Ray-feeding
We got driven further up from the Starwood clump of hotels and then Patrick stops the motor. Everyone thought that it was time for the rays...we thought we saw shapes in the water, so out comes the camera again. I took a few photos of water and sand before we realised that there's NOTHING in the water...ha-ha! Patrick said that it was just for us to have a swim about - the water is about 3 feet deep and amazingly clear...so the photos of water and sand haven't been wasted after all.
More photos, more photos...
We all put on our snorkels but there wasn't anything to see other than seaweed. At least it was safe for the guy (who thought the sharks would bite) to go into the water. There was nothing in there to bite him. You'll notice blur patches in the photos right in the middle, it's not until we got back that I realised the the lens was smudged...so all photos taken from the video camera looks blurred in the middle. Sigh!
After wading about for about 15 minutes in the shallow water, Patrick calls us back to the boat for 'refreshments'. He has cut up coconut and grapefruit for us! Yummy...he entertains us with more ukulele songs while we got 'refreshed'.
He then starts the boat up again and drives off. We have almost gone full circle from our hotel by now. In fact, we were starting to head for our hotel when he swerves off to the left and then kills the boat engine. It was a repeat of the shark experience - everyone starts seeing shapes before the rays swim up to the boat. Patricks jumps off the side of the boat and the rays come 'flapping' up to him. They bat their 'wings' at his chest and he picks them up and mock-bites them on the snout. Amazing! Everyone takes photos for about 10 minutes without actually going into the water and he has to coax people into the water.
Generic Italian girl 1 thought that she'll be the first one into the water, so she puts on the snorkel, and climbs down the ladder. She's in the water for 2 seconds before the first ray bumps into her. She SCREECHES and paddles/scrambles/splashes her way to the side of the boat and climbs on top of the bar as fast as she could (traditional Tahitian boats have a bar that runs parallel to the side of the boat - for balance I think). The whole boat bursts into laughter - she had a really shocked expression on her face. Of course after this episode, Mr. It Will Bite refused to go into the water and hovers around the front of the boat and laughs at everyone else instead.
Eventually, Italian guy 1 decides that he'll go into the water, followed by Italian guy 2 and then more and more people go into the water (I think there were about 12 of us on the boat). Generic Italian girl 2 went with little fuss, then it was Generic Italian girl 3, who muttered "Dio! Dio! Dio!" the whole time she was climbing down the ladder - which is not a very long ladder either, but it took her about 2 minutes to climb down 2 steps. Then when she got into the water, it turned into "Madonna!" and she wasn't referring to the singer either, I can tell you that!
The water actually looked too deep for me but I thought that I could kind of paddle over to the bar, but it was getting pretty full with Italian girls, but I didn't want to NOT go into the water either. Eventually, I got halfway into the water and Patrick waded over to me and carried me onto his shoulder and put me on the bar! That was really helpful...saved me some dog-paddling at least. But then I had to try to grip onto the bar so that I didn't fall face first into the water, and after a while, my hamstrings got pretty tiring and I started to hyperventilate, imagining all sorts of horrible drowning incidents. I yelled across for Rod to get over to me so that I could hang on to him - he takes his own sweet time in getting over to me.
Finally I'm in the water and it really is too deep for my feet to touch the bottom, but the water is so salty that I can't keep my feet down and they keep bobbing up either in front or at the back! It was hard to concentrate on the rays and keep my feet down at the same time, but eventually I get to rub the back of ONE ray when it swam up to us. Too quickly, Patrick calls us back up to the boat, while I part bob, part wade on Rod's feet to the ladder. When we got back into the boat, out came the tuna fish pail again. I ask him for a piece of tuna to feed the rays, but the refused to come near me! I waggle it about in the water but they completely ignored me - Patrick tried to help by 'throwing' a couple of rays towards me, but they didn't acknowledge my tuna. I gave up and passed the tuna fish back to Patrick.
No photos of rays - just videos this time... :(
Anyway, it was over all too soon. It was time for the picnic now, and Rod and I were the only ones who were cheapskates and didn't take the picnic tour...ha-ha! Patrick radio-ed our hotel boat to come pick us up and while waiting for the boat, we got a farewell song. Well, it's was just really 'Thank you' in various languages but there was nothing else to do anyway. So we got a great big 'BYE' from everyone on the boat - probably relieved that they could now go on to their picnic!!! We got back to the hotel at about 1.30pm...not bad for a half-day.
