Sunday was pretty much a laid back day. We went to church in Vaitape, about a fifteen minute drive from our hotel. Vaitape is the hub of Bora Bora where the ships and ferries come in. The church is just down the street from the dock.
We loved going to our meetings. It is always so wonderful to partake of the sacrament! Even though the meeting was in French and Tahitian it was wonderful to feel the Spirit. Sunday School was nice, as well. There was a sweet sister who did a little translating for us. Many of the people in the class could speak English so when questions were asked we felt free to answer and give our thoughts.
It was a really rewarding experience to be there:)
The rest of Sunday was very simple. We had a late lunch in the restaurant at the hotel, took a nap and then later took another drive around the island. We played games that night and then watched The Sound of Music on my laptop. It was a good day!
Monday morning Rick had scheduled a scuba diving excursion with Bora Diving Center. They had two dives at two different sites. The first was in the Lagoon on the East side of the island looking for Manta Rays (didn't see any), and the second was with the sharks on the west side of the island (where we had gone snorkeling a few days before) He saw a Spotted Eagle Ray and a bunch of sharks.
While Rick was on his excursion I stayed back at the hotel and read. Divine! I read on the bed, I read on our deck, I read out at the beach......lots of reading time that day! I actually finished three books on our trip! Reading is something that I love!
After Rick returned from diving we ate lunch at the hotel.
I LOVED my grilled chicken sandwich and fries.
After lunch we drove over to Matira Beach to do some swimming. Matira Beach is the nicest beach on the island. We had fun finding the flounders in the sand and then chasing them around. They're cool because they try to camouflage themselves by burrowing in the sand. They look just like the sand and are hard to spot if they are not moving.
That night we had a fun dinner at Bloody Mary's Restaurant. I can't even begin to think why a person would name a restaurant Bloody Mary's. I know it's a specialty drink and all, but really?
The food though was really fun. We were introduced to all of the meats that are on the menu and we chose which meat we wanted. The meats ranged from beef, chicken, shrimp, fish, and lobster. I was not too hungry so I chose a chicken and shrimp shish kabob. (children's size) Rick had the parrotfish. It's kinda crazy to think that he was eating such a pretty tropical fish but he liked it.
The next morning (Tuesday) we knew we wanted to head out to "The Garden" to do some more snorkeling. The Maitai offered kayaks to do that. It was a 15-20 minute trek across the Lagoon to get there. We pulled our kayak up onto the rocky beach and got to it! There was so much to see, and we had fun exploring. I wanted so badly to find a Green Moray Eel but couldn't see any. I thought for sure I would see at least one. We did spot a huge stonefish and he was SO COOL. He looked just like the reef he was sitting on. Major camouflage going on! I could tell it was a fish because I saw his eyes move but everything else was COMPLETELY still. Rick saw him at the same time as me and after observing him for some time Rick poked his fin at him to get him to move. It made me a little nervous because stonefish are hailed as the most venomous of all fish. It's better to just observe in my opinion....but my honey...he loves to touch things!
Out at The Garden.
The cool stonefish.
After kakyaing we drove into Vaitape to get some lunch and ice cream. It was delish!
Here's our little car. A Fiat Panda.
A pretty church in Vaitape.
After our lunch in Vaitape, I enjoyed the afternoon reading while Rick rented a scooter and drove around the island sightseeing:)
I don't have pictures of our Wednesday activities, but we took the kayaks out again (still no eels), but we had an interesting experience. As we were leaving the beach with our Kayak we met two women who were going to kayak to The Garden as well. One of the women put her foot into her bootie and got stung by a bee, so she thought, so she decided not to put that bootie on and just wear one. We got to the reef a little before the ladies, but when they got there she wanted to put on her bootie but said that the bee was still in there. After further inspection she hollered, "That's not a bee! That's a bug! A bad bug!" So Rick went over to help her get it out. As he looked inside the shoe he saw a huge centipede! He then proceeded to pound the shoe on a rock to kill the centipede. It took a bit of doing but finally killed the thing. The woman, of course, did not put the shoe on but put it into a baggie to show someone at the hotel. The women were staying in a room up on the mountain (the ones we were originally going to stay in), and the centipede had gotten into her room and crawled into her shoe in the middle of the night. Freaky!!
After snorkeling we went to Matira Beach for lunch. It was a beautiful setting.
We then headed back to the room for a short nap. We knew we wanted to get some more swimming in on our last day, so after our nap we went back to Matira Beach to go swimming with our snorkel gear. There is not much reef to see at this beach but we did find more flounders and we also found a cool hermit crab!
That night was our last night on the island so we wanted to live it up! We had dinner at Bloody Mary's again. It was a wonderful way to end our last night! So romantic! And delicious food!
The next morning it was time to pack up and leave. I felt like I couldn't take enough pictures! We were still feeling that everywhere we looked was just so breathtaking.
I wanted to capture everything!
We hopped on the ferry and headed to the airport.
Goodbye, Bora Bora! You have been SO good to us!
We arrived back in Papeete for the afternoon and rented a car (a Peugeot:)). We wanted to get back to the black sand beach to play in the waves. It took about thirty minutes to get to the North part of the island, and we had such a good time playing in the water. The waves were pounding us so hard! I nearly lost my swimsuit bottoms! Seriously! It was so funny! By the time we finished we were covered in black sand. It felt good to get cleaned up at the hotel. Then we stopped at the food trucks for one last hurrah. Of course, we had to finish off with another waffle covered in chocolate with a scoop of ice cream:)
It was a nice way to end our trip!
What a dreamy trip this was. We're not sure if we will ever make it back to Bora Bora, but the memories will last us a lifetime! It truly is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been!
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