Blogs from Bora Bora, French Polynesia, Oceania - page 3

ADVENTURES IN PARADISE We arrived in Tahiti earlier than schedule which was fortunate because on Saturday everything shuts down around noon. The wharf is right in the heart of downtown which makes it very convenient for exploring this trading town. We always like to go to the Marché de Papeete—the community market—to pick up a bouquet of gorgeous tropical flowers or buy a new pareo—the colorful Tahitian version of a sarong. Along with Tahitian handicrafts, the market has fruits, vegetables, fish, eggs—it’s an all-in-one shopping stop. On the way we passed a group of Tahitian men assembled on a sidewalk, each with a musical instrument, having an islander style hootenanny. One inventive musician was using a plastic water bottle filled with small rocks, giving the music a distinctive beat. We went to their version of Macy’s, ... read more

We stayed at Bora Bora Pearl Resort. Arriving in Bora Bora was amazing. We stayed on an overwater bungalow which was awesome! The Pearl is great for snorkeling off your balcony because is has a reef nursery with tons of fish and it has a reef under every bungalow's glass coffee table. At night if you just hang out on your balcony with the lights on the water you can see stingrays and sharks swim by your room! It was incredible. We started the next day early with a 4 hour Land Rover “Safari” around the island. It was beautiful. The roads were narrow, dirt, rock, and really steep. They took us to a view point (really a communications antenna station), to a pearl farm, old WW2 cannons left there by the U.S. and to an ... read more

On the start of our trip from Papeete Tahiti to Brisbane Australia, I was unable to download pictures. Hopefully I have fixed the problem and will now be able to share some of the sites we visited.... read more

BORA BORA There isn’t much I can add to what has been said about this island. It is spectacularly beautiful. Mt. Otemanu dominates the view. There is one pass through the reef and we cruise into the lagoon at noon. The lagoon is a palette of blues and greens. The deep water where we anchor is cobalt blue. Then deep aqua, light aqua, turquoise, baby blue, blue green all the colors and shades of the blue/green colors are there. Our tours were arranged in advance but when we arrived on the dock, we found out that they had been cancelled since I had not responded to their e-mails. I can only guess that their e-mails went into my spam mailbox and I deleted them. Mieva worked her phones (two) and managed to get us on the ... read more

I made a mental note of how beautiful the mountain looked in the bright morning sunshine as we walked down for breakfast. Vlad came over and explained to us that he wouldn’t be able to take us directly to the airport motu in his speedboat as it was still too choppy over that part of the island. He’d tried to find someone else with a bigger boat but couldn’t so instead he explained that we’d have to go back directly across to the mainland, then travel around the island by taxi to get to the airport shuttle boat. We spent the morning taking as many pictures and videos of the place to help us remember how beautiful it is. Vlad gave us a large shell to use as a soap dish as a leaving gift. It ... read more