Thursday, September 6, 2001
Lying in bed after a VERY exhausting day.

One of the main reasons why I, personally, became certified in SCUBA has now been fulfilled.  Today was an amazing day for both of us… we did a couple things that we never thought we would.  Certain things did not go as planned while others went better than expected.  Here were the original plans:  To take the scooters to the Beachcomber Hotel this morning to go shark feeding.  It started at 8am, and we hoped to be back to return the scooters at 10am or so at our hotel – they were due at 10.  Having one more dive scheduled at the Beachcomber at 3:30pm – and after our horrid experience with “the bugs” the night before (see above) on the scooters, we were going to return them and get a car for a day to drive back in.  (To explain, our hotel is half an island away from the Beachcomber!  A 40-minute drive or so.  I am not sure what we were thinking!  Logic now says that there is NO way we could make this schedule) The diving is MUCH better on the other side of the island… that is why we were going through the hassle.  Now, here is how it REALLY went.     We awoke early – we needed to be across the island by eight.  We pulled out on our scooters at 7:10am… a very nice drive along Cook’s and Opunohu bay’s, and just past the village of Papetoai.  We arrived with 5 minutes to spare.  We loaded our gear, dressed in our wetsuits, and then gathered on the boat for the ride out to either “The Tiki” or “Shark Alley”… whichever had better weather this morning was going to get our business.  The winner was Shark Alley because of rougher waters in The Tiki.  We threw out anchor and began prepping our gear for the dive.  Tami and I had previously told the divemaster that we only saw 3 sharks at our hotel.  As soon as we had thrown down anchor, he stood up and counted “1…2…3…4!”  He then said, “See?  You have ALREADY seen more sharks here!”  I had no idea what he was talking about – I stood up and quickly understood.  I could easily see the gray outlines of the sharks circling our boat.  Serious.  The gorgeous and clear water was now displaying the root of my fear for so many years… and here I was about to willingly fall into water where I knew they were waiting.  Circling.  Tami and I both hit the water at the same time.  A quick glance below the surface revealed several of the beasts circling above and below.  Nothing between them and us… except water that THEY could move though much faster than we could.  I was excited.  We began our decent into their world… they swam all around us.  How many?  I will tell you in a moment.  We reached bottom (about 35 feet or so), then shuffled over to one side.  The feeding was about to begin. The dive master – who had metal gloves on – pulled out his fish sack.  (He looked like an underwater Santa Clause – fish trailed him wherever he went!)  Fish and Shark swarmed around him immediately – ripping at the fish pieces that were being given out.  THIRTY to FORTY sharks came from all directions… all around us, between us, above us… everywhere.  Black-tip Reef Sharks… Grey Reef sharks… small, big.  They were all here.  Tami and I held our ground in the middle of it all.  In one magical moment, the dive master sent a piece of fish carcass spinning towards the surface… being lifted by a continually writhing dance of sharks ripping at it along the way.  It was terrifyingly beautiful in its aggressiveness and power.  After the food was gone the sharks kept us company for the rest of the dive.  We scaled the outer reef wall for a while… but nothing was very impressive after what we had just witnessed.  They still circled us… minding their own business for the most part.  We made our way to the surface, ending one of the most invigorating experiences of my entire life.  These are the things that make life interesting… the type of adventure that not everyone does in their lifetime.  I am thrilled to have done it, and Tami looks as impressed as I was by our hosts below the sea.  A VERY cool boat ride brought us back to shore, and we cleaned our gear before watching the video that was taken during the dive.  (We bought it along with the next dive video as well)   

            Here is where our schedule was blown – but the repercussions of this won’t be explained until later.  It was now 10:30.  We were already late in returning our scooters, and we were still 40 minutes away.  We decided to stay at the hotel and just pay for another day on the scooters instead of getting the car.  We would be late anyway, and we would have to drive 40 minutes there, then 40 to get back to where we already were for our 3:30 dive.  We stayed.  We went out for lunch at a place called Le Banana – once again, there was a friendly cat there.  A beautiful tabby.  We made a friend, and then went back to the hotel.  It was only 1pm.  We had some time.  We went the hotel’s beach and rested for a bit.  Getting a tan in the rain is quite hard.  Yes, I said rain.  I am not sure if I mentioned it before, but it has rained several times since we have been here.  This is SUPPOSED to be the dry season!!!  One other thing that I may not have mentioned yet is that good portions of the women here go topless.  Seriously.  Not the native women, but the French and American ones… kind of strange to get used to – I think it makes Tami feel uncomfortable.  Not sure why I put that here, but it has been an obvious part of Tahiti, and we ran across several while we were waiting to go on our second dive.  Also, it was at this time that we noticed that one of the main mountains was on fire – it was obviously not a controlled fire, and quite a bit of the lush ground had been blackened.  During our ride home it was still burning uncontrolled – it didn’t look like they were even trying.  I don’t think we have seen a fire station of any type on the island.  The whole mountain was black on our drive back.

            3:30 arrives.  We start getting ready for “Stingray World”…  The boat doesn’t head out until 4pm.  We only go a few minutes away from shore, then throw anchor.  We jump out into 3 feet of water and they hand down our BC’s and tanks…  this is how the dive is supposed to start.  We ascended down to 20 feet and group around the leader of the dive.  He pulled out a few fish scraps.  The shadows came.  At first there was only one, but a couple others appeared from time-to-time.  Stingrays.  4 foot wingspans…  In Tami’s words, “slimy”.  They were great… graceful animals flying through the water like gentle giants.  They were really fun to watch, and they weren’t shy in the least.  At first Tami was obviously uneasy around them, but she quickly warmed up and touched them with the rest of us.  It was awesome.  What an experience… I will never forget this day.  We ended the dive by exploring a bit.  We touched soft coral – or anemone – that seemed to touch us back.  It was so beautiful – sticking to our fingers as if saying hello.  We ended the dive by visiting a rather large moray eel… what a nice finish to our last dive on Moorea.  We are not diving here tomorrow.  Instead, we are planning on doing a Lagoon tour on a catamaran.

            Our dive ended around five.  This brings our “mistake” to a close.  Here we are 40 minutes away -- when it gets dark at 6 on the island.  When it’s dark there are swarms of bugs, remember?  It is raining.  Cold.  We are wet.  We are on scooters in shorts.  Uh, can you see where the mistake is yet?  We quickly pay for the dives and head out as soon as we can… it is dusk, and I am feeling like Cinderella running to the pumpkin carriage.  We are zipping through the damp air trying to make it home before the bugs come out.  We have to wear our sunglasses because of the rain and fear of bugs.  I can hardly see at times because of the darkness.  It is so comical that I have to laugh at the situation out loud.  I LOVED it!!!  It was so outrageous and absurd that it was funny as hell.  Of course, the memory of it will be funnier than the experience, but I still enjoyed the image of curving through the beautiful and exotic landscape trying to beat a ridiculous timeline.  We made it home alive, but it will probably stick out as one of biggest adventures of this trip.  We hustled into our bungalow and quickly slid into a nice, long, warm shower.  We snacked on our groceries for dinner, and will be going out to breakfast tomorrow morning.

That’s it – I am tired.