I was up with the dawn today. Not really but I was up at
6:45. I needed to be at the dock at 8AM for the Whale/Dolphin watch. I boarded
the ship to a gaggle of quacking like noise as there were only French people
aboard. I asked the ‘captain’ if anyone spoke English. He said “Madame, we all
speak English”. Oooookay. I’m familiar with this scenario. The same thing
happened in Papeete on that whale watch. They are very good during the briefing
but after that, not so much. And that was the same thing that happened here. I
heard English twice until we docked. Mostly, I just smiled and tried to figure
out where to look.
But the most excellent thing happened this time—we found a
whale. The catamaran had a microphone they lowered into the water when they
spotted a whale. I heard LIVE whale song. It was so amazing. It was a young
male just singing his heart out. One thing I did learn during the briefing, to
give you an idea of their size and weight, the tongue of the whale weighs as
much as the catamaran does.
This isn't the best one but I can only upload 100 MB. The chirpy-clicky noises are dolphins. We were told that the dolphins like to hear whale song and actually sometimes if the dolphins are hanging out in one area, there could be a whale near by!
Anyway, the guide said to get ready and I wanted so much to
go out there and swim but he said only the very best swimmers could go with
him. So, I stayed near the boat, heart pounding. The whale was not adverse to
us being near him at all. He ‘played’ and put on a show for us. It was so
unbelievable. Once again, I was stunned and I think even more gobsmacked than I
was in Taha’a. And that is saying a lot. Once back on the boat, I even got a
picture of whale tail! I was so excited.
Whale Tail!!!
As a matter of fact, I was so amazed, ready to pee
myself—whatever, that I turned off my camera at one point and thought I was
recording the whale. I know…. Smacked myself already. But thankfully, there was
a professional cameraman on board and he filmed the whole thing and I could purchase
a copy for a mere 7000. What could I do? I handed over the money. I get the USB
stick tomorrow!
We also saw several pods of spinner dolphins. That was
pretty cool too. They didn’t jump out of the water, but surfaced as a group
several times as they came up to breathe.
The scenery along the way was so amazing. The water—I know
I’ve said it before but it is the most awesome colors I’ve ever seen. My photos
look good, but somehow they don’t quite capture it. There were millions of
coral heads I would have loved to stopped at, but not this time.
We sailed past the town of Hapati, which is a known surfing area. The
waves were a good size and there were about 15 surfers out there. I have never
been that close to surfers either!
The 3rd stop was in about 5 ½ feet of water with
a fairly strong current. It was a place to snorkel with rays and sharks. (I
actually thought…..again? LOL) No, it was pretty cool. The sharks at this stop
got much, much closer. I mean, like 2-3 feet away from you. The rays were
insane. They just slithered all over you and let you touch them. It was pretty
amazing actually.
And no, the camera was not on zoom here. 2 weeks ago, I would have been climbing up the guide's back ala Miss Lindsey in Grand Cayman!
After we got back to the hotel, I came back to my room for a
little lunch. I’d only had a yogurt for breakfast and was pretty hungry. I made
myself a little feast of crackers, cheese, salami and 2 graham cracker-like
cookies. Then it was off to the pool to read for a bit and cool off in the
infinity pool. I got into the other one today. Both are 4 ½ feet deep with wide
sitting/laying area at the edge away from the ocean.
I came back from dinner tonight and they were having the
Polynesian dinner show on the beach in front of the pools. I can see and hear
it from my room. It really didn’t interest me and it was very, very expensive
to attend. They are loving banging on those drums. They are dressed in
traditional Polynesian outfits. For the men this means that whole thong thing
with these woven leaf things around their calves and a crown of some sort made
of fresh greens and flowers.
Most of the men here have those beautiful tribal tattoos
that are done in a brown color. I don’t know if I said, but they are very
important. The man is said to go to the artist and tell his life and family’s
story. Then the artist creates the tattoo based on this information with the
appropriate symbolic images in the tattoo. They are also meant as some sort of
protection for the person. If the men get them done in the traditional way, it
is very time consuming and more painful than the needles. Here is a link to an interesting article if
you are interested:
I am going to get some sort of tattoo on my thigh to
symbolize this trip. Not sure what—turtle, ray, fish. Who knows? I’ll keep you
posted.
Back to dinner---most of the restaurants around here will
send a car to pick you up and drop you back off. Very convenient as most people don’t rent
cars and nothing is really within walking distance. I went to Le Sunset at the
Hibiscus Hotel tonight. I had the shrimp with curry and coconut sauce. They
were very good. What killed me was the drink menu. I ordered a Hinano and it
was $8 (not even the big bottle, just a regular 12 oz bottle). I know we are in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean but the freakin’ beer is manufactured here and
you can buy a bottle for about a $1 in a gas station. Yeah well, it went well
with the spicy shrimp! And I brought a piece of the baguette back with me in my
purse for a salami and cheese sandwich tomorrow for lunch!
And finally, Jeff Beck this is for you! You know how I feel about birds so I must really, really love you. LOL This bird is the boat's mascot and his name is Broken Beak. He hangs about until the boat really gets moving and then he flies off. He was a just a couple of feet from where I was seated and I almost sh*t when I saw him circling and getting ready to land.
