January 21, 2024 Moorea French Polynesia Day 33 of 138.

 No sunrise picture this morning, as we have a cloudy day. We have two excursions planned, one early this morning, and one later this afternoon. The weather forecast is for 100% rain this morning, and light rain in the afternoon. This is our first look at Moorea from tender, and once we were on land.

Our first excursion is a Moorea Lagoon Cruise. We heard about the history of the island,,  and local stories. Did we get wet, well yes we did, but today we were prepared with our rain jackets. We are in paradise, and seeing beautiful views, so who cares.

They had many people selling their wares. I loved the flower leis they wore on their heads. Everything was displayed beautifully. We found something pretty. Mike bought me a black pearl necklace, this is the jewelry designer, Mary.

This is a French war ship that ran aground while returning to Europe. They did not get far.

The Hilton Hotel has the bungalows on stilts over the water. I may have the amount charged for one  day wrong from yesterdays blog, as the Hilton charges $4,000. per night with a 3 night minimum. This is just in case you are planning on a trip soon.

Moorea has a population of 18,000. They have a school on the island, but don't have a high school. The students are required to catch a ferry around 5 am for a 45 min trip to Tahiti. The return trip gets them home around 7 pm. It is a long day. Moorea has plans to build a high school of their own. 

We returned to the ship, repacked for our afternoon excursion and enjoyed lunch. We are headed into town early so we can check the island out. We turned right and found the Catholic Church. We are unable to access the church as it is behind a metal gate and rock wall. Looking around there is security everywhere. I wonder what this says about issues with crime on the island. Someone came walking back and said there was not much to see this way, so we turned around and walked the other direction. I saw banana trees, bread fruit, and some beautiful flowers that I missed getting a photo of.

It started raining while we were walking, so we turned around. The rain stopped as fast as it started, and it was a beautiful start to our Snorkeling Safari. We were to have two snorkeling stops. The first one was for the reef fishes. I did see some blue coral which was striking. The fish were smaller then what we saw yesterday, and the water was cooler. It was still a good experience. Our next stop was for turtles, sharks, and stingrays. We have dark clouds coming in fast, and we are warned that we need to stay upright as we can walk in this area, and it is recommended as there is a strong current. Mike is choosing to stay out of the water, as he is not a fan of sharks.

I had one shark swim past me. The stingray was brought to the area, just after I had exited the water. We saw 2 turtles, but we were unable to get a picture. I returned from the ocean with all my fingers, toes, and limbs. Then the rain came... We were all trying to keep the rain out of our eyes. Mike and I had a towel wrapped around the two of us. It rained so hard it was like standing in a shower with your clothes on. Here are 40 people on this boat, and we are all laughing, as what else could you do.

We returned to the ship and were ready for a hot shower, dry clothes, and get down to dinner and trivia. Who said vacations were relaxing.

We left Moorea and it was a short jaunt to Tahiti. We arrived before 7:30. This is a big active town, and we are docked, so some of our friends are headed into town. We have a blog to do, and some shut eye to catch before we get to check out the Capital of Tahiti.