Nawiliwili, Kauai – Fourth Port of Call

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Oct 302011
 

Sunrise from Nawilwili Harbor

The last stop in the Hawaiian Islands is at the port of Nawiliwili, on the island of Kauai. It is near the city of Lihu’e. We are scheduled to rent a car from Thrifty again today, this time it is a Jeep Wrangler. We were once again awakened by the alarm clock and wake-up call on the phone as a back-up, both occurring at 5:15 AM. Our scheduled time in port today starts at 7:00 AM, and we have to be back on board at 3:30 PM, a short stay.

Due to the short duration of our time in Kauai, we were waiting at the gangway at 7:00 AM so we could get started as soon as the ship was secured along side of the pier. The security crew was having trouble getting the ramp into place, so it was not until 7:30 AM that anyone was able to leave the ship, taking 30 minutes from our already short port time. After getting through the port terminal building, we saw the Hertz and the Alamo shuttles lined up outside, but no shuttle from Thrifty was in sight. There were several other passengers getting cars from Thrifty, and one of them was able to contact them by phone. Unfortunately, they were under the impression that the ship would not be letting passengers off until 8:00 AM, and had not yet left their office.

The shuttle from Thrifty at the the airport arrived about 7:45 AM, and everyone that was in line piled into the shuttle, about twice as many people as there were seats. We had gotten on in the first few people, so we had seats near the front. However, the people who actually were standing and had gotten on last were off first the shuttle first. We had to wait in line behind one person before we could get our vehicle, but when it was our turn, the process went quickly since once again we had once used the Thrifty Blue Chip Service.   All of the paperwork was already completed, and all we had to do was show my driver’s license and credit card, and sign the paperwork.

Small Stream in Waimea Canyon

We were on our way by about 8:05 AM, once again using our GPS for directions to the Waimea Canyon. Similar to all of the other island stops so far, it was not far in mileage, but took about an hour to get there due to the lower speed limits, a maximum of 50 mph, and passing through several small towns on the way.  Once we got to the town of Waimea, we turned onto the Waimea Canyon Drive, another winding road similar to the Hana Highway. Luckily, Stephanie did not need to read a lot about the scenic areas, they were clearly marked as overlooks on the roadway, thus avoiding any issues with motion sickness.

The weather had been a little cloudy early in the morning, but cleared some as we rode up to the canyon. We did not see many cars going up the road, so we were thinking we would not have to deal with many people today. We made a few stops on the way to the main canyon overlooks.

First Waimea Canyon Overlook – All Our Friends

Once we got to the first overlook, we were actually surprised to see one bus load of ship’s passengers were already there. We had not seen them pass us, but later determined they had gone up a different road to the canyon. There was another road that could be taken for the first one-third of the route, then the two roads merged into the main canyon road. Our guidebook had suggested taking the alternate route, the route the buses had taken this morning, on the way down, as it offered better views of the coastline. The entire round trip to see the canyon overlooks is 40 miles, and changes in elevation by 4,000 feet.

The overlook was quite crowded, and we had some difficulty getting pictures without there being a lot of “friends” in the picture with us. We waited a little bit, only to see two more buses arrive. We decided to go ahead and go farther up the canyon drive to the other overlooks, hoping to keep ahead of the buses. It was very windy and cool there due to the altitude, and once again, we were glad we had our jackets with us.

Kalalau Pu’u o Kila Lookout

We soon learned that the initial overlook was the only one that the large buses could get to due to the narrow and very winding canyon road to the top. The only other ship’s passengers we saw afterward were in very small groups being transported in tour vans.

In addition, the other overlooks were actually better, although they did not show the part of the canyon with the most coloration. We did find some other pull over areas that offered better views of the actual area known as the Waimea Canyon.

Next, we stopped at the Kalalau Pu’u o Kila Lookout, which was the highest point and also the end of the paved road. There was a trail from that lookout, and we hiked down the initial portion of the trail to get some good photos.

Kalalau Pu’u o Kila Lookout Trail

There were periods where the clouds would roll through the valleys, and then clear up, and the sun would emerge. Then, occasionally, we would get showered on with some misty rain, then it would clear up again. This area is known as one of the wettest spots on earth, receiving over 365 inches of rain per year.

We drove back down to the Kalalau Lookout, which we had passed on the way up to the top. Again, the views were breathtaking.  We could see a waterfall in the distance, and occasionally, helicopters tours would come into the canyon from the ocean and fly through the canyon. They appeared to be very small in relation to the size of the mountains and canyon.

Kalalau Lookout

We wanted a picture of us and the view without the ugly green railing, so we found an area where a gate was open and went to the area below the actual fences in the concrete lookout deck. It was very obvious that others had done this same thing, there was a well worn trail to the “good picture” spot. There was a large flat area where we set up the tripod, and took our pictures with the breathtaking background.

We made a couple of other stops at pullover areas, taking pictures of the very colorful canyon. The sun had come out more, and it added a lot of color to the canyon.

Waimea Canyon – No Guardrails Here

We then started back down to the bottom of the canyon, taking the alternate road called the Koke’e Road. It was apparent that is was a better road for buses, which confirmed our initial assumption that the buses had come up this route, which was why we did not see them as we were heading up the Canyon Road this morning.

High Dynamic Range Photo - Waimea Canyon

High Dynamic Range Photo – Waimea Canyon

It did offer some better views of the ocean, but it was so windy, there was a lot of mist and salt spray in the air, making the views a little hazy.

Wailua Falls

We headed back to Nawiliwili and determined we still had enough time to go past that town and head out to see some of the nearby waterfalls.

We headed over to the Wailua Falls, which was the largest of all of the waterfalls we had seen on any of the islands. It was very impressive.

Next, we drove over to the Opaekaa Falls Lookout. This waterfall was not as large as the Wailua Falls, and it was quite a distance away from the lookout, but still offered a good photo opportunity.

 

Opaekaa Falls Lookout

We made our last stop at the Walmart in Lihu’e, it seemed like everywhere we went in Hawaii there was Walmart. We picked up some more provisions knowing this would be the last stop where a better selection of item would be available, and not be too expensive.

We then drove to the airport to drop off the rental car, and headed back to the ship on the Thrifty shuttle bus, arriving at the ship about 3:00 PM, 30 minutes before we needed to be back on board. Although our stay here was short, we ended up being able to see everything we had planned on, plus a couple of additional sites.

After going through security to re-board the ship, we headed to our room to enjoy the nice view of the harbor.  At about 4:00 PM, and the ship eased away form the dock, and headed out to sea.

Leaving Kauai Behind – Heading to American Samoa

We will not see land again for four days, crossing around 2,200 nautical miles of ocean to our next port of call in Pago Pago, American Samoa. We will have some time to rest, and should be able to catch up on the blog posts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset Pictures Leaving Kauai

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean

Sea Day 5 – Heading to American Samoa

 Trip  1 Response »
Oct 312011
 

It was nice to be able to sleep in this morning after having gone for four straight days of getting up at 5:15 AM for the port stops in Hawaii. It is enjoyable to be able to see so many things, but four days in a row of constantly being on the go does wear you out. We were also finally getting used to the time, having been on the same time zone now for the last four days.

