Bora Bora: Untouched Beauty

Beautiful Bora Bora

The weather is changing, along with that, my mood!  I am a sunny day kind of girl.  The sunshine with a slight breeze fills me with a renewed energy.  The last few weeks in Texas, God has given us a lot of that!  With of course the thurderstorms mixed in here and there.  But, I live for those sunny days.  Carter and I started our morning on the patio checking the weather (beautiful sunny 60's so far) looking at the city and planning our day.  This kind of weather always makes me think of that one place we all want to be in the sun...the Beach!!!  I've been on a whole lot of beach trips.  But I'll tell you, none more beautiful than the secluded, tiny oasis of Bora Bora.
Zach and I are travel fanatics!  We always choose to plan a trip rather than buy eachother gifts for holidays.  It's memories made, experiences had, bonding deepening,  and therefore, money well spent.  That being said, we can also be over indulgent in our travels. (Sheepish smile).  But we think, while we can, we should.  So, for our honeymoor in 2007 we spent three weeks going to China, Japan, and finishing in Bora Bora. 

I would recomend finishing ANY trip in Bora Bora.  Easier said than done though.  It's a bit of a tough place to get to.  We flew back to LA from Japan to catch our flight on Air Tahiti Nui (excellent airline) to Tahiti where we would spend the night before heading on to Bora Bora.  Tahiti is beautiful.  We woke up and had a normal breakfast buffet-mine a continental breakfast....normal in all senses but the cost.  Here's where we felt like we swallowed a frog and choked on it.  The bill came for our breakfast: my fruit array, yogurt and granola, and wheat toast.  Zach's eggs, fruit, yogurt and granola.  Yep, $96!!  Pure shock!!!!  We thought they must have charged us for something else, but no....it was simply the cost of the buffet.  EEEEE.  But, that was just a small reality check.  Nothing could take away from the beauty surrounding us, and the most important fact that we were MARRIED and on our HONEYMOON!!!



Right after our breakfast- note: still smiling!

We swallowed that frog and headed to board our flight to Bora Bora.  This is an island that is 9 miles in diameter.  It is so secluded and small.  There is truly nothing to do there other than relax on the most beautiful beaches in the world, sip some island drinks, and enjoy the person you came with.  If you do not enjoy your travel partner, you will not like it here, because there are not any other distractions.  Sure there are water sports, but there is no night life, in fact the restaurants, for the most part, shut their lights off at 9:00.  Yes, even if you are sitting in one of their beach front tables with their plates and silverware and a full meal in front of you still.  I guess they figure you can't run off and steal their items because there is NO WHERE to run to!  Anyways, we boarded a TINY plane and landed at their TINY airport.

This is customs.  And the whole airport.  Once, at the airport, you board a boat that takes you to the actual island.  The airport is on a seperate island that houses....well, just the airport.  Here is what you see on the boat ride.  It's telling of the size of the island we will be approaching.

Zach and I splurged on our lodgings while there.  We chose an over water bungalow with a glass bottom floor...it IS our honeymoon after all!!  The glass floor was in the fashion of a table in front our couch.  The top of the table could be completely removed allowing access to reach down and truly touch the fish...or if you're lucky...sharks, swimming under the bungalow.  No, we never saw any swim under us! :)  There was a light that could be flipped on to illuminate the colorful ocean life and we drew them in by feeding them a piece of our bread (equaling $5/slice basically).  Outside our bungalow, on our balcony, there was a ladder that dropped down into the ocean and following a 4 second swim, dropped us off on (basically) our own private beach.  It was accessible to anyone who wanted it, but because of the exclusivity of the island, there was probably a total of 5 people besides us on "our" beachfront at all times.  Max that is. 

Our overwater bungalow!

The rainbow showcasing the picturesque view.



Our "private island" with our bungalow right behind us.

So,  with nothing to do there, what did we do?  Nothing.  We woke up with the sun, but layed in bed letting the breeze open and close our white linen drapes while listening to the sounds of the soft waves gently crashing outside our door.  Fading in and out of sleep, dreaming of what the day would hold.  We woke up, ate a breakfast ... yes we learned from our last experience and went to the island's only grocer to stock up on some yogurt, bread, meat, cheese, and alcohol.  We figured we would do some breakfasts and some lunches in our bungalow.  We'd eat out for all dinners and other meals that we just chose to.  So, our grocery store run for the food items---without the alcohol----$60.  Must be the finest cut (lunch) meat, and the freshest bread baked at the exact moment with foreign flavors, cheese so exotic we were only a handful of people who have had it-right?  NOPE!!  We're talking a grocery collection that would cost $10 at your local store. Oh well.  :)  After breakfast, we generally met our Italian friends who were also on their honeymoon, Ketty and Allesandro.  We met them on the ride to the hotel and became instant buds! 


