Bora Bora, French Polynesia 3-14-09

Trouble posting to the blog has made me not very efficient in order of photos. Someday when we don't have much to do (hahahaha), I will edit it and put it in correct order.
Let's begin by saying that Bora Bora has been described by some as the most beautiful island in the world! Could be. The water in some places looks like God had intended you to drink the sea water as it looked like it came from the tap! Then the blues, dark, indigo, turquoise, aqua, green-blue, blue-green, periwinkle....they have it all!
Sting rays. Why do they call them sting rays when they don't sting you? They are horribly intimidating creatures they have rubber like "wings" that rub up against you when you least expect them to, hence, making you scream like a newborn baby wishing you had taken the city bus tour!!! They suck on your skin the way tiny minnows do to your toes at the lake at the summer. They eat fish. Lots of it. Problem is when you feed them, it gets blood in the water and then the SHARKS come!!! Yes, sharks. Black tipped sharks and Lemon sharks. Who has heard of those? They are lemon yellow and I don't care what kind of shark it is, I felt the need to have my rubber flip flops in hand to beat them off my children if need be!!
Charles watched for a while before he ventured into the whole mess of it all. He was smart.He waited until the sting rays were full, the sharks had left the area (he thought) andthen got in! He should not have worn that yellow suit, as the lemon sharks came back for a look!!
Our guide, Ned, wasn't sure if we loved or hated the whole thing! Kathleen was the most brave after the initial shock and actually stuck her head in the water when the sharks were near us to get an "eye to eye" with those guys!!
Enough of danger, we wanted some easy snorkeling. Ned tried very hard to find calm water for us. There were storms around the islands and we had to go to three different spots before we found a perfect place for up close beautiful fish and corals. Shocking at how beautiful things below the surface of the water really are! Ned took us to the place he grew up swimming and snorkeling. It was perfect. We then rounded the bend and saw MANY hotels built out over the water. The St. Regis has the until in the photo that rents for $8,000.00 US dollars a night!!! That isn't even the most expensive one! They have one that goes for $20,000.00 a night!! Problem is he also told us that many hotels are in bankruptcy and hotels are running at 10% occupancy!!! Club Med closed and 80 people lost their jobs. The economic crunch has reached the far corners of the world!
Next stop was for lunch. Ned's wife had prepared tuna salad, pineapple from their garden, watermelon, mango, bananas, bread, chips and cakes. A feast!! The only problem was it came a big rain and we had to seek shelter in a shed! The shed belongs to the guy that lives in the main house on the island we had beached on the was for sale for 12 million dollars! We managed to have our lunch in the shed, Kathleen made friends with the dog she named, Jacque, and juggled coconuts for Ned!
We piled up into the boat, all things wet and headed back to the main pier! A wonderful, exciting, FUN day. Bora Bora is where the inspiration for South Pacific and the mountain in the pictures is Bali Hai. Someone could easily fall in love with this place. We did.



































SHARKS!!!!