Bora Bora, Snorkling and Scuba Diving

One morning, I decided to snorkel for the first time in my life. Okay, I practiced in the sand bottom pool a couple days ago in Tahiti, but it was without fish. Now, I was going to be brave and get in the water with all the wild sea creatures. Bob had been in the water at our bungalow a couple times already and had seen three brown octopi living in the vicinity. To make matters worse, the prior night we had seen two eels approach the coral as we looked down into the water from our glass coffee table. Not a fan of octopi or eels as they just look like a snake in the water. The guilt of Bob buying me a new snorkeling kit, transporting it all those miles, and his enthusiasm for me to share what he saw was getting to me, so it was now or never! I gingerly got into the water of the lagoon (about 4 ft deep) and dipped my head into the water with the snorkel gear and it was pretty seeing blue and yellow fish. I still was not real comfortable and kept looking in all directions, not so much for what there was to see, but to make sure nothing was “seeing” me as breakfast. Then I saw it…a brown shadow that moved behind my leg…was it an octopus? I screamed, well there were probably bubbles and noise muffled by a snorkel mouthpiece and water, then turned it into a shriek as I lifted my head out of the water. The sound shattered the morning stillness! As I reached to the ladder to climb out, I glanced behind me, expecting to see a octopus in pursuit, but then realized it had only been Bob’s foot that moved. Oh well! I was on my way out, but at least I tried it.

The next day Bob really wanted to do some scuba diving in the southern hemisphere, so we signed up for a trip with the concierge desk. We rode a bus to Bathys Diving Center and Bob geared up. Even though I was going along just for the ride, they offered me a wet suit so I could snorkel if I wanted. Soon we boarded the dive boat and headed out to the ocean beyond the motu’s in search of reefs. Unfortunately the swells were too large, so we went back toward the lagoon. There were two Japanese couples, two French couples, a couple other people. The two Americans came up and introduced themselves as Vanessa and Nick. We exchanged pleasantries and asked if they were on their honeymoon, no they were celebrating their birthdays. They were from Los Angeles, and Nick said he had grown up back east. We chatted about a couple other things, then everyone went back to gearing up for the dive. I said to Bob, “That guy looks really familiar, not like I know him personally, but looks like a celebrity”. A couple minutes later, Bob asked him if he was in entertainment, he said that yes, he was a singer. Yes internet, it was Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo. I wished Bob hadn’t asked as now I felt weird about taking pictures as they now knew we knew who they were. I didn’t know if they were an item and thought maybe this was a secret getaway away from the paparazzi and maybe they didn’t want any pictures taken of them and sold to the tabloids. Well, I did sneak a picture with Bob’s point and shoot as I held it at my waist! Yes, I was too bashful to ask if I could photograph them!
As it was our last night there, we decided to eat dinner at Bloody Mary’s, a popular tourist location on the island. The floor of the restaurant was sand, and some of the restaurant was open to the outdoors. The chef prepared us a great vegetarian meal. At the entrance, they showed the names of famous guests that had visited the restaurant.The view from our balcony. This was taken a couple nights after a full moon, but it was still really bright. There was a halo around the moon which you can see on the right.