Day 30-Bora Bora- Fri Mar 16, 2018
The sunrise sailing into Bora Bora was
beautiful.
James Michener called Bora Bora the most beautiful island in
the world. It truly is the fantasy of
what an island paradise should be.
Majestic, 2,000 foot high peaks tower over its lagoon. The peaks are the
remnants of an extinct volcano, Mount Pahia and Mount Otemanu, the highest
point at 2,385.
Bora Bora has coral reefs of the barrier reef
type, meaning it is separate from the landmass. We anchored inside the reef, so
tendering was no problem. The sky was
cloudy and on Shane’s Morning Show he said it would rain. We had our fingers crossed that it wouldn’t
affect us (we’ve really had terrific weather on this cruise, and the few times
it rained we got lucky and dodged it with our timing.
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This photo was in reflections, the weather wasn't this beautiful. |
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A stock photo, but it shows the reef protecting the islands. Incredible. |
We booked a shore excursion today to go
snorkeling and to a beach. The snorkeling catamaran picked us from the
tender pier. It was quite a nice boat designed to comfortably carry us to
our snorkeling venue. The first stop was an area where we snorkeled with Blacktip
Sharks and Stingrays. The Blacktip
Sharks were swimming about us and most often had some sort of blue fish
swimming below them. The Stingrays were
also around, brushing our legs like a cat does as he/she walks by.
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Tender dock. |
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Front of our boat. |
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The shark boys entertained us. |
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8 birds, 4 sharks, 2 sting rays. |
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Yes, we really did swim with these sharks. |
Next up was a stop by the reef to see the
coral and fish there. The coral was
beautiful, some of it colored. There
were also clams with various colors on the inside of their shells that were
visible as they opened and closed – purple, green, blue. It was amazing. As we were snorkeling at the reef, one of our
guides starting blowing a conch shell to call us all back to the boat. A storm was fast approaching.
Once back on the boat it started to rain
heavily, and the wind was blowing. The
water became quite rough, splashing over the sides as of the boat as we started
our journey to the beach. After about 20
minutes of being splashed by the spray, batted about, and it still raining we decided it
would be best to go back to the tender pier early. Time at a beach in the pouring rain and wind
didn’t seem pleasant.
On our way back to the tender pier, we passed
the Hilton Hotel with its thatched huts built out over the water.
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Conrad's place (Hilton) |
In our tender we noticed a lot of local girls
coming to the ship and wondered what that was about. With the inclement weather, Crystal had made
arrangements to have some (25-30) local school girls to come onboard and do a
show for us 2:15 pm. Many girls were
dressed in native clothing. All had
fresh flower crowns on. The air was
filled with the scent of fresh flowers as they performed their dances in the
Crystal Cove. They even had passengers
join in at the end, with much giggling at the clumsy attempts of the passengers
to mimic their graceful dance. Thanks to
quick thinking on the Cruise Director’s part, it turned into a wonderful
afternoon.
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Cruise director Shane dancing with the girls. |
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Even the Captain joined in. |
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Small boat checking out the big boat. |
The Churrascaria was our dining venue for this
evening. We truly have enjoyed the
relaxed atmosphere, extensive salad bar and the fabulous selection of grilled
meats with terrific sauces. One of the
women Julie was chatting with on the tender boat today remarked that it is her
favorite restaurant on the ship. It
certainly is a different experience from the other dining choices.
Mark Merchant, a comedy ventriloquist was the
main entertainment for tonight. Mark
uses the news headlines for his up to date comedy material, combining his humor
with his ventriloquism. He is absolutely
amazing and we truly enjoyed his show.
Today we walked 5.77 miles and 13,817 steps.
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