Raitea en route to Moorea

Raiate’a…en route to Moorea
Hi everyone…
We had such a wonderful day today…lots of different things happened along the way.
It all started with a rainstorm early this morning…it kind of “bummed” me out to have it raining when I had always imagined these beautiful islands to be tropical and hot and dry! Meanwhile, I learned that this is their rainy season…Nov to March…so, c’est la vie.
Just as I was trying to think positively about the fact that even though it was raining, we were going snorkeling and so it wouldn’t matter……the rain stopped and the sun and the heat arrived. It turned into a steamy 86 degrees…
Today, it took quite a long time to “clear” immigration, and so, our time here was shortened. We laughed that it might be a plot to keep us women from shopping…!
By about 1-ish…we got clearance to leave the ship…and our excursion began. Only about 10 of us went together in two vans to the dock where we boarded our small motor boat to the Pearl farm. How interesting…to see how they attract oysters and “farm” them. Part of the process is to harvest the “stem cells” from one oyster and implant them into others, so that the beauty of the sacrificed oyster, can be grown and harvested again and again. I shall upload pictures of this process into the Raiate’a folder on shutterfly, next sea day…it is a painstaking process which must account for the price of such pearls. WOW !
Next, we did get to snorkel amoung the many colorful live coral reefs and nearby to the strings of Oysters. It was fascinating to see them, and the many fish swimming near-by.
Unfortunately, my underwater camera doesn’t do so well, as there is no view finder and this fact makes it very hard to compose a good picture. The water was lovely and warm…and although I did get some sun, not too much, happily. The People here number only about 11,000 and there is about 40% unemployment. Roads are in poor condition, and although there is a hospital and a “college” (combined elem and high school), people are quite poor. Gas is > $8.00/gal and a coke about $5.00…so most people bicycle and drink ALCOHOL.
Later on, our orchestra put on a jazz festival, just after dinner, and then, we watched two shows of an illusionist and his wife…AMAZING ! How do they do those tricks !!!
We are off to bed now, as tomorrow comes early 8am…another cruise and
Bar-b-q on the beach. Sounds like fun………….
See you tomorrow.

Love from us both………
Nancy

Ps……..just got home from our tropical day on Moorea…I could stay a month here…the most beautiful island…ever !
Pictures will speak volumes…and I shall try to get them up in the next few days.