Bora Bora, French Polynesia Sunday-Monday February 17-18

Bora Bora

Sunday....

After ditching the port of Moorea due to stormy seas, we sailed on to Bora Bora....about a 9 hr sail away. We sailed through very stormy weather all day and landed in Bora Bora about 5pm. As we approached the shallow waters, they warned us that they needed to pull in the ship stabilizers and there was the chance of  things falling and crashing, and to brace yourself if you were walking about. The Captain carefully maneuvered the ship around the treacherous shallow coral reefs and we anchored right off of the main town of Vaitape with no mishaps whatsoever.  It was much calmer sheltered in the bay and the storm was slowly dissipating giving way to clear skies and the promise of a fine day tomorrow. We will be here until 11pm on Monday. The ship did offer tendering services till 12am when we anchored, but it was Sunday night and we knew nothing would be open. The weekends on these South Pacific islands are family time. We have found that everything is either shutdown, or closed by 12pm on Saturday and Sunday. We have all day tomorrow to go ashore.

Monday......

We woke up to sunny skies and warm weather.....well I should say hot! This turned out to be the hottest day on the trip so far. 90-95 with humidity to match. We prepared accordingly....sunscreen, water, and hats. Today we even added washcloths packed with ice in a baggie. We did not have any shore excursions booked today, we were just going to walk around and melt in the heat. 

We were here 2 yrs ago and explored the island by rental car. With only one road around it took us about 4 hrs, even after stopping to swim in the tropical waters. So, we pretty much said to ourselves..."been there, done that."

Bora Bora is very beautiful. It is a place to relax, snorkel, dive, or just swim in the clear warm tropical waters. There are no high end restaurants or night life, except maybe at the resorts. It truly is a place to get away from it all. To get from resort to resort, or even from the airport to the resorts is all by boat, so there is no hopping in the car to get the local take-out down the street. The main island is very small surrounded by smaller islands all around it. The main island is where most of the islanders live and the outer islands, closer to the reefs are the high end resorts and over water bungalows. Many of the natives work at the resorts and are motored over every morning to their jobs, which provide them with a steady income.  Black Pearls are the purchase of choice here and depending on the quality, very expensive. I bought a necklace 2 years ago, hoping this time to match with some earrings, but man, I think they increased in price at least triple the amount. I just couldn't see spending that much. 

We walked around the small shopping area, mailed postcards, and collected some coins. When one of the shop cashiers found out that Bruce was collecting coins for his grandsons, she immediately went out to her car and presented him with coins from her native country of Guatemala......so sweet.

We had a great time dodging traffic on the streets with no sidewalks....which were all of them, and finding relief from the heat in the air conditioned stores as we were pretending to think about buying pearls.  Everyone was friendly and very patient. We walked around for about 4 hrs, shopping and taking pictures along the shore. That was about all we could take....we were wringing wet and even though we were drinking tons of water, we could tell it was time to go back to the ship and rehydrate. Many of the passengers overdid it and had heat stroke. 

Just as an aside...and a little bit of ship gossip....about 50 people got off the ship in Papeete Tahiti to go over to Moorea and spend the night at the Hilton in overwater bungalows, or various other overnight accomodations and return to the ship the next day when we docked in Moorea. Well, that storm came in overnight in Papeete and due to the weather we did not stop in Moorea. Not only did they spend the night in a storm, but they were going to have to get to Bora Bora--the next port after Moorea on their own. Luckily, some of those people were on a ship excursion, which guaranteed, at Holland America's expense their trip to the next port. The ones that did not book were on their own to get to Bora Bora. For some it would be a story to tell.....and the others a very expensive story.