Day 17 -  Feb 6

The ship stopped at another island, Raiatea, in French Polynesia. We went out on a shore excursion to visit a pearl farm and do a little snorkeling. The pearl farm is located in the middle of the ocean inside the lagoon. We took a small boat to a small house, which is built on coral reef and used for the pearl farming process. They demonstrated the process including how to harvest pearl from an oyster. The water on one side of the house is 80 feet deep and oysters are hanging underwater. The other side of the house is only a few feet deep, where we can snorkel. Today’s weather wasn’t very good and the water wasn’t very clean. However, we jumped into the water anyway after the farm tour. One of us did see three fishes but the scene wasn’t anywhere close to what we saw online. The snorkeling was disappointing but at least we saw wild fish on this trip.

After lunch, we walked around town again. The town has paved sidewalks along the coastline. The chickens are everywhere in the islands. They are truly free range chickens.

We had dinner at Waterside today, which doesn’t require reservation. It serves modern and classic cuisine. We eat there 2 or 3 times in a week.