BoraBora

Bora Bora is everyone's dream of a tropical island paradise. It is probably the most photogenic, and photographed, tropical island on the planet. We really wanted to love this place, but came away disappointed. Perhaps this is good, because it was time to leave French Polynesia and we needed a reason to leave.

Bora Bora is cursed: it has a great airport, courtesy of the US military during WW II. The US needed a safe place for troopships to stop on the way to Pacific battlegrounds and Bora Bora has a near-perfect pass and lagoon. Until the 1960s Bora Bora was the only international airport in the South Pacific; even those destined for Papeete had to land here.

As a result, Bora Bora is covered with resorts catering to the package-tour trade. Visitors land here and are whisked away to Club Med or some similar $600/night accommodation. They rarely see the island itself.

Here's a shot of Bora Bora; the main town of Vaitape is near the base of the central peak, Otemanu. If you look closely you will also see many sailboats in the lagoon.

Here's a sunset from the lagoon, just off the island of Toopua. Note the island of Maupiti, just to the left of the setting sun.

Here's the main town of Vaitape. It's kind of a dump, really. Since tourists don't often come here it is mostly a bunch of black pearl and t-shirt shops. It does have a few grocery stores There is an Internet cafe, but they charge over $24/hr. This is a town where breakfast can set you back $30, just for coffee and a croissant.

Here's a diver's-eye view.

Here's the admiral being mobbed by dozens of fish. They are looking for a hand-out.

This guy was like a puppy-dog, repeatedly showing up for a free meal. He's about 3' long.

A hi-tech mermaid.

The diving in Bora Bora's lagoon was not all that bad. Unfortunately, much of the coral in French Polynesia is dead. The places listed as great Bora snorkel spots, such as the lagoon in the SE side, had no living coral, just rubble. To find healthy coral you have to seek out places near the central channel of the lagoon or go out the pass.

One dining venue we must recommend is "Bloody Mary's". While quite trendy it is also very friendly and the food is great, the best we had in the South Pacific. The guys who run it are from Hawaii. They have moorings in front of the restaurant and are very yachtie-friendly. One of the guys, Joe, offered to take our trash and gave us all the ice cubes we could haul. Since our freezer can't make ice, this was wonderful because we love cold drinks (if you haven't spent time on a boat you may not appreciate the value of an ice-cold drink).

Upon leaving we had to turn in the bond we took out to get a visa for French Polynesia. I expected they would just put a credit on the Mastercard, but no deal. At first the teller wanted to hand over CFP 230,000. I pointed out that we couldn't spend their francs and she said they didn't have much foreign currency on-hand. I wanted NZ $ but settled for $ USD, about $2300. It always seems much harder to check out than in, sort of the "Hotel California" effect.

Anyway, we needed to get our transoms outa there, so we left for our next destination, Niue

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