We got driven further up from the Starwood clump of hotels and then Patrick stops the motor. Everyone thought that it was time for the rays...we thought we saw shapes in the water, so out comes the camera again. I took a few photos of water and sand before we realised that there's NOTHING in the water...ha-ha! Patrick said that it was just for us to have a swim about - the water is about 3 feet deep and amazingly clear...so the photos of water and sand haven't been wasted after all.
More photos, more photos...
We all put on our snorkels but there wasn't anything to see other than seaweed. At least it was safe for the guy (who thought the sharks would bite) to go into the water. There was nothing in there to bite him. You'll notice blur patches in the photos right in the middle, it's not until we got back that I realised the the lens was smudged...so all photos taken from the video camera looks blurred in the middle. Sigh!After wading about for about 15 minutes in the shallow water, Patrick calls us back to the boat for 'refreshments'. He has cut up coconut and grapefruit for us! Yummy...he entertains us with more ukulele songs while we got 'refreshed'.
He then starts the boat up again and drives off. We have almost gone full circle from our hotel by now. In fact, we were starting to head for our hotel when he swerves off to the left and then kills the boat engine. It was a repeat of the shark experience - everyone starts seeing shapes before the rays swim up to the boat. Patricks jumps off the side of the boat and the rays come 'flapping' up to him. They bat their 'wings' at his chest and he picks them up and mock-bites them on the snout. Amazing! Everyone takes photos for about 10 minutes without actually going into the water and he has to coax people into the water.
Generic Italian girl 1 thought that she'll be the first one into the water, so she puts on the snorkel, and climbs down the ladder. She's in the water for 2 seconds before the first ray bumps into her. She SCREECHES and paddles/scrambles/splashes her way to the side of the boat and climbs on top of the bar as fast as she could (traditional Tahitian boats have a bar that runs parallel to the side of the boat - for balance I think). The whole boat bursts into laughter - she had a really shocked expression on her face. Of course after this episode, Mr. It Will Bite refused to go into the water and hovers around the front of the boat and laughs at everyone else instead.
Eventually, Italian guy 1 decides that he'll go into the water, followed by Italian guy 2 and then more and more people go into the water (I think there were about 12 of us on the boat). Generic Italian girl 2 went with little fuss, then it was Generic Italian girl 3, who muttered "Dio! Dio! Dio!" the whole time she was climbing down the ladder - which is not a very long ladder either, but it took her about 2 minutes to climb down 2 steps. Then when she got into the water, it turned into "Madonna!" and she wasn't referring to the singer either, I can tell you that!
The water actually looked too deep for me but I thought that I could kind of paddle over to the bar, but it was getting pretty full with Italian girls, but I didn't want to NOT go into the water either. Eventually, I got halfway into the water and Patrick waded over to me and carried me onto his shoulder and put me on the bar! That was really helpful...saved me some dog-paddling at least. But then I had to try to grip onto the bar so that I didn't fall face first into the water, and after a while, my hamstrings got pretty tiring and I started to hyperventilate, imagining all sorts of horrible drowning incidents. I yelled across for Rod to get over to me so that I could hang on to him - he takes his own sweet time in getting over to me.
Finally I'm in the water and it really is too deep for my feet to touch the bottom, but the water is so salty that I can't keep my feet down and they keep bobbing up either in front or at the back! It was hard to concentrate on the rays and keep my feet down at the same time, but eventually I get to rub the back of ONE ray when it swam up to us. Too quickly, Patrick calls us back up to the boat, while I part bob, part wade on Rod's feet to the ladder. When we got back into the boat, out came the tuna fish pail again. I ask him for a piece of tuna to feed the rays, but the refused to come near me! I waggle it about in the water but they completely ignored me - Patrick tried to help by 'throwing' a couple of rays towards me, but they didn't acknowledge my tuna. I gave up and passed the tuna fish back to Patrick.
No photos of rays - just videos this time... :(
Anyway, it was over all too soon. It was time for the picnic now, and Rod and I were the only ones who were cheapskates and didn't take the picnic tour...ha-ha! Patrick radio-ed our hotel boat to come pick us up and while waiting for the boat, we got a farewell song. Well, it's was just really 'Thank you' in various languages but there was nothing else to do anyway. So we got a great big 'BYE' from everyone on the boat - probably relieved that they could now go on to their picnic!!! We got back to the hotel at about 1.30pm...not bad for a half-day.
posted by feddupfish @ 6:07 pm
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