Bora Bora: A shark is like a train wreck.

I do not want to be in one.

Today was another shark day. It starts off with Andre insisting on driving us to the marina, because we might miss it. Even though there is only one road on the island. The directions to the marina are: go left. In about 400 m, there is a marina. Wait there.

Ah well. We drive for exactly 30 seconds, and wait for the boat while Andre tells us about his unpublished novel.

A yellow boat drives up with what I assume is a handsome Polynesian man piloting it. I did not notice the chocolate-brown skin, the tribal tatoos covering his six-pack, his chiseled profile, or the faraway look in the unknowable depths of his eyes, because Rob is exactly the kind of man I find most attractive.

Hard-to-miss marina

The boat heads over to the Pearl Resort to pick up the rest of the snorkelers. It's an over-water resorts, so we get to see one up close.

Budget luxury at $800/night

When we first got to the Bungalove, there was a young Russian couple staying in the room attached to the house. Andre told us that they spent one of their nights at the Pearl in an over-water room, and couldn't enjoy it. There's a glass panel in the floor, so you can see the fish while inside the room. But apparently, you also see guests go snorkeling under your room, and they often yell to each other when they see something interesting. As well, the rooms are very close together, so there's not much privacy.

Back to the boat. Oooh, I just liked this picture of a bike on the dock at the Pearl.

We pick up four other couples and a single guy. Captain Will does a quick check of where everybody is from, and Rob makes the following observation:

• Brazilian couple is wearing a baseball hat from Milan
• Australian guy has Brazilian flip flops
• Spanish guy is wearing a Guinness shirt
• Chinese guy has a UK union jack on his backpack.

He found it funny that not one person with a country logo was wearing their own country.

We boat for about 1/2 hour to get to the other side of the island. Captain Will points out some of the other resorts. This one, the St. Regis, has more space between bungalows, larger rooms, butler service, and over-water pools. It costs a max of $4500 CDN/night. I didn't get a shot of the cabins at the Hilton that have a second level upstairs and which I assume cost more. It must be annoying to spend that much money just to have tour boats motoring by and pointing out your bungalow as an attraction.

Luxury luxury rooms

Random Catamaran photo. I like Catamarans

We make it to some coral gardens that are very close to the ones we went to off the public beach a couple of days ago. Captain Will throws some food in the water, and we're surrounded by fish. I'll limit the fish photos.

Squirrelfish

Squirrelfish are hilarious. We saw them in the Caribbean, too, behaving the same way. They form a small school, and all just stare at the coral. You can swim right up to them, and they don't move. They're like a bunch of kids watching a Disney movie.

Underwater ballet

We're there for about 1/2 hour. On our last snorkel tour, we were the only guests. On this one, we're one of several, but it is neat to see how excited the other people get. There is a young lady who wears a life jacket and gets in the water and is having a great time. I think she must be the bravest one of us here.

We go to a second spot, and there are some black-tip reef sharks and a couple of rays. The water is shallow, so we just stand around while Will plays with the mantas. People are kissing it, and it is tolerating us because it is getting lots of fish.

Aside: On a previous trip, another tourist was telling us how hard it was to reel in a ray. He sounded very proud of himself for catching one. First of all, how hard could it be? They come right up to you if you have food. Secondly, do you catch puppies and kittens, too? Who could consider a ray a trophy fish? How could this be allowed to happen?

Who could hurt this face?

Aaaanyway....

We start swimming toward the barrier reef. I liken it to a walk in an underwater forest. We swim for a bit, and then Will stops to point out something of interest. At one point, he finds a spiny sea cucumber and puts it on Rob's head. Rob says it was surprisingly heavy.

Cucumber mohawk

We get quite close to the barrier reef, and watch the waves break for a while. I've already posted videos of the waves, so I won't do it again.

We head back to the boat, and are going to go past the reef in the hopes of seeing bigger lemon sharks. On this leg (foreboding) of the journey, I notice that I've scraped up my leg (ha! there it is) on the coral. A couple of the others have, too. Will gives us some antiseptic wipes to keep them from getting infected, but the saltwater from the swim is irritating, and it swells up. I keep thinking of how the phrase "salt in a wound" is very descriptive, because it BURNS. I'm also worried about bleeding when we're swimming with sharks.

Wah

We get to the deep water, and Will throws a bunch of fish in to draw the sharks. This is when I realize the last tour guide, Alex, was lying when he said the black-tips were vegetarian. Rob thinks it's hilarious that I was so gullible. Rob, gullible isn't even a real word.

Non-vegetarian sharks

Into the water we go, and the sharks are everywhere. Sadly, there are no lemon sharks. Or maybe, luckily, there are no lemon sharks.

I don't like when they look right at you

Bad shark jokes

Rob getting a mechanic's view of the sharks

We head to a local motu for some fresh local fruit, and then head home. Will drops us off at the marina, and it's a five-minute walk back to the bungalow. There's a marae with a petroglyph on the walk back.

Petroglyph of a shark that looks like a turtle

It's still early afternoon when we finish lunch, so we decide to bike into the main town and look around. It's about a 20 minute bike ride, and it seems school just got out, because there are kids everywhere. We check out the tourist shops, pick up a socialist baguette and head home for the evening.

Anniversary tomorrow!