Snorkeling with Sharks and Stingrays and a Coral garden - Bora Bora

The previous post from this trip is here..

The plan was to have a nice nights sleep. I had set an alarm for 5:15AM to catch a sunrise while the rest of the family slept till 7AM. However, the roosters started crowing at 3:45! There was no chance of sleep.

So I missed the sunrise.. Later I learned that we don’t actually get to see the sun through the clouds in Bora Bora in December with the clouds.. only a slight increase in purple hues and brightness increase. So I did not miss anything!

When we went for breakfast the place was calm. We did some Yogagraphy. Then I decided to get in the water for an hour. It was great! Then we went back to the room and got ready for an early lunch.

We had booked a snorkeling adventure trip for the afternoon. It is not easy to just look at each other and stay in hotel rooms. The kids were okay with this plan. We had found just 4 spots for the afternoon with Moana Adventure Tours. Will definitely recommend this company if you are looking for a great snorkeling experience.

They picked us up from the hotel and after a 15 minute drive we got introduced to the captain and guides and were off to the reef. First we were in a shallow area with 4-6 feet water where we could snorkel. There were a lot of sharks and one big stingray that went past us.

After this we got back on the boat and went to a place where the water was 6-7 feet deep. This was tricky and some swimming knowledge was necessary to snorkel and not step on the corals in the coral garden. We were told that this is the only company that is allowed access to this garden as they help maintain it.

They did give us inflatable vests to help float. I did get some help from the guide Mr. Tema to maneuver around the corals and not step on them. One of the other tourists on our boat, a couple from San Diego were nice enough to give me a space iPhone waterproof case so I could take videos and photos under the water while snorkeling. That proved to be a challenge but you can see it in the video. Two of the 8 people still managed to get scratches on their legs and bleed. One of them was Jr. who is an expert swimmer. Mr. Tema quickly sprayed them with something that would dissolve any stuck coral and an instant bandage. He was Mr. Ice cool. He also kept telling us “do not pick any shells no matter how pretty they look”.. later he told us about a neurotoxin on the shells and death in 15 minutes if you get stung.. nearest hospital is 45 minutes away. Thought he was kidding. Later I came home and googled it and sure enough, it is called the “cigarette snail” because if you get stung, you may get to smoke one cigarette before you die!

The photos from this amazing experience.

Here is the video highlights. Have edited more than 30 minutes of video clips to this shorter clip… iPhone goes in and out of focus when underwater.. maybe it is my phone that is getting old.. maybe I should have changed some settings before taking it underwater.. best edit I could do in a rush.

Restricting this post just to the morning dip in the lagoon and snorkeling.. The photo shoots of us with Yoga poses and in the evening light at golden hour (no gold colors though) will be in a separate post!

Note to self and others. Remove Rudhraksha beads before you get into salt water. I usually do. For some reason in the excitement forgot. Some of them almost cracked. Now they are going to have to go through some conditioning to save them.

Snorkeling at Caye Caulker - Belize

The previous post on the Belize trip is here..

On our second day, we got a wake up knock on our door (there is no phone in the rooms). The kids also realized that the Wifi works on and off with one bar in the room and gave up on it.  The cell coverage was also on and off. 

They asked the Spa manager for the Wifi and she said "The wifi works only near the pool area. This is supposed to be detox kids. Enjoy the nature!".. you should have seen the look on their faces! It was priceless. It also gave me a chance to launch into a monologue of "in those days we were born without wifi and we used to blah blah blah..". It was my version of my dads speech "in those days I had to carry 5 kg of wheat on my head for 10 kms to get it ground into flour when I was only 5 years old!" 

After gobbling up the breakfast and having more fresh coconut water, we were ready to go Snorkeling. We drove for about 20 minutes to a small village called Bomba, where apparently close to 80 people live. The Belieze Boutique resort spa is near a village called Maskall where close to a 1000 people live. 

The driver was nodding acknowledgements to everyone on the drive there. Everyone knew everyone on this road and that was something interesting. 

We took a boat from Bomba through the mangrove forests, which are protected by the Belize government. There were lot of birds which we normally don't see on the forests. There were crocodiles in the water that reminded me of Goa and Florida.. the two other places where we have seen similar flora and fauna.

After a long ride, we finally got to the island of Caye Caulker where Hurricane Hattie had split the island into two. Literally you can see the split. Then we stopped for a restroom/changing break and were off to the reef and channel to snorkel. 

This is my second snorkeling attempt. I did not do very well many years ago in Hawaii. This time, it was much better, but I stayed close to the boat. The kids went into open water a good distance with the other folks on our party and our guide. They got to see Baracuda and many different types of ray in the deep water..

Everytime I drifted more than 10 feet from the boat, would head closer, grab the ladder, wait for a few minutes and get out again. The reef was amazing in the channel! 