The weather this morning is sunny, so we hope to relax on deck in the lounge chairs, and then spend some of the day catching up on the blog (which we did as you can see from the posts that have been added). We decided not to go and exercise in the gym this morning, thinking that we had exercised sufficiently with all of the walking we did during the last four port days. Also, I have apparently transferred my head cold to Stephanie, she actually was not feeling that well yesterday when we woke up in Kauai.

Halloween Decorations in the Atrium

Today is Halloween, so the ship’s crew decorated a lot of the areas with Halloween decorations during the night, and there was a large display of carved pumpkins in the Atrium. All of the dining staff will be in costumes tonight and they are encouraging the passengers to wear costumes to dinner in the dining rooms. We will be wearing our Fred and Wilma Flintstones costumes that we brought from home. There is also a Halloween Party later tonight that we also plan to attend.

We went to breakfast about 9:00 AM, heading up to the Horizon Court buffet. We started back eating our “sea day” breakfast menu (oatmeal, fruit, yogurt, etc) since we knew we would not be burning away the calories like we did walking in the ports the previous four days. After breakfast, it started to get very cloudy, so we opted not to apply sunscreen and head up to the sun deck, deciding instead to spend the morning going to the Ukulele class, and blog writing. I hate getting so far behind with the postings, it seems to take a long time to catch up. Thankfully, with four straight sea days ahead, I should have more time to catch up over the next couple of days.

Stephanie’s Handmade Orchid Lei

Stephanie did a lot of sleeping today, mostly due to the cold medicines she took, while I spent time in the cabin writing the posts, and uploading the pictures for the blog. Later in the afternoon, Stephanie attended a class to make Orchid Lei’s. We both were signed up, but there did not appear to be a lot of males attending, so I opted out to continue on the blogs.

After the Lei Class, Stephanie caught up to me in the Fusion Lounge, where I was continuing to write the posts. There was a beginner’s Merengue Dance Class starting in that lounge, so we decided we would join in. It turned out to be a lot of fun. After that we headed to get a late afternoon snack. We had skipped lunch after going to breakfast so late, we just were not hungry at lunch time.

I continued to work on the blog in our cabin afterward, while Stephanie napped. We then enjoyed some refreshments on the balcony, watching the ocean pass by. It never was really that sunny today, just overcast, but no rain other than a few intermittent showers.

Wearing Our Costumes in the Dining Room

We headed to dinner in our Halloween costumes about 7:45 PM, once again going to the Sante Fe Dining Room to be served by our favorite waiter Georgiana. All of the wait staff were dressed up for Halloween, and they had some really good costumes. Some of the passengers were in costume, but most were not. It was interesting that by the time we finished our dinner at about 9:00 PM we were the only passengers left in the dining room. On this cruise, as we had already seen, there are mostly early eaters.

On a side note, we did find out that Princess had changed the times for the early and late seating’s for dinner on this cruise. Early seating is at 5:15 PM. Normally, it has been at 6:15 PM on Princess Cruises. They apparently did the same for the late seating, moving it up from the normal time of 8:15 PM to 7:45 PM. That might have a lot to do with why there was no one in the dining room when we were finishing, everyone eats early even in the Personal Choice dining rooms.

Stephanie and the Assistant Cruise Director Dan

After dinner, we went to the Halloween Costume Party in the Club Fusion Lounge. The party was very well attended, and a lot of passengers were in some type of costume, with some just wearing Halloween accessories. There was a band playing, and the party was a lot of fun. Later in the evening, there was a parade of all of the passengers who were in costume, and the cruise staff picked winners of the “best costume” and “worst costume” award.

Stephanie and Mary Jo as “Dorothy”

One of the two sisters we had met earlier in the cruise at the hot tub, Mary Jo, won with her costume of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She was the person who is one of the voices on Sponge Bob, Square Pants. The clincher seemed to be her red converse tennis shoes that were decorated with red sequins. Mary Jo is probably about 65 years old or better, but she pulled off her Dorothy impersonation pretty well.

As the party wound down, the ship became a deserted ghost ship, so to speak, pun intended. It was about midnight, and everyone just seemed to vanish.

Stephanie and Her New Date

We went to the Atrium area and took pictures of the carved pumpkins that were still out on display, and since we were the only ones there, we had no issues with getting pictures without photo “friends”, no one was there to block the views.

It was a fun evening, and a good day catching up on our sleep, relaxation, and postings.

 

Sea Day 6 – Nearing the Equator

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Nov 012011
 

The skies were clear this morning when we woke up, so we are planning to spend most of the day lounging in the sun and relaxing.  We are almost caught up with the posts, but it has been a relatively painful experience because of the ship’s extremely slow satellite internet service.

Add to that the change in months, and we are having some difficulty with getting the photos to load up. The photos are stored on the blog’s web server by date, so when we changed from October to November, while I was loading up the postings, some went in as October, some as November, due to the difference in time from our local time and the server time. While I was making the posts, we were transitioning from one month to the next, the “computer” saw the time as midnight, it was noon here while I was loading the pictures.

Anyway, as soon as we can, we will get it straightened out, the main issue we are experiencing is how slow the internet is to load the real pages to see if the changes I make have worked. The internet is especially slow in the morning, everyone wants to be online, I guess to check their email. It seems to be the fastest during the time period where the majority of folks are at the early dinner. However, yesterday, even that was extra slow, maybe due to our location, in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean. I tried again late last night, thinking everyone was asleep, but even at midnight, the internet connection would not work at all. We wonder if this is from the crew using the internet after getting off from work.

Anyway, we did spend the morning out on deck in the sun, but only after we passed through a pretty heavy rain shower. After that, it was clear skies.

After lunch, we went to another Ukulele Class, we are having one each day while we are at sea, rehearsing for the big production on the day after we leave Papeete.

Rougher Seas Today

The wind was stronger today, the weather report at noon indicated the wind to be blowing at around 30 mph. This resulted in a little bit more bumpy ride through the ocean, but luckily, the wind is still mostly from behind our heading, so the relative winds up on deck are not too bad, the wind and ship are generally heading in the same direction.

Tonight is the second formal night, and we are planning to dress up for dinner. This will be the first formal night we attend since we had elected not to participate in the first one earlier in the cruise. The menu for tonight includes lobster, so we certainly do not want to miss that.

After getting dressed, we headed to dinner once again in the Sante Fe Dining Room with Georgiana as out waiter. We were in a bit of a rush to finish dinner as we had planned to attend the ballroom dancing lessons at 8:15 PM. We ordered some wine with dinner, and of course ordered the lobster tails. It is funny to look back to the days when I was first cruising, and the lobster dinner was the most special meal that was served during the cruise. Back then, the lobster tails were large, generally being normal warm water Florida Lobster Tails, and you usually got more than one with the initial serving, plus you could order more, and they would bring you only the tails. Then Princess started to use the cold water lobster tails, similar to the small ones you can usually buy in the grocery store. You typically still got two tails with dinner, and again, they would bring only the lobster tails if you requested additional servings.

