Entries about snack

It was just a 10 min hop from Maupiti to Bora Bora. So before we knew it, we were there already.

It did not take long to get our bags and to board the ferry to Bora Bora’s main island.

We were picked up by our host Gérard at the ferry terminal and took over our nice apartment in the ‘Sunset Hill Lodge’ with a view of the sea and some of the outer islands. We immediately left again, headed towards the supermarket, as we were extremely hungry.
Seeing the prices in the supermarket, we realized that Bora Bora is not only more touristy, but also more expensive than the other islands. We shopped for dinner and stocked up our supplies of baguette.
After a relaxing long breakfast on our terrace with view of the lagoon, we planned our excursions for the day: a walk to the local supermarket and in the evening a stroll into Bora Bora’s main village Vaitape. It was fun seeing a bit of local life.

We watched the locals playing football on a small field next to the sea, their girl friends chatting away close to the sea. We observed how quickly others were gliding on the water in their outrigger canoes and got treated to a great sunset.

For dinner we went to the local fast food places, called ‘roulottes’. The roulottes are colorfully decorated mobile food vans that serve as snack bars, located in the center of most French Polynesian towns and villages. The food was quickly served, excellent fresh quality and affordable compared to the local standard. Everything we had was good, but we particularly liked the classical Tahitian raw fish in coconut milk.

On our walk home, we passed a large group of women studying their new Polynesian dance routines and four locals sitting close to the lagoon, singing and playing the ukulele. But also the cruise ship that anchored that evening in the lagoon helped us to enjoy simply being where we were.

Gérard also had good news for us when we came home: he had kayaks that he’d be happy for us to use for free. That was excellent news and we were thrilled by the prospects of going kayaking one day.
The next morning, Gérard offered to drive us to Matira Beach, the nicest beach in Bora Bora. So we spent a wonderful day at the beach, snorkelling, swimming, building sand castles and playing in the sand.
The culinary highlight of the day was Sam’s excellent tomato soup with couscous. With full stomachs we played a round of dice before getting Max to bed and eventually heading off to bed ourselves.
This way we were up early enough to do some kayaking. Gérard recommended that we cross the lagoon and go to a little motu. It was an excellent recommendation and we enjoyed the trip there and also the islet itself. It is in fact a private island which the guests of one of the super luxury hotels may use. Luckily enough we were alone and had the whole island for ourselves.

On our paddle back home, we passed anchored sailboats from all around the world. Sam spotted one flying the Austrian flag – even though I have the suspicion that it was just a charter boat. And there was another sailboat from La Paz, Mexico. It’s four months that we were there and potentially this trip could easily be done by boat in this time. Still, Sam and I agreed that neither of us would have been tempted by a sailing trip of such dimensions. Coming from mountainous areas, we feel much more grounded on land and would feel rather intimidated to have only water around us – much deeper than an anchor could reach.
After our intense paddling (more for me than for Sam who would have had still enough reserves to paddle around the cruise ship), we had a quiet afternoon and a good sleep – at least Sam and I. Max has completely given up on his afternoon sleeps by now and prefers to play quietly on his own vs. sleeping like we do.

We spent our last day in Bora Bora at Matira beach again, thanks to Gérard taking us there again. We enjoyed just being there, looking out onto the lagoon and taking an occasional swim to cool off.

We watched two obviously rather rich girls being brought to the beach in a boat of one of the large luxury hotels. As they were not allowed on the hotel beach to use their drone, they had to come to the public beach to do so. Once they were gone, we were fascinated about the German couple who sat down close to us in the shade. They were the first Germans we had seen in Bora Bora, as over 80% if not 90% of all tourists we met so far seemed to be French. As we got to talk, we learned that they are on a round the world trip as well: in two and a half weeks and stops in Hong Kong, Auckland, Bora Bora, Hawaii and Los Angeles. As much as I love traveling, I don’t think that this is what I’d ever like to do!
Eventually we headed to the ferry which treated us to nice views of Bora Bora’s central island on the way to the airport.

Our flight was after sunset, consequently there was not too much to be seen. And we were looking forward to Raiatea – the sacred island.