You would think by the frequency of my postings that we are off discovering the entire island of Moorea and busy, busy, busy. That we are not. But we are luxuriating in the freedom to do nothing, and once you get into that groove, it’s hard to pull yourself away from it. However, I want to write this blog as much for myself as for my readers because these posts bring back wonderful memories years later.

Right now we are out on our deck waiting for the Polynesian show to begin. As I believe I mentioned, meals here are very expensive and it has felt beyond our budget to have both lunch and dinner in the restaurant. So we have gotten into the habit of having one or the other, and then bringing the leftovers to our room. They serve very good rolls at both meals and if we fill up on rolls, we can have a large part of our meal left over. This afternoon we had pizza, a salad, a dessert and one can of coke for $70. Our meal this evening was leftover pizza, the amazing Tahiti drink I wrote of earlier and a shared pain de chocolate purloined from breakfast. There is no question that we are cheap, but I actually prefer this to having dinner in the restaurant. It’s just so lovely to sit out here and feel the breeze, gaze at the dark, glistening water, and listen to the Polynesian music in the restaurant, as well as the water lapping up against the stilts of our bungalow .

When we booked I made a request for a bungalow in the quieter area and they definitely did not accommodate me. I told Mary that if I had known beforehand that we would hear all music coming from the restaurant, I would have been very anxious and upset. But it turns out I love it – maybe because it’s Polynesian music? I don’t know.

I did mention our stormy lagoon in my title. The last two days we’ve had rain. Yesterday morning I woke to discover a very wet deck and my favorite divan soaking wet. It sprinkled on and off all day. Every time I thought it had stopped and went to my divan, it began again. Such familiar weather, but a warmer, gentler rain than Portland. After the sunrise this morning we decided to go straight to breakfast instead of snorkel, but around 11:30, we put on our snorkel gear and headed out. We have rail steps down to the lagoon, and the top rail, which is normally about two feet above water, was completely submerged. We got in the water and lasted perhaps 5 minutes. We were both being thrashed around and into the stilts of the bungalow, which are covered with coral so I don’t want my body to touch them. And I’m swimming with only my legs, so I felt completely powerless. We swam back to our bungalow and I thought I would just hang in the water right by the ladder but then I was shoved into the steps and I got angry and got out.

We are perfectly content to lie around and read and do crossword puzzles so that’s what we did after lunch, but around 4:30 the water seemed calmer so we got back in. Even though the water was a little murkier than our previous snorkels and the current was still a little strong, I thoroughly enjoyed my snorkel. We saw a spotted manta ray very close up. My favorite was this school of little green/grey fish who gathered around a sponge-like coral. All at once, they swam into the coral and completely hid in the crevices and then emerged en masse. I thought at first I had scared them, but they continued to do this over and over so I guess it‘s just their thing. It reminded me of the swifts at Chapman Elementary in Portland in September. I could have stayed there a long time but Mary pointed out that the current was picking up and we might have a hard time getting back to our bungalow if we didn’t head back.

We‘re both snorkeling in long swim pants and swim shirts and I am close to perfecting changing from my snorkel outfit into a towel wrap while (mostly) not exposing myself. Then I lie in my divan until I am dry. It’s quite divine.Because we’re also snorkeling twice a day now, I’ve discovered that I am fine without a shower in between. My skin feels amazing from the salt water and my hair feels pretty great too.

So that was our day today and will probably be our day tomorrow also. Mary has promised me we can snorkel in my favorite area that is so shallow it scares her. It’s probably about 2 feet deep. I can reach down and touch the sand. But there are tons of fish and I am SO close to them!