Then there was a change made to serving a single small lobster tail with prawns. Last night, the serving was one really small lobster tail, with a crab cake. The crab cake was good, but nowhere near the quality of a lobster tail. Princess also now brings you another entire dinner, including all of the side servings if you ask for more lobster, I guess it in an attempt to either fill you up, or embarrass you if you only eat the lobster tail and leave the rest. I think this is just a general indication of some of the cutbacks in the quality of the food on cruises today. I do have to say that is was still a good dinner, just not the special and extravagant lobster dinner of the past.

Once we were finished with our dinner, we headed to the ballroom dance lesson, they were teaching the waltz, and we just wanted a refresher to brush up on the steps we had learned in our lessons before the cruise. We were about 15 minutes late, and when we arrived, they were teaching different steps than we had learned, so we just watched. We were also planning on attending the show afterward in the same lounge, so we got a table and watched the lesson for about 10 minutes before they were done. We have still not been able to get to a lounge for any ballroom dancing, it always seems like they have ballroom dancing scheduled around the early dinner completion and we are always still at dinner since we go later than most passengers.

We stayed for the show, which was a marriage game show similar to the Newlywed Game. These are usually very entertaining, but this one was laborious to watch. In picking the three couples, they chose one couple that had been married 65 years, which is usually very funny to watch them answer the questions. Unfortunately, as the game progressed, we learned that the wife in this particular couple had suffered a stroke in the recent past, and her mental abilities seemed to be limited, she could just not process the questions, either from nerves from being on stage, or some other medical condition, or both. In addition to that, the other two couples were just not good at answering the questions. For about the first 6 questions out of 8, no one had any score at all. The Cruise Director and Assistant Cruise Director were more entertaining than the couples, trying to get them to answer something correctly, giving them hints at times. When the show was finished, I think even the audience was ready for it to be over based on the lack of enthusiasm in the applause.

Probably more funny to us was what happened to my dress shoes that I brought and use with my tuxedo.  We had about 20 minutes before the show started, so I was heading back to the room for a refreshment refill, and I noticed that my shoes were making some clunking noises when I walked. It seemed to be only on the left shoe, so I stopped, and discovered that the sole was separating from the shoe. Apparently, it was only glued on, no stitching. As I continued to walk, it seemed to get worse. I was thinking the entire time about what we might have in the room to glue it back on. The only thing I could come up with was chewing gum, it certainly seems to stick well to your shoes when you step on a piece in a parking lot or on a  sidewalk.

When I got to our room, I found Stephanie’s gum and started to chew one piece, thinking this was enough to hold on the heel of the left shoe, which was all that had separated. I made our refreshments and headed out the door, only to now discover the right shoe was also separating, and was even worse. I had only gotten a few doors down from our room, so I headed back for another piece of gum to chew, I now needed enough for two repairs. My plan was to chew the gum while heading back to meet Stephanie at the show, but the right heel was so bad, I needed to attempt to gum glue it back on in the room. Of course, the gum would not stick, I guess it only works with a reaction between gum, shoes and a sidewalk, where it always sticks to your shoes, but not the third element, the sidewalk, it just did not stick. So, my only choice was to put on my brown casual shoes, which were not at all complimentary to my black tux, and head back to meet Stephanie.

Of course by this time the show was starting, and Stephanie had become worried on the delay in my return. I told her what had happened, that ended up being much more entertaining than the show. Now, I will have to see if I can rent some formal shoes for the two remaining formal nights later in the cruise. If this had happened on the first formal night, the one we had not attended on a sea days before we got to Hawaii, I could have gotten some “shoe goo” glue from one of our trips to Walmart, and made the repairs myself. The irony is that we looked into renting shoes for the cruise anyway, to help with space in the luggage, but thought it was a little pricey, so I took my own. I guess those cheap shoes I bought from Ebay several years ago are exactly that, cheap.  I do have to say they were abused over time, having been folded in two, and smashed in my luggage on past cruises.

Needless to say, we called it an early night, I did not want to stay out wearing my brown casual shoes and my black tuxedo.

Tomorrow, we cross the equator around 10:00 AM, so there is a special celebration for that at 2:00 PM. We also have our Chef’s Dinner tomorrow evening, so it will be an eventful day at sea.

Sea Day 7 – Crossing the Equator

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Nov 022011
 

The wind and seas were heavier last night than on any other night on the cruise so far. In addition, the wind direction had changed overnight, and is now blowing out of the south, and more of a headwind than on previous days. When I looked outside at about 6:30 AM, the skies looked clear, so I thought there would be a really nice sunrise to photograph. With our current heading toward American Samoa, we can take pictures of the sunsets from our balcony. However, that causes the sunrise to occur on the other side of the ship (port side) and more astern. Therefore, I have to leave the cabin and walk to the stern of the ship to photograph the sunrise.

Normally, I load my camera gear in a backpack, head to the coffee bar on Deck 5 for fresh brewed coffee that is included with my coffee card, and then go up to Deck 16 and wait for sunrise. Today, after completing the coffee run, and getting to Deck 16, I was disappointed to see a large area of rain clouds exactly in the position on the horizon to hide the sunrise. Oh well, maybe another morning. The remainder of the morning ritual is to then head to the Horizon Court Buffet to fill up a stainless bottle with coffee for Stephanie, including two coffee cups, one empty, and one containing some cream, both for Stephanie’s coffee.

After returning to the room, Stephanie was still asleep, so I tried to get on the internet to upload yesterday’s blog post. Even though it was still early, the connection was already very slow, either from usage, or from poor satellite reception at this latitude.

Today is a big day, the ship is scheduled to cross the equator. The Captain made an announcement that we would be crossing the equator at approximately 9:42 AM. We were back in the cabin after going to breakfast at about 9:30 AM, so we were poised to take pictures of the crossing from our balcony. I took a picture of the ocean at the designated time.

Crossing the Equator – Ha Ha!

Of course, it looks no different than any other picture of the ocean. I tried to get GPS reception from our balcony, to take a photo or our position on longitude and latitude from the GPS screen. However, due to all of the surrounding metal decks, we can’t get GPS satellite reception from the balcony. We were heading to the sun deck anyway, so I was able to photo our position at that time, which was a few minutes after the crossing (not time minutes, but latitude minutes, as in degrees, minutes and seconds of position). By that time, we were about 7 minutes south of the equator in latitude position terms. We have been averaging about 21 knots of speed, or about 24 mph, since leaving Kauai.

King Neptune and his Queen

There was a special ceremony this afternoon to celebrate the equator crossing, all of the passengers will become Shellbacks, which is the term used to designate that you have made a crossing of the equator while at sea. Otherwise, without having crossed the equator, everyone is known as a Pollywog. The celebration involved four volunteer passengers, and about 20 of the ships crew that had not made the equator crossing before.

