioning and plastic chairs affixed to the bed of the truck. But we did have cushions on our plastic chairs and the truck was painted in vibrant colors. Since there was no air conditioning, we were so glad that it was not as hot as last time we were in Bora Bora. We are about a month earlier than the last time that we visited. This is good for a couple of reasons. One, it is not as hot in Bora Bora. Two, seas are rougher! Woohoo! I keep thinking that God may give me a bit of seasickness just so I can empathize with others who are wearing patches, wrist bands, eating green apples and ginger, and looking totally miserable.
This was our first experience of seeing the landside of Bora Bora. The theme of Bora Bora is chickens, dogs, land crabs and vegetation. There are free range chickens and dogs everywhere. Land crabs are also very numerous. They can be a great source of food for locals but need to be place in a container for 3 weeks and fed fresh fruits and vegetables. The reason behind this is to clean out their intestinal tract as they are quite the scavengers. This makes me question my love for sea based crabs.
Our first stop on our luxuriously appointed trip was at an open air "clothing factory". They gave us a demonstration of how they took 100% Chinese cotton, tie died it, and then put plastic cut out on the drying cloth which resulted in bleached outlines of the cutouts.
We continued to drive around the entire island with several stops at scenic overlooks. I continue to be amazed at the density of the vegetation.
Since I had not eaten from before our first tour of the day, even those chickens and crabs were in danger of losing their lives to a ravenous Brenda by the time our tour ended.Read more