Heading Back

Tahiti Airport - Flying back to LA and then Santa Barbara
Waiting for our flight

Bye Bye Paradise

On the boat dock saying goodbye

Goofy Girl

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Our final day. Our 10 days went by so quick. A few photos here. We definitely love the group shot. The people in Bora Bora and Huahine were amazing and so friendly. And we made a lot of friends along the way - Ali, Nati, Francesco (I love HerbalLife!), Monica, Viktor, Vahine, Salumi, Vaia and so many more. It made for an incredible trip.

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Well, that's it. Sorry for the delay on photos. We have a ton more photos from our trip (April 2008), which we may post from time to time. But I think, the blog will start to be current. We left Santa Barbara in August 2008 after 6 wonderful years. Hopefully we'll post some photos following our lives now in Maryland. All the best.

Lunch and Dinner

Group Shot

Tahitian Dancing Dinner Show

Lunch is ready!


Dining in the water - I think a first for both of us.

Our private picnic

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After the sharks and rays, Alfonso dropped us off on a private motu for our own little picnic lunch. The food was delicious - still to this day - Shayna and I talk about going back just to have this lunch again. Afterwards, we went snorkeling some more with Alfonso and did some more activities. Unfortunately my camera battery died and my underwater camera ran out of film (aarrggghhh). I wish I had a photo when Alfonso pet a gigantic moray eel like it was a dog.

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The dinner show was during our last night in Bora Bora. We should all sing and dance more.

Two more stingray photos

This guy is right on my chest when I took this photo.
An underwater perspective

Stingrays - Lots of Them

Tag! You're it.

Alfonso, Shayna, and underwater friend

Alfonso telling us what to do with the stingrays.

Slapping them on the back or pulling their tails wasn't part of it.

Here they come...

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After the sharks, we pet some stingrays. Stingrays are really really friendly. Or maybe they like free food (they are probably distant relatives of grad students). Anyways, I fed a few stingrays. The first time went well. Held out fish, stingray sucked fish (they have no teeth), and I cheered. Although the second or third time I did this, another stingray from the side surprised me with his dexterity and grabbed the fish I was holding. He sucked three of my fingers in his mouth too! Now, they may not have teeth but they probably have some cartilage cause Damn I felt a crunch. That freaked me out a little and I pulled my hand out like it was in a hot oven. After that I started to chicken out feeding the stingrays and dropped some fish when they got near me. It was a strange feeling having 3 or 4 stingrays up on your body too!

Sharks!!!!

Alfonso took this shot for me. He swam down pretty far - the bottom is around 25 feet.

This lemon shark is actually freakin' huge!

Snorkeling with black tipped sharks
Alfonso swimming with the fishes
Blue Trevally (I think) - They are quite big.
Taken about 3 feet away!!!

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Some underwater shots. We didn't hestitate to snorkel with some sharks and dove right in. It was one of the most amazing experiences in our life. The little black fish - I think - we had for lunch later that day! There were a ton of black tipped sharks and one mighty big lemon shark circling below us. After this, it was onward to the stingrays.

more photos

I definitely need some more sun
Some surfers way off the coast
The Yellow Submarine

(for next time)

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Some more photos.

Water excursion - start

Alfonso!
Heading out
There was a canoe race that day
A relaxing moment

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We took an excusion to go feed the sharks and pet some stingrays. Our guide was Alfonso - another super cool guy. He would sing, play the ukulele, and steer the boat. We got to check out a canoe race. They were working hard while we could sit back and relax.