We had thought we would all participate, but it was more of a show for the passengers. It was an involved ceremony, and was pretty funny. The Captain of the ship was in the show, and actually had a major role, much more than we expected. It would have been nice if there was something that all passengers did to actually participate in the ceremony, but it would take too long and be too involved if everyone went through part of the ceremony. I guess our part is truly ceremonial in spirit only.

Stephanie and the Maitre d’

We could tell that the sun was intense here as were were out on the sun deck. We wore our 50 SPF sunscreen, but still turned a little pink from the exposure.

Tonight is our night to go to the Chef’s Dinner. We met at 6:45 PM with the Maître d’ for a briefing before we donned our white coats for the tour of the main kitchen.

We all were required to wash our hands after we initially entered the kitchen. We were served some champagne, and had four different appetizers while we were in the kitchen.

Eating More Appetizers with the Chef in the Kitchen

Eating Appetizers with the Chef in the Kitchen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left the kitchen and were seated at our special table. There were 16 people in our group for dinner. They took a group photo of us with the Chef and the Maître d’ then took individual pictures of each couple, also with the Chef and Maître d’.

Sorbet with Vodka Topping

 

Then we were served a pasta dish consisting of Risotto with pieces of fish within a filling. It was very good. They served a SIMI Chardonnay wine, which went very well with the pasta dish.

 

Next, we were served a sorbet for cleansing our pallet, it was topped of with a little Grey Goose Vodka.

 

Then came the main course, which consisted of beef, pork and lamb tenderloins, that were heated with a flaming mixture of rum. Some of the meat was hanging on metal racks, they told us it was similar to a method of Roman cooking.

Flaming Racks of Meat

Flaming Racks of Meat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The meats were served with mashed potatoes and asparagus. It was all very good. They also served us a Merlot wine with the dinner.

Dessert Served on a Blue Sugar Plate

Next, we were served a dish of cheeses, followed by our dessert. Dessert was served on a plate made from sugar, and had twirled sugar sticks in and on the dessert, which was mostly chocolate based. They also served various coffees, we both had cappuccinos.

They brought roses for the ladies and each couple was given a set of the photos taken earlier, along with a copy of the Princess Cookbook. Overall, it was a fun experience, and the food and wines were excellent.

We called it a night and headed back to the cabin after a wonderful day at sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sea Day 8 – Nearing American Samoa

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Nov 032011
 

Today is our last sea day before we reach Pago Pago in American Samoa tomorrow morning. Stephanie and I were dragging a little this morning, maybe due to the time spent in the heat yesterday while crossing the equator, or the over indulging dinner we ate last night. Neither of us slept well, most likely due to all of the rich food, chocolate desserts, cappuccino coffees and maybe a little due to the generous servings of wine we had with the dinner. Anyway, we felt tired most of the morning.

We did seem to feel a little better after eating breakfast. Then it was off to another Ukulele class, the last before we do an actual dress rehearsal after leaving Tahiti in several days.

The seas and wind were much calmer today, there was a slight swell, but no white caps on the water. However, it was really hot today, the temperature at noon was already 85 degrees F. I walked some laps around the sun deck for exercise while Stephanie laid out in the sun. Unlike some of the Caribbean cruises we have been on, there is no issue getting deck chairs on this cruise, no one seems to want to be out in the heat, most everyone is staying under cover or just staying inside.  Probably an age related difference from the normal  younger Caribbean cruise crowd who like to be out in the sun and heat.

We sat in the sun for a while before we went to lunch at about 2:00 PM in the buffet. After lunch, we  returned to our chairs on the sun deck trying to get a little bit of a tan before we are exposed in the sun more when we make the next few stops in Samoa and French Polynesia.

We do not arrive in Pago Pago until 10:00 AM tomorrow morning, so we do not have to get up as early as we did when visiting the Hawaiian ports. We are not really scheduled to do anything in particular tomorrow in port, we will probably tour some around the town, and/or maybe head over to Tisa’s Barefoot Bar to look around, and maybe do some snorkeling.

We attended dinner in the buffet tonight, there was nothing spectacular on the menu in the dining room, and there were two shows we wanted to attend, the first starting at 9:00 PM, so we did not want to be late.   Sometimes, the dining room experience is just too slow to make it to a show early enough to get a seat.

There was also an adult humor English Pub Show tonight at 10:00 PM that we attended in the Club Fusion Lounge that was very funny.

We are scheduled to change our clocks back another hour tonight, I believe due to the fact that American Samoa is still on Daylight Savings Time, so tomorrow, we will be 7 hours different from the East Coast.

 

 

Pago Pago, American Samoa

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Nov 042011
 

Our port of call today is Pago Pago in American Samoa. Pago Pago is actually pronounced “Pango Pango”. We were not scheduled to arrive in Pago Pago until 10:00 AM local time, which is now 7 hours ahead of Eastern time since we shifted our clock ahead one more hour again last night. I think this is due to the fact that American Samoa actually participates in Daylight Savings Time, so they are one hour ahead of Hawaii, which is not on Daylight Savings time.  Anyway, we temporarily gained another hour of sleep last night.

At about 6:00 AM, we were able to actually see the island of Tutuila, on which the city of Pago Pago is located. There are several islands that make up American Samoa, and Tutuila is the largest.

As close as we seemed to be, we did not think that it would take until 10:00 AM, another four hours after we sighted the island, to actually get into the port, but it did. The island is fairly long, and the port was at least half way down the island’s length. Whales are often sighted at this time of year here, so we decided to go for a “take out” breakfast at the buffet, and bring it back to the room to eat on the balcony as we approached Tutuila, just in case we might see a whale as we approached the harbor.

Whales Blowing in the Pacific

Sure enough, as we were eating, we saw three areas of mist arise from the ocean indicating whale “blows”, as in “Thar she blows”. It was unfortunate that they were so far away, even with the zoom lens, we were not actually able to see the whales themselves, only the mist from their blowing at the surface of the sea. They re-appeared several minutes later, having traveled quite a distance from where we had seen them the first time. Again however, they were still too far away from the ship to see anything other than the spray form their blowing at the surface.

Entering the Pago Pago Harbor

The port for Pago Pago was in a valley between a narrow channel and and the mountains. The water was clear and made a very scenic entry to the dock. There were several large buildings on one side of the port where tuna is processed. One was a Star-Kist tuna processing plant, and is the main employer in Pago Pago. We went up on deck to take pictures while we were heading to tie up at the dock.

Once were were secured at the dock at about 10:30 AM, we were allowed to depart the ship. We did not have any real plan, other than to ride some of the local buses around to different parts of the island, and eventually make our way over to Tisa’s Barefoot Bar. The buses were a little confusing. They each have a city name on them sort of indicating the direction they are traveling, but it did not seem consistent, we saw various buses going in opposite directions, but with the same hand painted city name on them.

 

Scenic Views Along the Coast

We boarded what we thought was the correct bus, and asked about the fare. Apparently, the “normal” fare is around $2, but less if you don’t go very far, or slightly more if you go all the way to the end of that route. The buses are all converted from something else, possibly a truck frame with a wooden top added. The seats are wooden, and there are no real windows, just openings.

