Sunrise photo from the deck
Grace and I are headed to breakfast
Looking back at the Bungalow
G-Money wants to get some cocco krispies
From breakfast it was off to the main dock to meet our guide from pure snorkeling, Vehi. Great guy super laid back. After introduction and getting our gear arranged, we were off. The first stop was to view Manta Rays. These Manta Rays live primarily in the lagoon and swim near the coral so the fish can clean them. The water was probably 40 ft deep maybe more but would come up more shallow in spots. We dropped in and snorkeled for about 5 minutes before we saw the large Manta Rays cruising below us If you desire 4 min of long tracking shots of Manta Rays swimming call me and I can splice my GoPro clips together for you. In the interest of brevity here are the best pictures.
Yes that Ray is pooping. That is not jet propulsion coming from the back
Manta cruising the reef
Shark in the depths. I think this is a black tip reef shark.
Two Mantas circling.
Two Mantas. Amazing
From the Manta spot, we headed to a sandy point in the lagoon to look for Eagle Rays. These are also coming from deeper waters to get clean. They do have some stingers near the tail. The water on this dive was a little shallower, maybe 20 ft or a little more. It is so clear it is almost unbelievable.
Eagle Rays cruising in formation.
Eagle Rays
The Eagle Rays turning
Imagine 5 minutes of long tracking Eagle Rays gliding through the water. I have that much video on my phone is you want to see it. 😴
Vehi dove down. Yes to the bottom and delivers this sea urchin to us. It was really cool and unbelievably sticky to my hand
Sea Urchin in my 🤚
From here we travelled to a section called the “Aquarium”. Seemed like it was too good to be true the way Vehi described it.
Whoa there are a lot of fish here!!!
Katie lost her snorkel and it went to the bottom. Vehi was down one second later to fish it off the bottom. Maybe 20 ft where it went down at. I got 1/2 down and thought my eardrums might explode. After Katie lost her snorkel she turned in to Ariel from the little mermaid and just began free diving around the reef. I do not know where she gets it but she is crazy 😝.
We do love Bora Bora
Katie working on something for her snap nation.
We love Bora a lot.
Ashley trying to continue the Instagram magic. Her photographer was not quite on point.
More fish. Gratuitous snorkeling photos
Imaging snorkeling along in peace when this swims at you. Terrifying, trust me.
Fish
Now our guide and another guide found a Giant Moray eel and managed to lure it out. I can’t put video on the blog but check out my Instagram for a ridiculous video. This eel was bigger than Grace, who spend the day on the boat plotting against TSA and planning her next big smuggling job.
The eels about 1/4 of the way out.
The eels is out and heading back home
Check out the colors in the tail of the eel.
This eel is giant. Giant, I tell you.
After it was over I dove down by the hole he was hiding in to get one last picture. It is below. There is a fish hiding the eel partially and it is amazing how well camouflages it becomes. As I swam by all I saw were it’s eyes and its teeth. It looked ready to take a chunk out of anything it wanted to. It was way more scary then this picture leads us to believe.
Look at the teeth towards the bottom of the circle. If the little fish was out of the way, you would be terrified right now.
Happy snorkelers and Grace who refused to participate until NCAA division 1 athletes are fairly compensated.
In transit, should you northerners be out in the sun this much.
After this amazing experience we went to the coral garden. Much more laid back but no less beautiful.
Here is the coral. It is beautiful many colors. I have video but not much as we wasted a lot of video trying to film terrifying eels.
Check out the barrier reef behind us.
Warning light and the barrier reef.
Bora Bora from the boat
More Bora Bora. Seriously will this guy ever stop
Back at the dock with our guide Vehi. Amazing morning.
Turns out the rays we should have been worrying about were coming from the sun. Ashley, Kari and especially Katie all receive sunburns to varying degrees. You could literally cook an egg on Katie’s legs.
After this we found some shade and some lunch.
Walking back to the resort somewhat worse for wear
The resort
Tuna sashimi!!!! So fresh so good. I may have mercury poisoning after this trip.
Hopefully Hinano is a cure for mercury poisoning.
The girls all went back to the room to seek shelter from the sun. I applied a little extra sunscreen and went for a paddleboard. It was a great little trip around the resort.
Shade and a shower for everyone renewed our spirits somewhat. Dinner was a barbecue on the beach. The fresh fish was better then the veal. Ashley said she was not going to eat baby cow and reaffirmed her commitment to go vegetarian after spring break.
Gracie before dinner. All day in a boat gives you a lot of time to think or plot?
Bora Bora at sunset. I can’t stop myself it is like a sickness.
The resort is ready to barbecue
Tahitian vanilla with some chocolate in a coconut. Ridiculous.
Good night everybody. Tomorrow we are trying our hand at fishing.
Sleep tight. The air conditioner in our bungalow does not have a setting high enough to reduce the heat coming off the girls northern skin.
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