To’opu – Page 2

Up early for some reason I decided to start the day the way I ended the previous one, up looking at the stars. Glad I did, Orion was up and putting on a display you can only see in dark areas. Beautiful.

We decided to spend the morning in Vaitape, the largest city in Bora Bora. City is a misnomer, with a population of less than 5000 a town is more of a better description. Still about half of the population of Bora Bora lives there so…

A great day to go over too, it was clear, the water was calm plus there was a local rowing contest going on. The crowd was enthusiastic cheering on their teams and family members. A woman on the dock apologized to Kim for all the noise, Kim told her no need to, we were loving the contest and the crowd. Very polite people!

After a little shopping we headed back to the hotel for a swim in the calm lagoon but alas there was a warning from the staff that there are Portuguese man o’ war, aka jellyfish present in the lagoon today and they recommended against swimming. Apparently these jellyfish were rare in Bora Bora but with global warming the population has grown. Bummer. So it was pool time instead. At least there was a swim up bar… But after a couple of hours (and drinks) I decided screw it I am going in. Glad I did the water was very comfortable on this beautiful day.

We ended the day back in our room, the restaurants at the Conrad are closed on Tuesdays so we “suffered” through room service. We opened the main patio door and the windows in the back and let the breeze blow through the room. Suffering.

Vaitape from To'opua — Vaitape from To’opua

Looking for a Man 'O War... — Looking for a Man ‘O War…

We planned this part of the trip to have several lazy days, just relaxing doing as little as one wants. So after breakfast and a swim/snorkeling we all broke off to do as we pleased. And I did something I am not known for, I sat still for over an hour. This place made it easy, the view is spectacular and something different in each direction. I did add in the soundtrack from The Descendants for the music, twas very nice,

While sitting around I reflected on how I got here, travel time was easy, almost 9 hours of air travel total plus a couple of hours of car and boat time. Remarkable for such an isolated place, we just had to be on time. It strikes me though that these islands were found at all being so isolated. Their effort versus ours… From what I have read the island was first discovered in the 4th century and was named “Pora pora mai te pora” (Created by the gods) which was shortened to “Pora Pora” or first born. When Europeans came along they changed it to “Bora Bora” and the name has stuck ever since.

The wind is howling tonight which means clear skys. I was able to nerd out on the Southern Cross and Centaurus which contains some of the closest stars to our solar system. Jupiter which is lower to the horizon at home was directly over head tonight. And the moon is upside down, Again. Flat earthers please explain why this is possible again?

Tag: To’opu

Physalia Physalis

First Born