Needless to say, we did not get on the correct bus the first time. It had a city name that was in the direction we thought we wanted to go based on the map we received when getting off of the ship. However, as we left the harbor area, we could tell that it was going to the opposite end of the island from where we had initially intended to go. Stephanie talked to a man seated near her and he was able to show us where we were, and which direction we were going, which verified we were heading in the opposite direction than we had intended.

We  passed some really beautiful beaches on our ride, so it was not all a waste of time. We got off a few stops before we arrived at the airport, the buses destination, and headed across the street to take another bus back into the harbor area. Apparently, the main bus station is near the market in the harbor, and all bus routes officially start or end there, depending on your direction of travel.

Ship Docked at Pago Pago

We were able to ask some other ladies at the bus stop about the correct bus to take to go the other direction, towards Tisa’s Bar. We got off at the main station, which was just an open area with buses lined up in rows, some of which said East and some West, indicting the general direction of travel. After asking a few more times, mainly to find someone who spoke English, we were able to determine we needed one of the smaller buses to go to the eastern half of the island. Finally, we were on the correct bus and going in the  direction we needed.

We were able to get some good photos of the ship at the dock as we headed the other direction towards Tisa’s. We also passed by the Tuna processing plant, which of course, smelled very fishy when we went by. There were several scenic beach areas heading in this direction, and after a few miles, we were at the Tisa’s Barefoot Bar, which was right on the coast, on a nice sandy beach. We headed to a spot on the beach and set our towels and backpacks down and went for a swim. It was not the best place to snorkel, there was a fair amount of waves breaking on the reef area, making the water somewhat cloudy. There was also some bad areas of current, especially right in the middle of the crescent shaped beach area. The surf came in on both sides, and then flowed out the middle, causing quite a rip current.

 

We took some underwater photos of the fish, but due to the poor visibility, most were just not very clear.

Fish on the Reef

However, a few of them did come out fairly well.

We headed up to the beachfront bar and table area, and had one of the local Samoan, beers called Wailima. They came in 25 oz. sizes, large like the Samoan people.

 

Stephanie Snorkeling

We sat at one of the tables, and started talking with some other couples from our ship that were there on a tour, arranged by Tisa’s. One couple was from Canada, and the other was from Atlanta. We also got to witness a rescue from the rip currents that were flowing right out of the middle of the crescent shaped beach.
One of the workers at the Bar had to swim out to a snorkeler who was trying to swim back against the current, and was struggling. The “lifeguard” swam out with a lifeguard type buoy, and showed the person how to swim sideways to the current. After the rescuer got back to shore, we heard him say that this was the 109th person he had to rescue from the current. It was pretty obvious where it was in the water, you could actually see the water’s surface boil where the current was the strongest.

Vailima Beer from Western Samoa

We hung out there for a while longer, (read another large beer), then decided to catch a bus back to the harbor.   We headed out the the main road in front of the bar to try and catch a bus.

The tour group that we had talked with was also assembling to leave at the same time, their tour buses were already there. We saw one of the small buses going in the opposite direction, but flagged it down anyway, and it actually turned around and picked us up.

There was another older couple that also decided to get on the bus with us.  The bus driver had to wait for them, and apparently he was not stopped in a designated pick-up spot.   Unfortunately, a police truck happened by and told him to move.

Coastline of Pago Pago – HDR Photo

When the police went by, we were already on the bus, but the older couple was not.   The man had a cane and was unable to get there quickly. The bus driver moved up some along the shoulder of the roadway, making it even farther for the older man to walk to catch up with us and get on. The police did not like what was happening, apparently they must have told him to move altogether.  When the bus driver did not move far enough off of the road, the Police turned around and pulled over the bus driver and gave him a ticket. I am sure he wished he had not delayed to pick up that older couple, but he did, and he got a ticket for it, just ironic. The older couple asked us about the fare, and we told them it was $2 for each person, and we hoped they were going to give him a little more since they were the cause if his getting a ticket, but they did not. Oh well.

We got off at the market once we arrived back at the harbor, and walked through the various vendor tables. There were not many vendors there, I think more of them were set up in tents by the ship at the port. We walked over to the seawall and took some pictures of the ship, and of us us sitting on the sea wall in front of the ship.

Stephanie & Chuck with the Ship in Pago Pago

After walking the remaining 3-4 blocks back to the ship, we boarded, and then headed to the buffet to get some lunch. After lunch, we got back off the ship to look around in the tents that had been set up for the various vendors. It had rained during the time we were eating on the ship, so some of the vendors were packing up. We bought a few items, and then re-boarded the ship.

We were not scheduled to leave port until about 7:00 PM, so we headed to the balcony to relax and take some pictures, and enjoy some refreshments. We were tired from being on the go all day, and from the time change last night; plus the snorkeling, walking and drinking the large Samoan size beers in the middle of the day out in the hot sun.

After the ship pulled away from the dock and headed out to sea, we decided just to go to the buffet and get a couple of plates “to go” and eat in the cabin. We lose the hour we got last night when the clocks change back again tonight. Tomorrow, we will be in Western Samoa, stopping in the port of Apia. We are scheduled to arrive at 7:00 AM, and are doing a ship’s tour.

Clouds Moving In as we Prepare to Depart Pago Pago

 

Apia, Western Samoa

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Nov 052011
 

Today marks the halfway point of the cruise, we have been on the ship for two weeks, and have two more weeks after today. We only have three more ports of call, Bora Bora, Moorea, and Tahiti.

Heading Into the Apia Harbor

Early this morning, we headed into the port of Apia, in Western Samoa. It was a mostly cloudy sky, and the sun was just appearing on the horizon as we were pulling into our berth. The captain headed into the small harbor, and maneuvered the ship around 180 degrees, appearing to barely miss the end of the breakwater. It was interesting to watch since the harbor was so small and narrow.

There was a Samoan dance group performing on the dock as we were tying up. It was very interesting, there were about 12 men and 6 women dancing, sometimes dancing together, sometimes just the men or just the women dancing separately.

Greeted By Samoan Dancers

Today, we are going on a ship’s tour. The highlights of the tour will be to see what is called a Kava Ceremony, which is a welcoming ceremony to welcome us to the the particular village we are visiting, and then we are scheduled to visit the Piula Cave Pool, which is a large freshwater pool that goes through a cave in the side of a hill.

Although the ship was docked at 7:45 AM, our tour does not depart until 9:30 AM, so we had plenty of time to get ready and eat breakfast without getting up too early.

We met in the Princess Theater at the designated time, and boarded the buses about 9:45 AM. Some of the buses were small, and appeared to be air conditioned. Ours was larger, and was not air conditioned, which was better for taking photos out of the open windows. There were a total of five buses for this tour.

Village Leaders at the Kava Ceremony

There were rain showers in the area, and once we started out in the bus to our first stop, it really started to rain hard. It was about a 20 minute drive before we stopped at a church, which had a large covered open area out front. This was the location of the Kava Ceremony. The village chief and elders gave some greetings in the local language, which  of course, we did not understand. This lasted for at least 10 minutes, which probably seemed longer since we did not know what they were actually saying. They were all dressed in various types of traditional ceremonial garments.

