Day 156 - Swimming with Sharks

One thing we can't get over is how beautiful French Polynesia is. The crystal clear water really is that bright aqua-color you see in magazines—it's not a photo filter! The vibrant coral right offshore still has many varieties of fish swimming through it. Tropical fruit weighs heavy on the branches of the islands' lush trees and the shadowy peaks look so majestic as puffy white clouds float across the bright blue sky behind them.

The island of Moorea is only 51 miles around with water activities being the star attraction. We haven't done many organized tours on our trip, but we couldn't miss the opportunity to swim with sharks and stingrays in these warm, turquoise waters. The kids were mildly nervous about the half-day adventure, but we were so proud of them for conquering their fears and jumping right into the waist-deep water where a half-dozen sting rays awaited them. The six-foot-long, blacktip reef sharks gave us all a shiver as they glided by with their wide sinister grins. Besides frolicking with sealife, our tour educated us in many Tahitian traditions. We learned how to properly open a coconut, tie and wear a pareo (sarong) multiple ways and prepare a traditional meal of raw tuna and coconut milk, bbq chicken, coconut bread and cucumber salad. It was a really fun way to celebrate Clint's birthday doing what he loves... being on the water.

Our entertaining tour guide, Siki, feeding the sting rays before we came down the ladder.

This week, we also moved from our gecko-filled Airbnb on the hill to one in a gated beach community a minute's walk from the water. No, the creatures didn't scare us away. The first Airbnb wasn't available for our whole stay, so we had to book another place for the remainder of our visit. This allowed us to choose one that would give us easy access to kayaking, snorkeling and swimming. Our new Airbnb has a relaxed, beachy family resort vibe and the geckos here are appropriately sized, and surprisingly, there are few mosquitos. We do have one cockroach that walks through our slider door at about 9 pm every night though. Once, we were able to shoo him out successfully, but the other three nights, he escaped; twice under the fridge and once under the couch causing Austin to stand the rest of the evening.

Living in the tropics forces you to clean like crazy. No room for errors here unless you want to create an insect vivarium! If a tiny piece of food falls to the floor while you are cooking dinner and goes unnoticed, you will wake up to hundreds of ants devouring it for breakfast. Or... suppose you happen to leave some crumbs in your backpack, which is sitting next to your bed. In that case, you are in for a surprise—an ant colony marching across your bedroom into your backpack where a black blob of thousands are snacking away. Lesson learned: leave no trace of any food. You can perform surgery in our kitchen for how sanitized we keep it after every meal now. We immediately noticed that the food trucks here are immaculate inside and out (food trucks account for half of the island's dining options). A few days later, we realized why. They have to be super clean; otherwise, they would be crawling with bugs.

We love spending mornings lounging and eating dinner outside on our big, covered deck. The temperature is perfect under this cover all day and night. I will miss this spot.

Touring a resort with bungalows just for fun. A three-person (max occup.) beachfront bungalow starts at $1000/night (above) and an overwater bungalow (below) starts a $1300/night. This does not include food and drinks and is the going starting rate for all the overwater bungalow resorts in Tahiti and Moorea.

The overwater bungalows.

Belvedere Lookout—these mountains are magical in person.

Belvedere Lookout

Learning all about juice production during a self-guided tour at Rotui. This small juice factory on Moorea specializes in pineapple juice made from locally grown pineapples.

One of Austin's favorite meals here—a foot-long bbq chicken sandwich with french fries. Fries served ON a sandwich is popular in many countries we have visited.

One of many blacktip reef shark near the reef.

Siki demonstrating how to make Tahitian Poisson Cru (marinated raw fish).

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