The sharks came to us! Probably because other tourists were feeding them..

Got to see large ray's, sharks, fishes of different colors.. it was a great experience. Then the boat moved to the shallow water in the reef and we actually got to swim with the sharks! 

Once we were done with the reef, the boat went back to the island and we had close to three hours on the island. We ate a really good vegetarian lunch at the Rainbow restaurant and walked the island's one main road, while drinking more coconut water.

Then we found a spot on the beach to put our towels and rest.

We took turns walking, first the kids, then us and before we realized it was time to head back to the boat. 

The return boat ride was breathtaking as the sun went down.

The birds were going back to their nests and we saw some Roseatte spoonbills and green herons as well as a lot of eagles, turkey vultures and falcons.

Missed my big lens for a few minutes. After the Europe trip, I started leaving the 70-200mm lens at home, as it is heavy and lugging it around makes my shoulder hurt. Just enjoyed taking in the sights instead for the first time and was okay with it.

Here are two slideshows of pictures..

We made it back through Bomba to the Resort by 6PM. At Bomba the families make wood carvings out of Teak and Mahogany and sell it to tourists.. we were more distracted by the puppy that was playing with everyone at the shops.. his name was fluffy. He made me forget the mosquitos that were going for us at the dock.

It was a day well spent.. 

The next day we were going to get another early wake up knock for another adventure!

Nevada - the rest of the trip - aka Casinos

We spent a day and a half in Casinos on the recent Vegas trip. Given we went with kids and one adult who downright refuses to enter places with Cigarette smoke (me), it was a tough call. 

So we played it safe and walked through the main streets within these Casino's.

First we went to the Venetian. San and me are visiting this place after 15 years. Our first observation was that the Gondola ride price went from 5 bucks to 20 which is not proportionate to the 2x every 10 years rule. The Casino's always win, even when it comes to Gondola rides. 

The interior was mind blowing for the kids. They have not seen anything like this in their lives. They were very very impressed. 

Then we went to Paris Paris and did a bunch of things. All those got overshadowed by bumping into (literally for me) actor Prabhu Deva. After that the conversation stayed with the actor for another hour or so!

Lunch was at the Rainforest Cafe in MGM! We had a reservation and we barely made it. The smoke filled air on the way to the restaurant within the Casino made me lose my appetite. Fortunately, I sat next to a blower of some kind which helped recirculate fresh air in the corner of the restaurant.

The food was simple and good! The ambience was great (except for the smell of smoke that would not go away). There were aquariums everywhere and the fish in the tank were gorgeous..

Later that afternoon we spent some time walking in the strip to get sunlight. Then there was the M&M store! It was great fun for the adults and kids! We need a store like this in the bay area. We have 4 regular potential customers lined up in our house already.. They let you make your own mix of M&M's, that too with rare colors. I was a kid again for an hour running around with the kids grabbing select colors. 

We had another 4 hours to spend before catching the Illusions Magic show! Took a tram to the Mandalay bay and saw the Shark Reef. Given that we have been to way too many zoos and aquariums where we go through a tunnel where sharks swim overhead, this one was not the best but they did have a few nice exhibits like the Piranah's and Giant sea turtles.. 

The first few exhibits were "meh".. there were crocs, lizzards, snakes and a Komodo dragon that looked like it needed CPR. We lowered our expecations and that helped for the remaining 30 minutes as we walked through the other exhibits.

Apparently it is not okay to put more than 40 of these toothy fishes in one tank. They were eating live goldfish when we were there.. This is the first time someone actually explained Piranahs to us. Apparently they are exaggerated in the movies.. they are not always that hungry!

The shark tank itself was nice. Not the largest we have seen but they had three large Sawfish and a giant turtle. (could not get pictures of them because they were in the far end of the tank and very shy)..

It was a challenge taking pictures in the dark and the 5D Mark ii still does a great job in low light!

They also had red and green florescent jelly fish and some gorgeous lionfish. 

Then there was the magic show, "The New Illusions"! Jan Rouven was amazing. The escape acts he did really make us sit on the edge of our seats and go "how the hell did he do that!" We did not realize that 90 minutes flew by. It was that entertaining. I wanted to get a picture with him after the show but the kids were hungry and we wanted to get back to the hotel for dinner. So we raced back to the parking lot. 

The next day we spent half a day at Circus Circus at the arcade area. The kids tried their hand at various games and mostly did not win anything. The adults played a game or two and won things for the kids. The circus acts in the center of the arcade were good and entertaining.. but again, the villain.. smoke! There was a gambling area right beneath the arcade. Wish they had put the arcade on a separate air system so the kids could be spared the smoke. . . 

Given the whole Casino trips were unplanned, we still had fun!

Had to come and do Yoga back to back to get the smoke out of my lungs and the smell out of my nostrils. Between Casinos and National Parks, the family now has a clear and unanimous choice!