Once the greeting was completed, we were offered some of the traditional drink, which is Kava. It is made out of some type of root, and does not have much taste, other than bad.

Drinking the Ceremonial Kava

After that, we went outside to see where they were cooking the food in a traditional Emu, which is hot coals buried in the ground. They were going to be serving some fish, and also some type of vegetable, which looked like spinach. There was also some other type of cooked root, which had no taste. We were also given a coconut, which had been sitting in ice cold water, and they punched a hole in the end and inserted a straw for us to drink the cold coconut milk from inside the shell.

The fish and the vegetable were very good. We ate all of the food out of weaved palm frond bowls, that had a banana leaf in the bottom that the food was placed on top of.

While we were eating, they had some of the women perform traditional Samoan dances.

Stephanie Eating the Traditional Meal

When that was completed, we headed back to board the buses to drive to the Piula Cave Pool. Out tour guide explained a lot about the houses that we saw in all of the villages we passed along the way. Like in American Samoa, they all bury their dead relatives in the front yard, so you see a lot of above ground burial vaults of various types and sizes in front of most all of the houses. The also each have an open air guest house in the front of the main house.

Everyone seemed friendly, and waved at us as we drove by. There were some beautiful tropical gardens around most of the houses we passed. It was Saturday, so most of the locals had gone for the day to the city of Apia to shop since it is one of the largest cities. There were not many stores in the small villages themselves, so according to our guide, everyone usually piles into the local buses and goes into the larger cities on Saturdays.

Most of our bus ride was along the coast, so we were able to get some good photos, although since it was mainly overcast, the water was not very colorful like it typically is when it is sunny.

Piula Cave Pool

After about a 30 minute drive, we arrived at the Piula College, which is a college for religious ministry. On the grounds of the college is the Cave Pool. We walked though some of the gardens, then walked down some steps to the pool, which was spring fed, and therefore, really cold (to us).

We set down our gear and headed in for a swim. We did not go all the way through the cave, it is not lighted and gets really small at the far end where you exit. The water was about 6 ft deep in areas, but luckily, less deep in the actual cave. We headed part of the way in and took some photos.

The hardest part was getting in and out of the pool, the rocks around the edges were very slippery, even with shoes. There were some steps, but they did not go all the way into the pool, and of course, the ones near the water were slippery as well.

The cave pool was located right along the coast, next to a seawall. We dried off and headed over to look out into the ocean. By this time, the sun had finally come out, and made the entire area come alive with color that we had not seen while it was cloudy.

Coastal View from Piula

After about an hour at the pool, we were loaded back onto the buses for the ride back to Apia. It was much more scenic since the sun was out, but since we had been on the ocean side of the bus for the ride over, our same seats were now on the inland side of the bus for the ride back, and were not able to get many good photos of the coastline as we drove.

Scenes Around Apia

Once we arrived back in Apia, we rode through the city and were shown some of the hotels and other special buildings. Apparently, the tour was also supposed to go to the Robert Louis Stevenson house, but the tour guides did not have that as part of their listed itinerary. There were some unhappy people on the bus, but they calmed down once they realized it was an issue to resolve with Princess, not the tour guides who were just doing what they had been told by their company. We were more upset with not visiting a black sand beach which was also described in the itinerary, and which we also did not do. We will ask Princess about the exclusions when we get a chance to go to the tour desk, most likely tomorrow.  Follow Up:  We were required to fill out a complaint form at the Princess Tour Desk on the ship explaining what had happened on our tour.  Eventually, we were given a 20% credit for the tour cost since it did not visit all of the listed areas.

View of the Sapphire Princess in Apia Harbor

We arrived back at the ship at about 2:30 PM. We wanted to go to the town to look around, but it was quite a walk all the way around the harbor to get there, and we only had an hour before everyone was to be back on the ship. We were scheduled to leave at 4:00 PM. We did look around at some of the vendors who had set up tents right outside of the ship, but did not see anything to purchase.

We got back on the ship and headed to get a bite of lunch. It was a really nice and sunny day by this time, so we headed to sit in the sun deck chairs and watch the ship depart the harbor.

The view was spectacular since the water is so clear and blue, and the entire island is surrounded by a shallow reef.

Departing Apia Harbor

The ship is now heading to Bora Bora, our next port stop. We will be at sea for two days to travel the 1,200 nautical miles to get to Bora Bora.

We waited for the sunset, and were able to get some good photos of the sunset from our balcony.

We opted to head to the dining room tonight for dinner, so after we showered and dressed, we headed to the Sante Fe dining room at about 8:00 PM for dinner. It was an enjoyable dining experience once again with our waiter Georgina. The head waiter for that section came over and offered to make us a special pasta dish with scallops and shrimp, which we accepted.  It was very good.

Sunset Near Samoa

There was not much going on for entertainment tonight, so we headed back to the room to download the pictures for the day from the camera and to work on the postings for yesterday in Pago Pago, and today in Apia.

Sea Day 9 – Heading to Bora Bora

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Nov 062011
 

After two days of port calls in American Samoa and Western Samoa, we are once again at sea, relaxing from our consecutive port days. I do need to note that we are now only 5 hours different from Eastern Time, daylight savings time ended on November 4 in the USA.  This is always a sad time for us, it means that the days are getting shorter and the temperatures will be falling. Although it has been an extremely hot summer at home, the thought of cold weather and short days is always depressing. However, we will celebrate the warmth for a couple of more weeks since it is in the mid to upper eighties here at sea, and the sea water temperature is about 85 degrees.

We will miss some of the fall days at home, more than likely we will have much cooler weather by the time we head home on November 19th. However, that is still 13 days away, and we will enjoy the warm weather as long as we can.

We did get up and exercise this morning in the gym, it had been a while since we were there, and it shows on my waistline. I will not speak for Stephanie, but since we had done a couple of ship tours, we were not walking as much as we normally do when we are on our own, and we needed to go back to the exercise regime while we are at sea. Once again, we were back to our typical sea day breakfast in the buffet, lots of fruit and oatmeal and no eggs, bacon, sausage or sweet rolls.

It was a nice day at sea, the winds were moderate, and we had just one rain shower while we were exercising in the gym.  The remainder of the day was sunny and warm. I had a dress rehearsal for tomorrow’s big Ukulele concert at 2:00 PM today. We will be playing in the atrium tomorrow for the real concert. There are probably about 25-30 people participating. It will be fun, the singing part is the hardest for me, the Ukulele playing is easy.

We did report the issue with the tour from yesterday, and we were told we would each need to fill out a form stating what happened so they could independently collaborate the stories. We do not know what will be done, they implied that they thought the tour group was at fault, hence the need to explain what happened on the forms. My personal thought is that Princess did not do a good job of coordinating with the local tour groups, but being the heavy, I think they will try and blame the local tour group, as they have the leverage being a big company, and can influence the locals via leveraging a return cruise for the future. I will have to say that Princess does seem to be heavy handed at times, but some of that is probably just inherent in the cruise business.

