Bora Bora

I found Bora Bora to be boring boring.  This South Seas island is the quintessential tropical island:  a small mountainous volcanic island covered in lush vegetation, surrounded by a ring of coral reefs and 30 tiny islets with lagoons of blues and greens.  The crystal clear waters of the lagoon is what makes Bora Bora so special.  Stunning colors range from the palest turquoise to dark blue.  Vibrant tropical fish can be seen through the clear water with no special equipment needed.  It is a perfect place to snorkel and dive.

The correct spelling should be Pora Pora as there is no B in the Polynesian language.  Bora Bora was the inspiration for James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific and the musical South Pacific.  The island was a strategic refueling station for allied forces in the Pacific theater during WWII.

There are sandy beaches, but I did not see any.  My quest to find a beautiful sandy beach and bob around in the warm ocean waters was squashed again.  We did not have access to the beaches on the islets.  It appears that there is one public beach on the island (it was too far to get to in the time allotted) and the rest are “private.”  That is the resorts charge a use fee for beach access.  One couple told me that they went to the Inter-Continental Hotel to have lunch and were told there would be $165 beach use fee plus the cost of lunch.  They did not want to use the beach, just have lunch.  After some negotiation, the manager agreed to waive the fee and they had a terrible salad for only $71. 

Rooms at the resorts, those little grass huts built over the water, run from $1,000 to $12,000 per night!  The island depends upon tourism for survival and has been hard hit by cyclones and the economic downturn.  Nothing is produced here and everything has to be imported.  It is very expensive to live here, but the locals are subsidized by France.  They seem to have an extremely laid back style of life here.  Can you say
L A Z Y.  The main town was about three blocks long, and sand, dirt or pieces of asphalt made up the sidewalks.  It took us about 20 minutes to do the whole town.  There is one road around the island, none to the interior.  There were several jewelry shops selling expensive black pearl jewelry, and I wondered how they could afford to stay in business; the rest of the shops were typical touristy stuff.  The airport is located on one of the islets and “ground” transportation to the main island is by boat.

It is rainy season, but we have been lucky in French Polynesia as we haven’t had any rain.  The days have been quite warm and humid, sunny, and with tradewinds blowing to cool things down.  If you are looking for total peace and quiet, this might be the place for you.  If you wanted to write a book, there is very little to distract you except for the beauty of the place.  I am glad to have had a chance to see these islands.  I came, I saw, I left.  I prefer Hawaii:  it is closer to home, the beaches are fantastic, and there are places to see and things to do – and it is more affordable.

I was escort on a glass bottom boat excursion.  The boat didn’t look very seaworthy, but it had made two previous trips today so I guess was OK.  We motored out to the reef where we cruised around for a bit and then tied to a mooring buoy.  We were in about one to ten feet of water.  Our guide was a former North Dakotan who has lived in these islands for over 40 years.  He was the quintessential beach boy drop out that you see in the movies.  There were dozens of varieties of colorful fish and we had a close-up view from the boat without having to get wet.  The deckhand went overboard and feed the fish and boy did we see a crowd gather around him.  My favorite fish was the Butterfly fish, with black and white stripes and a yellow tail with a black spot.  It was a bumpy ride back to shore as the wind had come up and some of us got sprayed with seawater.  We also had a good view of the mountainous interior.

Michael was so excited with his excursion that he will tell you about it himself.  I think he is ready to move here, but there probably isn’t any bridge club so he will have to be happy with his wonderful experience.

Hi everyone; it’s Michael. 

You have not heard much from me as Beverly and I have been on the same excursions up to now.  Today was the absolute high point for me on this cruise so far.  I escorted a small group of ten for an island circumnavigation by jet boat.  After leaving the pier, and speeding on top of the waves at about 50 MPH, our first stop was a gorgeous coral garden.  The skipper tied us off to an anchor buoy and we proceeded to snorkel among tens of thousands of tropical fish.  It was as if I was swimming in an aquarium.  There were thousands of fish to begin with, but when the deckhand tossed some food in the water this number grew by a factor of ten.  We were in maybe ten feet of water and the number of colors visible on the surface was astounding.

Our next stop was a white sandy beach off of Mitira island, one of many smaller islands surrounding Bora Bora.  Here the skipper tossed the anchor and we proceeded to swim in all of three feet of water.  It was gorgeous, and while in only three feet we were only about  fifty feet away from a blue line in the water where the depth went instantly to 120 feet.  These variations in depth are where all the incredible shades of blue come from.  Did I mention that while bathing in this warm water the captain served us pineapple and bananas?  Oh, such a tough day!