From Baja California to Moorea

26.4. At 7:00 the alarm clock rings. The Laboratorio is not far away and we take our antigen test without standing in line for only 50 USD. We get the Dirty Chai on the way back. Then we take the bus to the beach to go surfing at least once more. That's why we originally came to San José. We quickly rent a surfboard and take turns every 20 minutes. We can still do it, even though it's a bit more difficult here with the crowd, the bigger board, and the long breaks between sets. Unfortunately, the session is a bit short, but we have carried out our plan. We take the bus back to the Air BnB to shower and pack. Our landlord arranges an UBER for us and shortly after we are at the airport. During the drive, I make the all-explaining discovery: I find an email from Kiwi.com with the text "Tahiti is waiting for you" in the subject line. When you open the email, you can see the flight dates and times, which are on April 29th!!! Did we book the flight twice or why do we have two flight dates? It turns out that we received the email from Kiwi.com automatically because we started the booking there and then decided not to book the flight there. Kiwi.com remembered this and sent us a "reminder email" the following day with the text mentioned above. When we were planning Baja California, I accidentally opened this email and didn't realize that it wasn't the flight we booked, but it looked the same. Luckily, yesterday when we noticed the discrepancy between Amelia's reminder and our plans, we didn't open this email and thought everything was fine!!! At the airport, we buy a second clay skull because the first one didn't make it home completely from Yucatan 9 months ago. Since we never went to our favorite burger chain Carl's Junior during the two and a half months in the States, we make up for it in the food section. The 2.5-hour flight to LA goes smoothly, and then we have to wait 6 hours for the connection. When we check in, we meet a couple from the suburbs of San Francisco. And we meet Calum at an affordable wine bar near the gates. The Australian works as a tour guide and is flying home for a short period. Our 8-hour flight across the Pacific starts at midnight...

27.4. At 5:10 our flight lands on Tahiti! The smell delights us and makes us want more. Unfortunately, we have to carry our luggage to each individual island since the airport no longer has luggage storage due to Covid. Our flight to Moorea doesn't leave for another 5 hours, and we are almost falling asleep while waiting, after all, we have been awake for 25 hours. We buy 3GB of internet for 8.50 francs because we will probably need it for the many hotels, dive centers, and flights. The flight takes only 15 minutes, and we land quite wobbly (a lot of wind) at the small airport. A shared taxi is already waiting outside and takes us 25 kilometers to our accommodation at the other end of the island. Unfortunately, our Air BnB doesn't have a name, and we search in vain. Our internet card already pays off, and we can contact the owner. What she shows us is something we could never have dreamed of: we have a whole apartment to ourselves! The more than a hundred square meters are well furnished and modern. We would never have expected that for 75 francs per night. Luckily, we have booked two more nights and haven't stayed on Tahiti as originally planned. Although we are very tired, we still want to go to the beach. But unfortunately, it's not that easy here... Since we don't have any money with us and people tell us that the public beach is far away, we give up after a wandering walk and go back home empty-handed. We arrange to rent a scooter for tomorrow and go shopping for some groceries at the local shop around the corner. At 4:00 p.m., our eyes start to close...

28.4. After breakfast, we set off for the town of Tiahura. That's about a 25-minute walk. We want to pick up the scooter and take a ride around the island, about 66 km. Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding between me and the landlord, and he did not reserve a vehicle for us... We have to wait for an hour and a half. So we go to the nearby park and snorkel for a while. The water temperature is wonderful. However, the coral is not as colorful as we have seen before. But we do discover many fish that we see for the first time.

Finally, we can pick up the scooter and off we go. It's so much fun! We are completely enchanted by the beauty of this island and enjoy the fact that we can stop and take photos at any time. Somewhere along the road, we stop and go snorkeling again. This time we can observe three big turtles in detail - a premiere for me, I'm very happy. We stop at all the public beaches on the island. There aren't many, most of them are private or belong to a hotel. Towards the end of our ride, we go up to La Belvedere lookout, and the view of the island and the mountains is delightful.

After returning our faithful vehicle, we buy some food at the local shop: raw fish in coconut milk with cucumber, a traditional dish here in French Polynesia. We enjoy our dinner with a beer in our beautiful and cozy "home".

29.4. Today we spend the whole day at the beach. We have decided to pay the entrance fee at Hotel Les Tipaniers because from their access to the sea, we can take a trip to see stingrays. Let's see. It turns out that the entrance fee includes a cocktail, so it's not that expensive anymore (except that they tempt you to drink alcohol) ;) We settle down on beach chairs and enjoy reading in the shade of the palms. It's wonderful. Unfortunately, we can't see the stingrays because the wind and the current are so strong that we give up on the idea. Even snorkeling in the bay is exhausting, and we don't see much. However, we can observe a white moray eel extensively.

After lunch, we continue our reading marathon. We stay almost until the bitter end, treat ourselves to the promised cocktail at sunset, and then walk home leisurely. We are both very satisfied with how this day went!

30.4. We haven't gotten up at 4 am for a long time... but today we do it because we want to climb Mount Rotui. At 5 o'clock sharp, we stand in front of the closed hotel gate, waiting for the security guard to let us in. Fortunately, the other couple waiting with us has a phone and can call him. Shortly afterwards, we are on the premises and find the dive center that is operating despite the hotel being closed. We get our equipment and soon head out of the reef to see lemon sharks. We are lucky, and during both dives, we see one of the big creatures, about 3.5 meters long, swimming around. One shark even swims between my feet! We see many turtles, and it is probably the best visibility we have ever had on a dive. The huge coral walls are impressive as well. Since today is Sunday, we get beignets and many cookies for tea between the dives. We anchor next to a large research ship in the bay, which can be rented for around $15,000 per week. Without crew, of course.

In the afternoon, we rent a kayak on the beach to go to the stingray feeding spot. Despite the current, we manage to reach the sandbank and tie our kayak. A local guide, who is just about to leave, hands us a fish fin and the adventure begins! The rays can't get enough and occupy each "fish carrier" for three people. They would like to eat one of them right away. They press against you from all sides. On the shoulders, the chest, and if you are deep enough in the water, even on the diving mask. In addition, there are about 10 whitetip reef sharks circling around us from a distance of two meters. Very surreal! Completely amazed, we treat ourselves to our entrance cocktail at the bar before happily walking home.

2.5. Today, we get admitted to the hotel without waiting and go diving for the second time. There are a few more people on board today, and we head to a dive site that is partially closed due to the current. Today, everything is calm, and we can share the first dive with three blacktip sharks. Underwater, there is a statue with coral hair, which is why the spot is called "Tiki". The second dive spot is very close to the dive center, and we see turtles again. After diving, we feel pretty groggy and make ourselves comfortable at home, cooking shrimp with pineapple and coconut milk, a feast!