So we finally hit the bad weather. We have been so lucky all throughout this trip with the weather, that we were due a bad day – and we got it in Bora Bora. A real shame as everyone who has ever been here has said how beautiful the island is in the sun. Well, it sure wasn’t sunny today! Sailing in, it was like the most torrential rain you’ve ever seen. One of our C.C. buddies likened it to having a bucket of water dumped on your head. It was nasty!
Tender service again today which went very smoothly on the disembarking side. Our plans for the day were another bike ride around the island. Same scenario as Roratonga – one road around the island, about 22 miles in length, spectacular views, etc., figured it would be a great way to compare and contrast the islands along with a little bit of exercise. However, with the rain, we were seriously re-thinking our options. Once on the island we went to the Europe Car office to see about bikes. They had them for something like $40 US, but as it was still raining pretty heavily, we decided to wait a bit and check the other rental places in the little town of Vaitape. The next place didn’t have bikes, but did have 3 cars remaining to rent. They had a much better price for a 4 hour rental than Europe Car, but we were still sort of hoping for the bikes. After hemming and hawing, we finally decided to go ahead and rent a car so at least we could see the island. Figured if it ever stopped raining, we could then rent bikes in the afternoon for a little spin.
Got the 2nd to last car, and headed out around the island to explore the beaches and scenery. Well, someone was looking out for us, let me tell you! First of all – the island is fantastically beautiful, again with the lagoon beaches and incredible mountain cliffs and peaks on the interior. However, Bora Bora is more touristy than Roratonga, thus there are more hotels, and more traffic around the island. In addition, the roads are very narrow with no real shoulders – and on most of the island – in ill-repair. Tons of pot holes, that, because of the rain were filled with muddy water, unpaved stretches of road, and one horribly steep and twisty uphill part of the road that, had we ever made it there, would have definitely been the end of our bike riding!
And the dogs – have I mentioned the dogs? No? Well, we had read to be careful of the dogs and the chickens and children running through the streets of Bora Bora. Ok, so, watch out for them so you don’t hit them. Well, no, not the dogs at least! These things attacked the car. Kid you not – at least 3 separate dogs around the island attacked the car when we drove by! Can not even imagine being on a bike – that would not have been a happy ending! Between that and the road conditions, as it turned out, the rain was a blessing in disguise!
Made it around the island in an hour in the car – it is absolutely beautiful with pineapple and coconut plantations on one side of the island, beaches and lagoon view on the other. Had read about a little beach at Matira point so headed down the “little paved road” – that was an adventure in and of itself – one lane, right past the Intercontinental hotel – you’d think it’d be a better road – but no! Gave us the beach when we saw the road turned into mud and pot holes and very, very narrow. We fortunately had a little Peugeot, so Ed managed to get it turned around – on the way out – we got stuck with traffic coming into the road and had to negotiate the lane like on the Amalfi Coast – back up and pull into any little alcove we could. That ended our exploration of little roads on the island.
Headed into town to shop a little bit until we were ready for lunch. Back tracked to the famous “Bloody Mary’s” restaurant around 11:30. This place has been written up in all the magazines and travel guides. It’s a low key (but expensive) place under a huge palapa roof, with sand floors and tables and stools made out of local wood that has been polished and finished to a shine. Great atmosphere in the restaurant – out front is a board with a list of all the famous people who have come to Bloody Mary’s. Movie stars, sports stars, the rich and the famous – if they’ve been to Bora Bora, they’ve been to Bloody Mary’s.
Food was great, a bit pricey, but you’re paying for atmosphere – which was completely worth it. We were there so early, that at first it was really quiet and peaceful, then as the place filled up, the party atmosphere started. A lively place to be at lunch – so we could only imagine how fun it would be at night. One interesting highlight was the bathroom – where you wash your hands in a waterfall replica – real stones and everything, pull a chain and the water flows down through the rocks and the waterfall.
After lunch we headed back into town to turn in our rental car. Wandered around Vaitape, but honestly, there wasn’t much of anything there to keep our attention, so we headed back to the ship. The tender line was the first glitch we’ve had so far. When we first arrived in Bora Bora, we were the only ship there – so we had the dock to ourselves and could run 2 tenders at a time. At noon, the Tahitian Princess arrived (it’s one of the old Renaissance ships with 680 passengers). Once the TP was in, we shared the dock so we could only have one tender in at a time. Since we have 2850 passengers on our ship, it made for quite a long wait for the tenders. It wasn’t a big deal to us, so we stand in line, who cares? But it was a huge deal for the crew. Some of them waited in line for 2 hours just to get on the tender. We really felt bad for them, and would have thought that Princess could have found a better way to schedule all the tender service to accommodate the different needs of their different sized ships.
We got back on the ship fine, cooled off, headed to the sail away party and then to dinner and the magician show and bed.
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