We woke up and read some (Cin is now reading Harry Potter and I am reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell). Around 11.00am we walked up the road to Ben's Snack, which was a lower-priced eats place we saw on our long walk a couple of days ago. On Bora Bora, there seem to be high-end restaurants, called restaurants, and lower-end ones, called Snacks. A Snack is about the same as a "casual dining" place in the US, something like Applebees or TGI Fridays (that level of food and price; there are no chains here). Lonely Planet recommended Ben's; it was really good. I had beef fajitas and Cin had chicken quesadilla. It looks like this place is attached to Ben's house. Ben himself was a good natured fellow who was very friendly. He spoke really good English. Some other folks were there hanging out; we think the two younger guys (probably eight and ten or so) were Ben's sons but we were not sure. Anyway, the food was really good. It did take a long time to come out; probably around an hour or so. I would say Ben's is one of the least formal Snacks we encountered; it felt like an outgrowth of his house. Many of the other Snacks looked like regular restaurants. That's not a bad thing; Ben made us some really good food with a good personal touch and conversation. He's a local and a good guy to talk to. We then left around 12.40pm and headed back to the hotel, changed into our bathing suits, and went for our SCUBA diving trip.
We went diving with Nemo Dive, whose logo was the Nemo fish from the Pixar movie of a couple years ago. Cin had never been diving so we both signed up for an Introductory Dive (it has been a good two years since I was last diving so this should be a good refresher). Me, Cin, our instructor (Regis, who was French and spoke good broken English), and another fellow, Fernando, who was Spanish but lived in New York City now, dove as a foursome. Everything came right back to me and I had a blast. I was the only certified diver of the three of us. The guy from NYC had dove a couple times six years ago in Egypt (not the first place I would think of for SCUBA, but I almost went diving in Sandia, New Mexico, last year!). We did only hit 20 feet or so but that's cool. There is an awful lot to see in the waters of Bora Bora, including some kickass coral and lots of really cool looking fish. I got some good pictures with our underwater camera and we got Regis and the other guy to take some pictures of us diving together. Cin had a good time but had some issues getting used to breathing from a regulator. Since she has never done any of the pool work or been diving before, I have to say she did great. Hopefully she'll take the Open Water Diver class next time we're in a good location for it; then we'll be able to go diving together anywhere we go. I was somewhat disappointed we only went under for about 25 or 30 minutes. However, for a first dive for Cin this was probably a really good amount of time.
We then went to Bloody Mary's for dinner. The hotel called and got us a reservation and ride. This was much better than lunch. The restaurant sent a bus to pick us up and when we got there, all of the fresh catch was displayed on ice. The owner described everything to us and then we ordered right there before being shown to our table. We decided to split a rib appetizer (two ribs each; they were delicious but not the meatiest ribs ever) and then Cin got a deep water tuna filet and I get mahi mahi. Both we excellent. I do have to say that Cin insisted on taking a picture of the salads and then our main dishes. This is a habit she seems to have picked up from DrMo who likes to take pictures of all her food. It's kinda wierd to do that in the middle of a fancy restaurant and now Cin is doing it. Stupid Mo. We also split a bottle of Riesling which was delicious. To finish it up, we had the best chocolate mousse I have ever had. A short ride back to the hotel and we were done for the night. Tomorrow we head to the next hotel. Hope that transfer I worked out before goes well.
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