Ketty and I soaking up the sun




Zach and Alle learning to crack a coconut--harder than it sounds

Cracking the coconuts was fun to watch the guys do.  It was pretty difficult believe it or not.  But, when they go it, it sure felt like a victory!
 One of the days, we took a small boat ride accompanied with ucalale music over to a private island where some of the local Polynesian people prepared us  an authentic meal for lunch.  We attempted to make our own island music as well, and quickly learned we should leave that to the trained! :)


The small boat we rode over in is directly behind the teenage boy.

 



Lunch is being prepared in that shack.

We spent a day snorkeling with manta rays and sharks before doing a scuba diving trip.  We were told when swimming with the rays to take off all jewelry because they are attracted to the shinyness. I left my ring on and because the guide (and Zach) were putting the fish all around me so that I was swarmed by the creatures, I had a whole lot of rays flapping around me.  One of them confused my ring for fish and sure enough---I got BIT by a ray!!  That just doesn't happen!!!  It scratched my nail and scuffed it but didn't hurt me, just frazzled me.  I leapt out of that water as though I just saw a great white shark.  I was done for the day.  :)  The rest of the boat sure thought that was funny. 

We are now avid scuba divers, and we have Bora Bora to thank for that.  I tried it out for the first time here-Zach had done so before- and loved it!  Because of the experience, I decided to get certified--which has led to the endless scuba trips we have taken since then.  

Clear waters of Bora Bora

We also thought we would do something simple....canoe.  HA!  Not that simple in the ocean.  With a storm approaching.  And a wife freaking out about the way down deep that we couldn't see with the possibility of a shark sneaking up on us and tipping our teeny tiny canoe.  So, we ventured out and were having fun, then we noticed the storm clouds coming, and the skies darkening, and darkening, I started mentioning heading back.  Our canoe didn't want to head back though.  It was going against the motion and therefore made it quite challenging.  With that becoming increasingly hard, I started becoming increasingly worried about the possibility of getting stranded out in the middle of the ocean and realizing that when I looked down, I could no longer see the bottom.....that sure does let the mind wander, and not for the better.  Ever see Jaws/?  Luckily, we made it back right before the clouds opened up, and I went into cardiac arrest!  :)


Zach did all the work, my arms started hurting!! ;)

We both like relaxing, but we are much more "go" people.  So in the midst of laying on the beach, we found activities to do.  One day we rented bikes and rode around the whole island, finding little restaurants that we'd want to try later.  We went to Bora Bora's pearl farm, where they are famous for the black pearl.  We toured it and looked in the expensive gift shop at the beautiful black pearl jewelry.

As in any travels, at least for us, one of the best things to do is indulge in the local cuisine.  And if so lucky, join both locals and other travelers.  Like I mentioned, we were pretty much glued at the hip with Ketty and Alle, so we had most meals together.  As I started talking about, one night the 4 of us were eating dinner on the beach when the lights around us went completely out.  We had our full meals still and full glasses of wine.  The restaurant closed down and the employees left, before we even finished up.  It really did help set the mood for this relaxing, low key island though.  We got a laugh out of it.  We had dinners with other honeymooners as well and really met some great people.  We still travel with Ketty and Alle to this day.  In fact, they had their son, Frederico just 1 1/2 months after we had Carter.  We love talking to them and learning their funny phrases that translate wrong for us and vice versa.  In fact, one day we were talking about dinner and what to eat and Alle, in his heavy Italian accent, said..."Uhhh, it's not, uh, my Amburrrger (hamburger)."  We weren't sure what he meant at first, but as he explained "I do not like tea" but I like hamburgers, so it's not my amburrger.  We realized he was saying he didn't like what we were going to order, "It's not his cup of tea".  We sure had/have a blast with them.

Ketty and Alle on the left, our other Italian friends on the right

Lunch time with our faves

Exploring the local food!

  One of our favorites was Bloody Mary's where many celebrities are sure to go when in town.

Zach even got to shake his hips Polynesian style, over and over again as they kept picking him to be their dance partner.

Overall, it was romantic, isolated, relaxing, rewarding in creating new friendships.  It was a vacation worth celebrating!  And that's just what we did.

The only thing we didn't like was leaving.  But it was beautiful on the way out.  However, we had just heard that one of the tiny planes that are the only ways you can get in or out, had just crashed right before our departing.  NOT so comforting to leave on that note....but as you guessed, we were safe and sound. 

Checking out :(

Made so many memories with them!