The Dive in Bora Bora

I have to admit Scuba Diving was not my favorite activity. My Scuba training was not a good experience, Thankfully my wonderful Mom Scuba dives and makes sure I have a good time and go slow. The first dive I ever did outside of training was amazing thanks to Mom. The dives this time around were both pretty awsome too!

I always wake up nervous before a dive so I did not eat much. When the dive boat came to our boat to pick us up I was ready.

Our first dive site was pretty close to our boat and it was called Anau. A-na-oo. The dive was roughly 40 minutes long and we went to 32 ft or roughly 12 meters. The coral was beautiful and my favorite part was the fish.

There were so many bright fish and things. Most people don’t know this but colors disappear underwater. They don’t actually disappear you just cant see them without special lights. Red is the first to disappear at around 20 ft then orang at a little over 50. Since we were only at 30ft I could see orange and all the other colors of the rainbow (except red and pink). One interesting thing that happened with colors is, I had hot pink nail polish on and it looked purple underwater.

Back to the actual dive. Have you ever seen a Giant Manta Ray? They can have a wingspan of up to 30ft wide! Note: Manta Rays are Not birds They are fish, they look like a sting ray. Sadly the rays we swam with were not that big, only 7-8 ft wide (roughly 2.5 meters) Manta Rays have big “ horns” on the front of their heads. They are not actual horns but fins. Reef manta rays have curved horns also know as devil horns. Manta Rays predators are large shark and Orcas (killer whales). A great show on Disney plus is called Secrets of the Whales. It has a very interesting episode on Orcas that I would highly recommend.

All in all the dive went really well, I saw a Barracuda (oooooooo Baracooda). that looked like it should be in finding Nemo, i saw lots of zebra looking fish and bright orange fish. I even cracked a joke about Deforestation because parts of the coral were all knocked over. I have to say, I was a little disappointed on my first dive when the coral was not all bright colors and the water wasn’t absolutely clear (Thanks a-lot Nemo 😒 tricking kids into thinking that the sea life talks 🙁 :). It is true that Disney movies don’t depict the real world to a T.

The Second Dive

Teavaniu was our second dive site and, you wont believe, We Went Beyond The Reef! Dun😦 Dun 😲 Dun! 😱 If you don’t know, I’m referencing to the movie Moana. A girl surprisingly named, Moana, goes beyond the barrier reef of her Island to explore the ocean and find Maui, demigod of the wind and Sea. Great movie for All ages and if you have not seen it and you love pineapple 🍍 you have to watch it!

Back to the dive, I can really get sidetracked with just a little bit of humor! 😏 No more Jokes (for now) this dive was deeper by ten ft and seince we were right next to the reef and there was huge swells above us going to crash the party on the reef ( crash onto the reef) we had lots of fun swaying in the swells forty ft below the surface. The sea floor looked like it had roads running through it big enough to fit a car. All I had to imagine was some power lines and you get an underwater dessert. There was a shark and the usual bright fish. I kept seeing fish with weird patterns and crazy colors! Fish no matter how small are very fascinating!

Great Dive Site

I think diving in Bora Bora was the best diving I ever did. You don’t have to go deep and you can see some pretty awesome fish and sea life! We used Bora Bora dive Center but one of our instructors was not nice at all. One key thing for divers is you Can Not rent gear, you have to dive with an instructor even if your certified.😒 I can also now say that I dived at Bora Bora witch is a famous dive place. If you Scuba Dive, Bora Bora is a must visit. 😁

Staying at the Zanzibar Pearl Hotel

Staying at the Zanzibar Pearl was super fun! They greeted us with fresh juice and hand towels to clean our hands when we got there. The Hotel was very nice, and the rooms were beautiful. On each bed, there were flowers and two straw hats. We did not get to take the straw hats home, but we did get to use them on the beach. The beach was super beautiful, and the sand was super fine and soft. There was a lot of seaweed on the beach from the tide, and there was also some garbage, but it did not bother us. It seemed like low tide lasted all day, and high tide only came around 4:00 pm. High tide was the only time we could play in the waves because at low tide, there are not even waves, and the water was down to the reef. When it is high tide, the waves are really fun to play in, and it is entertaining to get washed up on the beach.

Our Days of Play in the Indian Ocean

The communication between guests and staff at the hotel was challenging. One of the ladies at the restaurant named Gift was nice and friendly. One funny problem was that most mornings we asked for a plate of mangos and pineapple and they would say that they did not have those things. I would say, “that’s funny because I had those yesterday” then they would bring them.

Scuba Diving at Mnemba Island

On one of the days, we went Scuba diving at Mnemba Island. You do not actually go onto the island but rather above the reef that surrounds it. The water was pretty cold for me. I am always nervous about dives but I think once I get under the surface I feel better on the reef. There was a lot of fantastic fish and colorful ones too. The two exciting things that we saw were an eel and a turtle! The turtle was super giant and majestic looking its eyes were brown and big and it was super cute. We did two dives and the second one was the better one. I had a terrible start because my fins were rubbing my toes then I had to go to the surface to fix my goggles then when we went back down I was much more confident and happy.

Boarding the board to Mnemba Island

Hotel Review of the Zanzibar Pearl Boutique Hotel

The Zanzibar Pearl was an excellent hotel and provided a relatively good experience the people were friendly, and the food was good, and the venue was beautiful. One thing I would say is if you can not sleep on a hard matters, the mattress at this hotel are incredibly hard. The hotel has things it could work on and things to improve on, but I would still recommend it with five stars.