The main town on Bora Bora is Vaitape. It’s about a 15-minute walk down a rather busy street. We’d brave the walk to get to town, but we would almost always take a cab or get a ride to go back.
The town is not particularly attractive, but it does have a couple of decent-sized markets. A few minutes north of town is the other yacht club, the Mai Kai. Attached to this is a nice restaurant with what was rumored to be a great happy hour. We never made it down for the happy hour, but we did enjoy a couple of decent cappuccinos there.
We did have a favorite eatery in town: the St. James. The food was wonderful . . . a splurge . . . but wonderful. I would say it was our favorite restaurant in all of French Polynesia.
-Cyndi
Downtown VaitapeOutside the market in Vaitape.A local cafe.The view from the Mai Kai Yacht Club deck.The seaside table at Le St James restaurant.
Can you believe we’re at the Bora Bora Yacht Club? Talk about a dream-come-true!
We arrived on Wednesday and it’s Saturday now. Sorry it’s taken so long to get around to posting but we’ve been overwhelmed with activities. We’ve shopped, visited, toured, and taken an incredible bike ride all around the island. There’s also been a fair bit of just sitting in the cockpit and admiring the scenery.
We’re on a mooring and this is what the bay looks like. Not bad, eh?
After our stop at Matira Beach, we stopped for lunch and had (what else?) poisson cru and (of course) pizza, which means (yet again) another picture of poisson cru for the blog. Lunch was good, and we were joined by numerous cats, dogs and chickens.
After lunch, we finished our ride, seeing more swaying palm trees, green mountains, and water in every shade of blue. -Cyndi
Poisson cru and pizza.A watchful cat.Pretty BayAn area of water deep enough for boats amid shallow water.A palm-tree lined beach.
As we continued our bike ride around the south end of the island, we passed Matira Beach, one of the most beautiful beaches on the island. White sand beaches are relatively rare in the Society Islands (and for that matter in all of French Polynesia), but Bora Bora has a few. This particular beach was beautiful, with soft white sand and shallow water all the way to the reef, which gave it a gorgeous bright aqua and green hue. -Cyndi
The bright water off Matira BeachTrees lining part of the beach.A catamaran anchored between the beach and the distant reef.
Our friends from Raiatea, Alan and Marlies, had taken their boat to Bora Bora for a few days and had ended up at the yacht club the same day we arrived. The next day, we all rented bikes from the club and headed off for a ride around the island. It’s not very big and can be done in half a day.
I felt strange and wobbly on the bike, and I was pretty shocked to realize I haven’t ridden a bike since 1990. You may not lose the ability to ride a bicycle, but you can lose the ability to ride one with grace and dignity. It took some time before I felt confident and well-balanced on the bike, but once I did, it felt wonderful. I vowed that when we return to land life, we shall live someplace where we can ride bikes.
The trip was very scenic, having what you’d expect to see in Bora Bora: palm trees swaying in the warm trade winds, green hills and mountains, and the ocean colored with fantastic shades of blue.
When we got to the south end of the island, our European friends knew of a place where they sell “the good bread.” They kept referring to this market and the bread, which here means baguettes. We’ve had baguettes constantly since arriving in the South Pacific, and while we would agree that some are clearly better than others, we couldn’t imagine any that were so much different than the average fresh-baked baguette. We stopped at the small, unassuming market and bought some much-needed water and a baguette to try.
Eating a baguette from this market was like eating a bagel in New York after a lifetime of bagels from suburban California. I don’t know if it’s the cooking method, the air, or the water, but New York bagels are different. That’s the way this bread was: different from any other baguette we’ve tried. I don’t know why, but the flavor and texture were special, by far the best baguette we’ve ever tasted. We sat on a wall and ate our baguette with hunks of cheese that Marlies had bought. We would have gone in and bought another but we would soon be stopping for lunch and didn’t want to ruin our appetites. Sadly, we never made it down to that market again. If we ever get back to Bora Bora, our first stop will be at that market for “the good bread.” -Cyndi
Stopping to take a photo. (Rich: one of millions – aargh!)Palm trees and blue water.Beautiful SceneryThe market with the amazing bread.Water in intense shades of blue. (Yea, those colors are real!)
