First off, seriously, why is this not a post card?
And the best part is you know the only reason someone went through all the trouble to create that sign was because someone else gave them excellent reason to…and no, before you ask, it wasn’t Greg.
Bora Bora is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in the world and conveniently, thanks again to the American war effort, there is this really nice road around the entire main island that you can ride a bike on. About 4 hours round trip. It isn’t exactly a large island, being as it’s sinking and all.
Welcome to the main town in Fakarava. So what does one do here?
(aside from the diving, we’ve already established that’s amazing. Well, that and suicidal crabs)
1) First off, secure transportation. Preferably, transportation with shock absorption.
What Tiffany fails to mention in the video is that at that point we still had to bike back… And it was a very long trip home, let me tell you!
2) Well, there’s the dive center.
Two notes here:
– Greg can officially now say that he’s had a French tutor. Which is cool, right? The fact that his tutor was male and taught diving vice female and “l’art d’amour”…eh, less cool. He thinks that the fact that he learned to dive in French Polynesia almost makes up for it.
– If you are one of those people looking to jump the puddle, as it is called, get your dive certification in Mexico. Yes, we realize that it is expensive compared to other things in Mexico and you will tell yourself “nah, I won’t dive, I’ll just snorkel.” No you won’t. What you’ll do is snorkel by yourself and be terrified of all the sharks swimming around you while you’re all alone and all your friends are off diving. Remember the part where they school? Like fish? (ask Greg how he knows this!)
Then all your friends will gang up on you and convince you that paying the exorbitant prices for a private French diving instructor is actually very chique (a French word, not coincidentally, I’m sure) and is a really good idea in order for you to fully experience this “once in a lifetime diving opportunity.” They will be right and you will be a fool for not having paid half the price in Mexico to get your certification. The one consolation you will get is that the instructors in French Polynesia are really cool and they use your practice dives as opportunities to actually show you some amazing stuff. Still, it’s WAY cheaper to get your cert in Mexico.
2) The store, where we discovered that your local grocer is actually not only a national brand, but an international one:
For you east coast people, this is like running into a Publix (or in the case of our Texas friends, an H.E.B.) out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I mean really? Safeway? In FRENCH!? Who knew?
3) The church (which is actually pretty cool)
Click on the photo above to enlarge it. The shell chandeliers and other decorations were amazing!
(to be continued… We had way too many videos for one post!)
By the second day of doing the 3 kilometer hike every day, Tiffany and I decided to break out the cruiser bikes. No, not Harleys. Cruising bikes have a slightly different meaning in the sailing world:
They look like clown bikes because they fold (the better to store inside a boat). We managed to find our way down to the beach in Atuona where we encountered some beautiful corpses rotting in the sun…
…ran into the world’s largest rainstick
…observed the elusive Marquesan ninja jumping crab
…stumbled upon a Marquesan dance practice (they didn’t look like they needed practice though)
As a final note of the extreme distance we are from anything even closely resembling civilization, I leave you with Tiffany & Alison’s observation of some powerboats that made the same trip we did. The prices they are discussing in the video reflect the amount of money each boat paid in US dollars to refuel with diesel fuel (which is cheaper than normal gas in case you didn’t know) at Hiva Oa after transiting from Mexico.
We were that far from the last gas station, just so ya know.