We went out on the sun deck for a while, then went to lunch. Then it was back out in the sun for a bit more before we headed to the room to play some cards out on the balcony in the shade. We enjoyed some refreshments and watched the sunset.

We then got ready for dinner, and headed to the Sante Fe Dining room once again, and enjoyed a good dinner consisting of Prime Rib for me and a Shrimp and Scallop dish for Stephanie.

After dinner, we went to the Explorer’s Lounge to watch a comedy show by a gentleman named Uber Rossie. The show was OK, funny at times, but not as good as some of the others that we have seen.

After that, we called it a night and headed back to the cabin.

Tomorrow will be another day at sea as we maintain our heading toward Bora Bora, arriving on Tuesday morning.

Sea Day 10, Almost to Bora Bora

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Nov 072011
 

Today is another sea day, so once again, we slept in a while before getting up and heading out to get coffee.  Then I  worked on getting the blog postings caught up through yesterday. The internet speed was slightly better today.

We headed out for breakfast at the buffet so our room steward, Edgardo could make up the room. We just wandered around on the Promenade Deck while the room was being finished. It was interesting to see that people were reserving the deck chairs on the Promenade Deck with their towels today for the first time this cruise, something that we usually see happening often with the chairs during most Caribbean Cruises. On those cruises, if you don’t get out there early and try and pick a chair out to unofficially “reserve” it with your towel, and possibly a book, you just don’t get a chair at all. On this cruise, that has not been an issue so far, probably only about 25% of the chairs out by the pool even get used, especially if they are directly in the sun. But, as we saw on the Promenade Deck, any of the lounge chairs in shaded areas are pretty hard to come by on this cruise, which were the ones being “reserved”.

We spent the rest of the morning reading on our balcony, since it is shaded in the morning, watching some more deep blue ocean pass by. Based on the navigational report on the TV, we have traveled a total distance of 5,890 nautical miles since we left Los Angeles.

Today at noon, the temperature was 80 degrees, and the sea temperature was 82 degrees, so it was warm, but not too hot.  I just think that a lot of people are from areas in the USA where it is just not that hot and humid, and so they can’t take the heat. It is pretty breezy out on the decks, we are heading into the wind more today, so that helps keep the outside areas cooler.   Our cruising speed is just at 20 knots.

Ukulele Concert in the Atrium

Today was the big Ukulele Concert in the Atrium at 2:00 PM. It was only three songs, so it lasted about 10 minutes, but it was fun. I am on the left in the rear in the green shirt in the photo, the fourth person in from the left.

After the big concert, we went to get a bite to eat for lunch and then went back to the Atrium to watch an egg drop contest. There were about 15 teams who used items that they could scavenge from on board the ship to build various contraptions to try and cushion the egg for a three story fall to a target below. There were points for accuracy, style and of course, survivability. All of the eggs that made it through the fall were then unwrapped from their survival craft, and then dropped to the floor to verify that they were not hard boiled “cheaters”. About 2/3 of them survived the initial fall. There were three judges, and they determined points for all of the categories that the teams were judged on. It was fun to watch.

Tonight is the Captain’s Circle Cocktail Party at 7:00 PM. This is the party for past cruisers on Princess Cruises, and is normally held in one of the lounges, but on this cruise, almost everyone is a past cruiser except for about 350 “new” Princess people, so the party for this cruise is being held in the Atrium Area, on Decks 5 through 7, the same place the Captain’s Reception is held. It was really crowded. We stayed for about 40 minutes, then we went to dinner in the dining room while the rest of the crowd was at the Captain’s Circle event.

After dinner, we went to see another episode of the Marriage Game Show, all of the couples were married between 37 and 50 years. It was much better than the first show we had watched a few days ago, the couples were better and so were the questions. After that was over we called it a night. We went back to the room to get everything ready for tomorrow’s port day in Bora Bora.

 

Bora Bora – All That We Had Expected and More

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Nov 082011
 

Today was probably the pinnacle of the entire trip, our stop in Bora Bora. This was the stop Stephanie had always dreamed of, and the beauty of the water was unbelievable. Hopefully some of the pictures captured the beauty of this island paradise. It ended up being a great day, but did start out with some trepidation, this was a tender port and it was slow to get off of the ship.  More on that later.

We were scheduled to arrive at 9:00 AM, so we set the alarm for 5:40 AM so we could make sure we were not in a rush to get to breakfast and load up our gear for the day’s adventure. Since this was a tender port, we wanted to try and get on the first tender because we wanted to get to an ATM at a bank and get some Central Pacific Francs to pay for  today’s tour. We could either pay in US dollars, which we did carry with us, or pay in Francs, which we did not have without the trip to the ATM. We were scheduled to meet the tour with Patrick at 9:30 AM, so our plan was to get on the first tender ashore, and go to one of the nearby ATM machines. We had wanted to do it this way due to a situation that arose yesterday with Princess on our pre-cruise purchased Casino credits that we had intended to use as cash. We had thought we would have access to that $400 in casino credits simply by following the instructions on the voucher, and submitting them at the casino for cash.

However, when we took them to the casino yesterday to “cash in ” two of the four vouchers we had, we were informed we would have to go to the Purser’s Desk. At the Purser’s Desk, we were told that they were issued as Shipboard Credit, and had already been credited to our account. We knew this from looking at our statement a few days ago. What we did not know was that we could no longer turn them into cash because our charges now exceeded the on board credits issued to our account. Apparently, they indicated we could have done it earlier in the cruise when we still had a negative (credit) balance on our account, but not now. 

We headed back to the cabin to consider how we would approach this, and that was when I discovered that the statement on the vouchers indicated they were different from some of the other actual shipboard credits we had received, which stated exactly that, they were credited as shipboard credit. The casino vouchers stated they were gifts that could be turned in at the casino, presumably for cash to gamble with. There was a lot of confusion at the purser’s desk, and I tried another person there after we discovered what the different vouchers said.

Long story short, we are supposed to get a call from a supervisor to resolve this situation. We had wanted the cash to use for some additional tips for the special crew that we have liked, especially the wait staff. However, we now needed most of our cash for the tour today unless we could get to an ATM before the tour started and withdraw the fee in Francs.  But on to today…..

Approaching Bora Bora

This morning, all was going according to our plan. We finished our breakfast early and actually had some time to go up on the deck and take pictures of our arrival at Bora Bora  from the bow of the ship. We were heading directly into the rising sun, so the photo opportunities were less than desirable, so we left to get into the line for the tender tickets on the 5th floor, at the designated dining room. We were there about 45 minutes prior to our arrival time, and were very near the front of the line, much closer than we were for the stop in Maui, where we easily got on the first two tenders ashore. We were feeling good about our plan, and then as Stephanie likes to say, the “wheels fell off”, again.

