Apart from arriving in a torrential rainstorm, Bora Bora is simply beautiful. The colour of the water has to be seen to be believed, but I will include a couple of photographs, just to give you an idea.
We used the ship’s tender to get ashore from where 6 of us piled into the open Land Rover to start our discovery of the interior of Bora Bora. Having travelled from the Faanui Valley in beautiful sunshine, Cyril, our driver suggested we were going to get some “liquid sunshine”! He handed out yellow rain coats and we managed to scramble into them just in time. The heavens simply opened and no matter how hard we tried, although the roof had a tarpaulin over it by now, the open sides meant that every bit of water and mud was going to land on us. What rain wasn’t running down your sleeves (where you were having to hang on whilst we negotiated ruts and almost perpendicular hills, but it also ran down behind my back and the seat so ensuring I was also sitting in a pool of water. I had zipped the coat up at the front over my shorts, but the folds were making ideal channels for the rain and I ended up with shorts as wet as if they had come out of a washing machine without being spun dry!
The rain did ease quite quickly but we were all so wet it was going to take a bit longer than our 3 hour drive to dry out!
We visited a pareo (sarong) house high up in the hills and were treated to fresh fruits, just picked off the tree – pineapple (which was peeled and sliced in half, then each half was cut into slices. We even ate the core it was that soft and sweet). We also tried a huge fruit like our grapefruit and papaya, all simply delicious.
We paid a visit to a black pearl farm where we were shown how the black pearls are harvested from the oysters, and also how to recognise fake black pearls should I ever have the money or the inclination to buy! Another opportunity to try some more pineapple and fresh coconut.
Compared to Papeete yesterday, Bora Bora is very basic. The main street of shops are mostly shacks, huts and stalls. All the roads, schools, electricity station and telephones etc were all put in by the Americans during the Second World War. Up in the hills we even came across two huge canons that had been used in the First World War. The locals had used a bulldozer to create a road up to the top and the canon were carried up in parts then reassembled. An interesting photo opportunity.
We now have two days at sea before arriving at Pago Pago on the 21st February where we have another tour booked! Next blog after this!
Update: Just before we were due to sail, the captain announced the weather will be fine for the next three days. However …. they are keeping an eye on a cyclone, which is forecast for our arrival in Noumea, New Caledonia. We will receive an update after we leave Pago Pago, so watch this space.
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