Bora Bora--The island James Michener described as the most beautiful island in the world

This is Bora Bora from the plane. You can see the barrier reef that protects the lagoon which has turquoise waters. The deep blue is the miles deep, wild Pacific Ocean, with big waves pounding incessantly against the reef. Protected by the reef, the waters of the lagoon are calm and clear. Many marine creatures like to live in these waters, from sharks and manta rays to all the colorful tropical fish imaginable.

To get to Bora Bora, you need to fly about eight hours from Los Angeles to Papeete in Tahiti. While doing so, you will cross the equator which, in the old tradition of sailors, meant having your head shaved as initiation. Because we are modern people and not at all sailors, my husband and I celebrated the crossing with a plastic cup of French champaigne while feeling very cramped in our narrow airplane seats. The travel now is much faster than sailing around the world, but there is plenty of discomfort in travel. When we arrived in Tahiti, we forgot all about travel fatigue. We were rewarded at last: the air was balmy and scented with fragrant flowers. From Tahiti, we embarked in a smaller plane to go from Papeete to Bora Bora.

Bora Bora airport is on a small island. The runway is very short. The pilot has to apply the brakes rather harshly if he doesn't want to run out of land and drive the plane into the water. Instead of taxis, there are small motor boats waiting to pick up the weary travelers and transport them to their hotels.

Once aboard the taxi boat, the adventure really began. In less than eleven hours of travel, we were suddenly transported into a world of such dazzling natural beauty that it overwhelmed us completely. I was snapping picture after picture trying to capture the essence of this mesmerizing world. The breeze was refreshing, the water in the lagoon warm, clear blue-green and transparent. The jagged contour of the long extinguished volcano was mysteriously enveloped in clouds. As we traveled around the island to get to our hotel, we could see the beauty of Mount Otemanu revealed from ever changing angles.

Bihind our taxi boat, the water was spreading in long tails of foam.

Finally, our destination: Intercontinental Le Moana Hotel.

Every bungalow had a coffee table with a sliding glass top. Through it, I could feed the fish living among the coral underneath. Every evening, the leftover bread from the restaurant is put outside in a basket as fish food. According to the French tradition, any bread older than one day is not fit for humans. From the moment the fish sense movement in the bungalow, they gather under it. They have learned by now that tourists have bread for them and will feed them. One day, coming back from a morning of snorkeling, sun beaten and exhauseted, we were starving. It was around 4 PM and the restaurant was closed between lunch and dinner. To tired to hunt for food elswhere, we eat the fish bread. It tasted terrific.

We swam in clouds of fish, experienced sharks that came within two feet of us, had manta rays eagerly brushed against us and viewed dazzling coral gardens while snorkeling.

When we arrived in Los Angeles, the temperature was around 57 degrees Farenheit. "Brrrr...It's the dead of winter!" exclaimed my husband who was born and raised in Los Angeles.

P.S. I wrote a far more detailed account of this trip and I had many more pictures, but somehow it got deleted so I had to content myself with this abbreviated version.