We actually received tender #2 tickets, the couple in front of us in line got the last tender #1 tickets. However, based on the Maui experience, we still thought we would get on the first tender ashore. However, due to the large number of Princess Tours leaving early today, and the large number of Elite passengers (highest Princess frequent cruiser status that get tender priority as part of their benefits) we did not make it out on the first tenders. We actually had to wait an additional 25 minutes, and now we were close to the 9:30 AM tour start time. We were now no longer worried about getting to an ATM, we were now more worried we would not make the tour at all.

At about 9:25 AM, they called our tender number, and about 20 minutes later, we were ashore looking for our tour group. Nothing in Bora Bora seems to be highly organized, we had to ask several times where to go to find Patrick’s tour. There was a large powered catamaran at the end of the dock, and this was our tour boat.

Our Excursion Boat for Bora Bora

In addition, there were the original 4 smaller boats that Patrick normally runs which is the subject I covered in an early trip planning blog post. We hopped aboard, forgetting about trying to find a bank or ATM, both of us just glad we had made it to the tour. As it turned out, we sat there for about 25 more minutes waiting on a few other passengers. Stephanie asked one of the crew about how far a bank was from the dock, and they indicated it was far away. We don’t think he understood, because when we returned later in the afternoon, we discovered we had passed right by a bank in our haste to find the tour. Oh well, the rest of the day was fantastic.

We were actually glad in the end that we were on the larger boat.  Although it was not as “authentic” as the other smaller boats, it was much more comfortable, had a restroom, and was a better platform for photos, especially the top deck, which was also partially covered. In addition, since there were a few rain showers early on,  the larger boat had roll down side covers to keep us dry. We never did see anyone collecting money, so we just thought they would collect it at the end of the tour as we departed.

Snorkeling With Sharks

Once everyone was aboard, the first thing we did was to go to an area on the outer reef where there were a lot of stingrays and some small sharks to swim with. All of the boats in the group headed over to that location, and there were a couple of others boats there from some of the different tours.

The water was not that clear due to all of the people walking on the sandy bottom, but it was still very fun and interesting to be that close to some large stingrays, and some 3-5 ft. black tip reef sharks. Stephanie really enjoyed it once she got used to being that close to them.

Snorkeling Stop with the Sharks and Stingrays

We stayed there for about 30 minutes, then we all got back aboard the boat and headed to another snorkel spot, this time a somewhat wind protected reef that was in a little deeper water. The ride over there was fantastic, it took about 40 minutes, and we passed by some of the hotels that feature the small bungalows with thatched roofs,  built out on the water.

Bungalows in Bora Bora

The sun was now out in full force, and the water colors were just fantastic. I was glad that I had bought the polarizing filter for my camera lens, it really made a difference in capturing the true color of the water.

Once we arrived at the reef area, everyone got into the water to snorkel. There were a lot of fish there, many clams with different color animals in them, lots of pretty colored reef fish, and a few barracuda.

Snorkeling on the Reef

Stephanie was hard at work taking underwater photos, although we realized later we could also have taken some underwater videos with her camera. They had given us some bread to feed the fish, and we got some good photos of the fish. We snorkeled for about 30 minutes or so and then we all boarded the boat for the ride to the motu to have our lunch.

The ride around that side of the island was also beautiful, it is the side where most of the hotels are located. We never knew that there were so many of the thatched bungalow hotels here, most of them were on the motu’s, which are the smaller barrier islands that encircle the main island of Bora Bora.

Heading to the Motu for Lunch

It did not seem to be crowded at these hotels, not many people were on their outside decks that we could see. It did remind us a little of Venice, there were boats delivering people to the hotels from the nearby airport. The airport seemed like it was on the outer barrier islands also, we believe the only way to get to the airport appeared to be by small boat or by ferry boat. We saw some boats with both people and luggage on them, apparently heading to the hotels with arriving guests.

We arrived at the small motu owned by Patrick’s family, and the food was already cooking. They split the entire group into two halves, some of the boats stayed to snorkel longer while we headed over to the motu to eat. they had prepared two separate batches of food in two different in-ground ovens. We had small lobster, smoked fish, pork, some spinach and chicken cooked together, and some breadfruit. There was also some raw fish “cooked” in lemon and spices called ceviche, cooked really meaning marinated, but it was not considered to be raw. The acids and spices cook the fish so to speak.  There were a couple of banana dishes and some other sweet poi’s .

Stephanie & Chuck on the Motu

All of the food was served on plates made from palm fronds with leaves on them to eat off of. They served soft drinks and champagne with the food. There were no utensils other than your hands. Overall, although some of the items were unusual, most all of it was good.

There were some tables in the water to eat off of, and some in the shade, which were the more popular. The sun here is unbelievably hot and intense. We applied 55 SPF and 50 SPF sunscreens, and even reapplied after swimming, but later we still put on our special long sleeve Columbia brand shirts we had bought specifically for this purpose. We also were getting the reflected sun off of the water, it was just very strong since we are close to the equator, and there is not much air pollution here.

Riding Back to the Harbor

We stayed on the island motu for about an hour or so, and then started our ride back to the harbor. All in all, the boat rides took us around the entire main island of Bora Bora. We got back at around 4:00 PM and everyone started to get off of the boat.

Mount Pahia on Bora Bora

We did not see anyone giving money, so we thought they were going to collect it on the dock when we departed, except no one was collecting. We went back to talk with the lady who was in charge and apparently, everyone else had paid up front before we got to the boat, so we did not know they had collected the money. We gave her our fee and thanked her for the wonderful experience. It was a little awkward not knowing we were supposed to pay up front, but no one ever said anything to us about it when we initially boarded.

When we were heading toward the end of the dock, we stopped in the visitor’s center and asked about a bank and ATM. It was then that we realized we had almost walked right past the bank when we were looking for the tour group. Stephanie tried to see if the lady we had paid was still at the dock to ask if we could exchange our US Dollars for Francs, but she was already gone. Oh well, we will just have to make due or really press the issue of the casino credits with Princess.

Standing on the Dock at Bloody Mary’s

We then looked around a few shops before they were scheduled to close at 6:00 PM. Our plan was to then go to a bar and restaurant called Bloody Mary’s, a popular stop on Bora Bora. We rode on one of the local buses about 5 miles to get there, only to find out it was closing in 10 minutes for a private party. We went in to look around and took a couple of photos outside, and then some more photos out on their dock.

The mountain on the middle of Bora Bora, Mount Pahia, is famous for being the mountain on the mythical island of Bali Ha’i in the movie South Pacific, the one that is shown in the sunset scene. We took another bus back into town and got on a tender to go back to the ship at about 6:15 PM. We had hoped for a colorful sunset, but some clouds had moved in and that was about the only disappointing item for the day.  We ended up not getting a memorable sunset due to the clouds.

We went ahead and ate dinner in the buffet, before heading back to the room to get cleaned up. The showers were really nice after a hot day in the sun and salt water. The ship pulled up anchor a little before 10:00 PM and we headed out onto our balcony see the departure from Bora Bora under a full moon. We watched Bora Bora fade away in the moonlight.

Moon Rising over Mount Pahia

Tomorrow we are at Moorea, where we are renting a car to drive around the island.

 

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