Angela with a sea star
When it's one's first day in Paradise, it's hard to capture the emotion of the time. I can say that it was beautiful and warm, quite warm. Palm trees and coconuts are everywhere, the lagoon is a deep blue green, there's no trash on the shoreline, people play with sharks and some have them as pets, fine dining is a thatched roofs covering cement constructed tables and bench with fish (including sharks!) swimming around at your feet, French is freely spoken. It's also 1,000 guests from the Maasdam descending on the island.
We took our time getting off the ship and we were on the fourth tender. After cruising the small souvenir tables, we began walking down the local concrete paved highway with its beautiful displays of flowers and beaches. We toured three grocery stores, A beautiful Catholic Church, an art gallery and a pearl farm before settling under the thatched roof of a local restaurant for a ceviche-like dish and a local beer.
We then walked 2 miles back to the tender area and waited for our 1:30pm snorkel tour. Just after 1:30pm the tour operator finally showed up and 4 people who were supposed to be on our tour didn't show up. Later we learned that they were on the morning tour. The operator screwed up the reservations.
The snorkel trip was good and it's always fun to bob around in warm water. At the first snorkel site, my mask was super cloudy so I could see much. I still shot a lot of GoPro footage. After clearing my glasses and mask, it was a good experience at the snorkel site with lots of fish. We got back to the tender dock shortly before 4pm, shopped a bit more, and then boarded a tender for the short smooth ride back to the ship.
Warm showers were the order of the day to remove the salt residue from our skin and hair! We then went up to deck 13 and watched the sail away. The Captain raised the anchor, slowly rotated the ship 180° clockwise, and we slowly sailed towards the exit point in the atoll. This all happened under a beautiful sunset and warm temperatures.
Dinner was in the Lido and Bayne Bacon did a new show, and the EXC photographer, Lottie, was the story time teller about her time photographing the Bushmen of the Kalahari desert.
We have another snorkeling trip tomorrow and a shorter stay at Rangiroa. Stay tuned.
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