Rorotonga Part 2

About Bora Bora:

What a beautiful, beautiful place ! ! !

We docked here for 2 days and since I didn’t have a tour booked for the first day, I decided to spend some time at the beach.  Along with my bathing suit and my E-Reader, off I went on the shuttle bus to the public beach adjacent to the Continental Hotel.  Upon arrival there, I found that the public beach although very beautiful had no shady spots, nor lounges or chairs available However, the hotel --  for a price --  allowed us to use their beach facilities which of course had towels,  umbrellas,  lounge chairs  and the price also included lunch,  a drink of our choice and a bottle of water.   Soooo, I bit the bullet, paid the price which was rather steep, and spent the day lounging on the beach enjoying the beautiful azure colour of the lagoon, sunbathing, swimming, reading and relaxing.  I was all alone on this adventure, so it was a bit lonesome until some of the young staff from the ship arrived and brought a bit of life to the event .  

The hotel here features those lovely huts which are built on stilts over the water of the lagoon.   It all looks very romantic.  Some of the people from the ship stayed at one of these hotels overnight – in fact, Michele one of the ladies from Quebec booked one on her own—she said, “It was a gift from me to me” – she had just celebrated her birthday so I guess it was her birthday gift to herself.   She also is travelling alone – a delightful woman,, probably in her 50’s --  who told us that her husband left her for a younger woman.  That didn’t last and now he is on his second woman , this one considerably older than he is.    She told us that it was lovely spending the night in the hotel, but it really is more of a place for lovers, than a woman alone.  There were no activities in the hotel after dinner so she was in bed and asleep shortly after 9 p.m.

On day 2 in Bora Bora, I was booked on a tour which took us around the island.   As I said before, “ What a beautiful place.  Your wouldn’t believe the colours of the water.  On land the vegetation is lush and the scenery beautiful.  It looks too god to be true.  I heard someone say that it looked like a backdrop painted by someone for a movie – almost too good to be true.  We stopped a a roadside place where the lovely cotton wrap arounds were made and sold.  There were dozens of them hanging from clothes lines in multi coloured designs.  We were shown how they made them, by dipping  various parts of the folded cloth into different colours and then laid out to dry with various patterns made of linoleum laid over them to make the designs.  afterward we were given a demonstration on how to tie them.  Guess who was chosen for the model --  You are right ! It was yours truly.  It was so much fun ! ! !  I hadn’t planned on buying one, because I brought one with me, but for $10, I figured one can always use one of a different colour.  The one I had already is blue and chiffon.  The new one is multi coloured pastel and cotton.

On our tour we saw one of the bunkers left over from the second world war.   We were told that the war didn’t come to Bora bora, but the Americans were here as a precaution.   Other than that and crabs crawling in and out of their holes, most of the points of interest are the very gorgeous scenery. 

The most adventurous of the passengers went snorkelling and some went on tours of the lagoon in regular and glass bottomed boats.   One of the points of interest on the tour was the bar called “Bloody Mary”.  Outside the bar, on both sides of the entrance are boards on which are written the names of many of the famous people who have visited this bar – Ernest Hemingway, Bob Hope, and Jose Jose, my favourite Hispanic singer – just to name a few).   This bar has sand floors – is very colourfully decorated and has a pretty, small waterfall made of local stones in the ladies room.  I got a few good pictures and if I ever master the art of sending photos when we are ashore, I’ll send some. 

When the ship set sail to leave this beautiful paradise, I stood on the deck and watched it fade away in the distance, feeling very sorry to have to leave.  Hopefully some day I can visit here again.