Bora Bora-Part Three-The Stinging Conclusion
So I left off summing up our Saturday. Sunday and Monday we relaxed, dove off of the side of our pool into the ocean a lot and just played around. The whole time we were in Bora Bora we felt like we were in the TV show “Lost.” So we were calling each other Kate and Sawyer a lot-usually when we rode our bicycles around. I took some fun pics of “the hatch” and “Dharma Initiative Orchid Station.” Check ‘em out…....
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Monday night we opted to eat off of the island for the first time. Everyone kept telling us about this “famous” place called Bloody Mary’s. We had heard it was nothing special, but a place you had to go to just to say you’d been I guess. So we made reservations the day before so that they could send a boat to get us Monday evening. We boarded a boat around 6:30 along with two other couples, one of which had the same destination we had. We got to the dock on the other side, said hello to a pier doggie who greeted us and were guided into a van along with one other couple. The van drove for quite awhile along a few not-so-paved roads. We finally stopped just to find that more people were boarding our van and we weren’t there yet. We had no idea the restaurant was this far from the dock-but there was no turning back now. We were starving and ready to stretch our legs. We finally arrived at a cute, little restaurant with torches out front, sand for the floor and a display of all of the meat specials for the night (this area I tried to avoid making eye contact with!). We were told to hang at the bar until they were ready for us. Once we were called we were verbally told the menu, ordered right by the entrance and then were taken to our table. I immediately spotted the house cat who befriended anyone with food! Although I had no food yet I got the cat to come over and say hi and petted her enough that she hung out by my feet for a good while. Having animals nearby always makes me happy. The music they were playing seemed like a good 80’s compilation-but usually in other countries like this I find that they are just really behind the times a bit when it comes to music. Everyone eating there seemed to fit in with the whole tourist vibe they had going-meaning this was not a locals hangout. At one point Derek came back from the bathroom and told me about a waterfall that doubled for the sink to wash your hands, but to make it work you had to pull a cord. But this wasn’t just any cord. No-this was a cord in the shape of a penis. What? Weird! I had to see it myself-then later found out what Derek had told me was a unisex bathroom was really the men’s room that I shouldn’t have been in. Oooooops! Oh well. Anyway-the van heading back to the dock was at a set time of around 9:45 if I remember right. So we had quite awhile to finish dinner and just walk around the place for a bit. As we were finishing dinner our waitress told us there was a board of names up front of all of the “celebrities” who’ve eaten there over the years, and she wanted to add our names with our permission. So she asked us to write our names down so she didn’t misspell them. We hadn’t even seen the board she was talking about, so we ventured up front to check it out. Sure enough, right at the entrance there were two long wooded boards with names all over them. There have been a lot of people at this place! Here’s a link to a picture I just found of the front of this place, boards and all, online… http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/353def/.....
Here’s a few fun pictures we took there as well…....
Tuesday-departure day-we didn’t leave the island until late afternoon, so we had all day to have one last day of sun and fun. So we decided we wanted to snorkel again in the lagoon at the hotel because we had heard there was a stingray in there, which we didn’t see before. Derek really, really wanted to see it and was bummed we didn’t have an under-water camera…so…he got another one at the gift shop (turns out this one was better than the one we had for diving before!) and off we were on our stingray search. Well-last time we snorkeled we forgot to bring bread with us to gather the fish. So this time we grabbed bread from our breakfast and took it out there with us. Funny thing was that we needed to swim a little ways to get to where most of the fish resided-so I swam along-side Derek with my hand holding the bread out of the water. That was not easy and a funny sight I’m sure. Once we got to the area with tons of fish I started throwing pieces of bread around Derek and watched him suddenly get swarmed. It was so funny because he didn’t realize I’d thrown bread in yet! So we took turns taking pics of each other with all of the fish, being sure to save some shots for the big prize. We started swimming a bit further when Derek spotted the stingray! We followed it at a good distance and decided to stop when we realized he was going to have to turn around and come back our direction. So we moved away and kept watching, trying to find him again if he came back. We eventually saw him swim by us and down this narrow stream the resort had built to go around the spa area. Derek’s now not afraid to follow him and exclaims, “Come on!” I start swimming behind Derek, but my goggles have become a bit foggy and I’m having trouble seeing. We were also coming up on this shaded area under an over-cross, so it was harder to see there too.
Then, all of a sudden, Derek screams, “turn around, he’s coming for us!!!!” I start to just backstroke a bit, but then realize Derek has actually flipped over and is swimming full speed at/past me. Seeing as my goggles were foggy I thought the stingray may be close and maybe I should be swimming a bit faster. So I go to flip over and do a full stroke, but as soon as I do I feel my hand slam right into a sea urchin! HOLY #$%*! I just start screaming!!!!!!!! Derek looks back and sees me pull my hand out of the water and scream. He knows exactly what must have happened. We were warned about the sea urchin that lined the sides of the lagoon. Up until now we had stayed at a safe distance from them. But remember I said this stream was narrow?! I had no idea we were that close to the side until it was too late. I glanced at my hand and saw a bunch of black things and blood all over my throbbing fingers. It was my right hand to make matters worse because I’m right handed. Derek grabs my wrist and starts dragging me out of the water. The lady at the spa heard my screams and came running out. She also knew what must have happened, seeing as this was her second sea urchin casualty that day. She sits me down and grabs a very hot towel and a lemon for me to put on my hand. I keep telling her it’s throbbing and stinging! That’s when she said, “Well, if you really want the pain to go away someone should pee on it.” Derek walked up with my stuff right as she says this and says, “I can pee right now.” Oh thank God! I never thought I’d ever say this but I said it-“Derek, pee on me fast!” The spa manager quickly ushered us into the ladies room and we went into one of the shower stalls. “Pee away” I exclaim. Derek proceeded to pee on my hand and I gotta tell you-at that very moment-nothing would have felt better! I was shocked that my hand actually stopped throbbing and felt a million times better after that. We’ve all heard that peeing on a snake bit or maybe a jelly fish sting was supposed to help-but I never knew if it was actually true or not. Well-I’m here to tell you-it works wonders on a sea urchin sting! Miracles! The lady told me I could now keep wrapping it in hot towels or putting lemon on it, but for the most part I’d have to leave it alone. The number one rule was I was NOT to try to get any of the black spikes out that had been left buried in my flesh. They would have to work themselves out gradually. Oh boy-ok. No problem-I will not pick at it. I unfortunately had not finished packing yet. So we went back and showered and I carefully finished packing. ....
That was about it for the drama and excitement. In looking through the pictures I remembered we had a cute visitor come and and get drunk on sugar in our hut. I’ll include that photo below. After we packed we each got one last massage and went straight from the spa to our boat to head back to the airport. It was hard and sad to say good-bye. Escaping reality can be a very fun, relaxing, necessary thing sometimes. I see how people can decide to move to places like this and just work at a little resort or restaurant on the beach. It looks like a pretty good life to me! Hopefully we’ll get to go back again someday. Derek was telling me there’s a movie he just saw the previews for that takes place at the St. Regis in Bora Bora and shows all of the places we had been to. We even met a guy in the downtown area who worked in a jewelry shop who said he got a role in this movie. At the time we didn’t know which film he was talking about-but now we do! So we’re looking forward to seeing that. ....
Ok-I have to stop and get this posted tonight! I’ve been adding paragraphs and pictures to this forever-I apologize for the very long wait! I’ll write about something much simpler next time. J Thanks for reading all of this if you made it this far. Hope it was somewhat entertaining. Til next time…xoxo-Shannon
