After breakfast, Marty suggested we have coffee out on the sand. As soon as we sat down, we noticed fins in the water. We were looking at 3 dolphins swimming along the shore line; guess they were out for their morning swim. So fun to watch. Then we left for our snorkeling tour. This tour was recommended by the manager at the Radisson in Papeete, so, we really had no idea what we were getting into. What a treat!! First a quick ride down the road and then climbed into a small boat. There were about 20 of us from various resorts.
Our first view of Cook's Bay
Our guide - Sicki. This proves you can't judge a book by its cover. The first thing Sicki asked was what languages we spoke - French, English and Japanese pretty much covered it. However more would have been ok. Sicki spoke these plus Spanish, Italian and the native dialict which was something like French, but not really. All the locals speak French and all the signs are in French and a lot of French influence on the food. Sicki is self taught and it was fun listening to him switch from one language to the next. He showed us the bays, the pineapple plantations, told us the names of the mountains and the history of his island. We went by the Bay of Opuncha where Captain Cook actually landed. Then we headed for a small island near the northwest corner of Moorea. Now we snorkled or actually just got into the water.
A seven finger shell - actually the animal is still alive and inside of it. Sicki jumped in and grabbed two from the sandy bottom. After show and tell, both went back into the sea.
Part of our lunch - tied to the boat for later.
Coastline of Moorea
Time to get in and enjoy the water; it was only about chest deep. Neither of us had ever had an experience like this before. The sting rays were everywhere and came up to us and really wanted to snuggle. They were like big dogs. Sicki had brought food (raw chcken pieces) and we literally had the sting ray eating out of our hands. They are velvet soft on top and underneath and are sort of like sandpaper on the edges. Their tails are scaly. In addition to that, they seemed like they each had their own personalitites. We spent a lot of time petting them, cuddling them and of course feeding them. Sicki said we could touch their tails, but under no circumstances grab it.
In addition, there were black tip sharks - the tips of their fins are black - like they were dipped into an ink well. The pciture above shows one sting ray and the rest are sharks - we swam with all of them.
Lunch was on a little island and some of the sting ray followed us there. The above is a raw fish dish - tuna and marlin- with tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and coconut milk. It was very good.
We also had grilled fish and chicken.
She is preparing all kinds of wonderful fruits and French bread.
Chickens were running around everywhere; they got some of the coconut shavings and milk when we were done.
This ray wanted to join us for lunch.
As did this one.
And this one - he is looking right at you. Their eyes are very human-like.
This was our view while we ate.
And eating - so good!!
And playing with the rays after lunch (3 of them surrounding Dale).
Sicki is showing us how to husk and prepare a coconut.
Grating the coconut before "milking" it.
Leaving our lovely little island. As we headed back to the resort it started to rain - since we were all wet anyway it didn't really matter. We spent a quiet evening at the resort and felt so lucky to have had just a wonderful day.
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