January 16, 2005

When you come to a fork in the road, head for the bush.

Did I mention that Bora Bora was beautiful? I woke up this morning at 5 am. For once I was thankful for jetlag. I walked out on the empty beach and sat. That sunrise lasted an hour… The sun came up right behind Mt. Otemanu and wow. I’ll post a next time I catch the sunrise. By then it was 6, so I decided to explore the proterty a bit… My hotel’s on a motu that encircles the main island of Bora Bora, and man my motu is big. I started walking towards the helipad, thinking I’d take a look at it then get back to my fare (Tahitian for bungalow). Anyways, I never did find that helipad, but I found better… the trash dump. Yep, theres a big sign towards the back saying ‘end of property, no trespassing’ So naturally, I ignored it and continued walking… ok, its not a horrible trash dump… its just a clearing, maybe 10m2 where they burn the trash… still, baaad for mr. environment. I guess they don’t have much other choice though.

Anyways, at the dump theres a few dirt paths going in different directions, so I picked a random one going left. On the first day here I asked the HR lady if you can go around the island, she said no. That lots of it was private property and they had dogs. HA. So the whole time I walked along the path I couldn’t stop thinking of a big gruff Polynesian guy blowing me to bits with his shotgun and then feeding me to his dog. But, brave (smart, sexy, etc…) explorer that I am, I kept on walking. And then I reached a beach. Picture a square. With rounded edges and a few extra lines here and there…Then take a spatula and beat it on one side. That’s pretty much what my island looks like. The hotel’s on the south- east bit. The beach Im talking about is on the southern tip. So anyways, I found this beach, which is all very nice and dandy, and then I just kept walking east, trying to see how far I could go before my stomach was pumped full of lead. On my way I met a couple of fishermen setting out for the day, their ‘ferocious’ dogs ran up to me and sniffed my crotch. The fisherman stared. And apparently bora borian dogs don’t know how to play fetch.

Most of the island is deserted, there are 3 fishermen’s houses on the south-ish side, then the northwestern bit is completely deserted… its great, I walked for 20 min without seeing anyone… no man made objects, nothing. I picked up a feisty hermit crab who kept on coming out of his shell to pinch my fingers… sure, if somebody picked up and shook my home I’d be pretty pissed, but what happened to being afraid?

Its crazy all the stuff you see from shore. Just 10 cm off the beach there’s coral, all kinds of fish… I even saw two baby eels not more than a meter off the shore. But my favorite part of the island is the north. Here there’s 5 or 6 families living on the shore. One of them raises crabs in a huge cage right on the beach… another had a corrugated tin pigsty right on the beach, 3 pigs were sleeping on their mud separated from the sea only by thin sheet metal. One woman had a high table set up right on the water with a net where she was washing her breakfast dishes. Three naked children were crouched together playing a game near a palm tree. Welcome to paradise.

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