Fakarava (FAH-kuh-RAH-vuh) is the second largest of the Tuamotu atolls, and features a 430 square mile rectangular-shaped reef that has been designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve due to its diverse ecosphere. There are two notable passes that feed into the lagoon. Located on the north side. the Garuae Pass is the widest navigable pass in French Polynesia, and this is how the PG would enter the lagoon. Located on the south side, the Tumakohua Pass contains a narrow underwater valley known as Shark’s Hole, which is heavily populated with lemon, whitecap and hammerhead sharks.  

Prior to the cruise, I had read dozens of rave reviews about the Blue Lagoon tour with Ato Lissant of Fakarava Dive Lodge. I emailed him about a year before our cruise and he said he requires at least 8 confirmed people to run his tour and he recommended that I recruit people from my Cruise Critic roll call. After a few months, I accrued a group of 14 people through our roll call, so Ato confirmed our tour and we were all set.  We booked the full day tour with a pick up at the tender pier at 8:30am, and a drop off at 4pm, leaving plenty of time before our 5pm all aboard time in case of any delays. He said we would do some snorkeling, then go to the blue lagoon to eat lunch on a beach, and then we would snorkel again on our way back to the ship.  That was all of the information he gave me, so I really didn’t know many details about our itinerary.  I trusted the reviews of those who toured with him before me and hoped for the best! We were quoted a price of 9000xpf or $105 USD per person, paid in cash on the day of the tour.

Here is the daily schedule for today…

 We had a very early wake up time today a 6:30am to make sure we caught the first tender of the day.  Last night before going to sleep, we placed the breakfast room service tag on our door, and it was delivered promptly.  I love that you can order a full hot breakfast from room service because it does speed things along in the morning before an early tour.  

 Good morning Fakarava!  When we woke up, we were still sailing towards the pass to enter the lagoon.

 After we finished eating, we went upstairs to the lobby to meet the others on our tour at 8:15am.  Before we left for the cruise, we sent lots of messages back and forth in our Roll Call to organize logistics for today.  As the main contact person with Ato, I also became the organizer for today’s tour, so I made a list of everyone’s cabin numbers and we agreed that we would all meet in the lobby 15 minutes prior to the first tender so we could all exit the ship together.  There was no way to know in advance what time the first tender would be, but regardless, we knew we needed to take the first tender if we were to meet Ato at 8:30am.  Well, as it turned out, the first tender wasn’t even leaving the ship until 8:30am so obviously we would be late to meet Ato.  I just hoped for the best, and assumed he would figure out that we were on our way when there wasn’t anyone else milling around the tender pier haha

After seeing how the tender process worked on other port days, I was very nervous about us all getting onto the first tender. PG gives priority to those taking ship excursions, and if they filled up every seat, there would be no space for us and we would have to wait until 9am to board the second tender.  As it turned out, there was no need to worry because the tender did not fill up and we all easily found seats together.  I think they actually may have run a separate tender earlier in the morning for people taking PG tours because we never saw them.  I am not sure if this is normal for Fakarava’s lagoon, but that was by far the scariest tender ride of the entire cruise!  The water was very choppy which made it hard to safely get on and off the tender, and I actually wondered if they would need to abort the journey and take us back to the ship because it was so rough.  Luckily, that did not happen and we stepped foot on Fakarava soil 10 minutes later.

These guys were playing music to welcome us to their island…

 Ato was standing to the side of the tender drop off point when we arrived.  I walked over to introduce myself with the 13 others on the tour following behind like my little ducklings hehe  Ato was prepared with a list of names to check us all off from his list as we paid our fare.  Aside from the 14 of us, there was a second boat that formed because of so much demand to take this tour.  Once everyone was accounted for, we walked a short distance over to where our boat was docked.  First impressions mean everything, and just then, we were not impressed.  The bat was very old and had just one bench plus a large area in the middle to store our bags.  It did not look like there would be enough space for all 14 of us to sit safely (especially remembering how choppy the water was during the tender ride!) I felt so badly at this moment that these people had all trusted me to plan a fabulous day for them in Fakarava, and I was letting them down.  As we were standing there staring down at this sorry looking boat, one of them told me that my grade as a tour organizer was a C-!!  What had I gotten us into?!

Ato hopped down onto the boat and took all our bags to stash them in the dry storage compartment.  Then, he helped us all carefully step down to board the boat, with half of us sitting on top of the storage compartment.  One saving grace was that the boat had a canopy over the top to provide shade (I try to give credit where it is due!).  Once we were all settled as comfortably as possible, we took off for the 20 minute ride to our first stop.  Maybe it was due to the windy day and choppy seas, but we were getting SOAKED with water!  I don’t think any of us were prepared for that!!  Ato told me to move over to the back of the boat on the other side from where I was sitting, and it made a huge difference.  I was no longer getting pelted with water, but the trade off was that I lost my shade.  I must say that Ato took excellent care of me all day and always made sure I was doing okay. Multiple times he thanked me for bringing all of these people to take his tour and he gave me a big hug in appreciation.  

Soon enough, we stopped at what seemed like a random spot in the middle of the lagoon.  How do these guides always know exactly where to stop?!  I couldn’t see any landmark or buoy or anything… just water all around us in every direction!  Ato said we could spend one hour snorkeling here at the coral garden. We thought that seemed like a long time, so he said we could leave early if we were done.  

Within seconds of jumping in the water, I was in awe and thought I could happily stay here all day, just floating with the current. Fakarava’s lagoon has the best snorkeling I have ever done, with both incredible fish and colorful coral. There was also a shark and an eel, and the coral was both deep under water and also close up to the surface, depending on where you swam.  

There are truly no words for how beautiful this place was, so I will just let the photos speak for themselves…

 Playing with macro mode

 Happy as a clam

 After about 45 minutes, I was tired and swam back to the boat.  There is a ladder that goes down below the water surface so it wasn’t too hard to climb back on board.  Once everyone was back, we headed off on another 20 minute ride to our next destination. I really liked how Ato broke up the ride with a snorkeling stop because otherwise it would have been 45 minutes straight of being on the speed boat from the cruise tender pier to the blue lagoon and that might have been a bit much.

 Taking a selfie with Ato as we rode to the blue lagoon

 The moment we crossed passed some coral and entered the Blue Lagoon, the water instantly changed from the deep cobalt we had seen all morning to a bright light shade of aqua.  The water was stunning!

 Is this place for real?!?

 As we came to a stop at a shallow spot in the water about 50 feet from the shore, we noticed two large boats filled with people who were about to leave.  We later learned that they were from one of the PG excursions, so it was amazing that Ato timed our arrival that we wouldn’t have to share the beach with all those people.  It was now 10:45am and Ato said we would stay here until 1pm.  

We walked from the boat to the shore in ankle-deep water until we reached a section of beach with dozens of palm trees to offer ample shade.  There were a few picnic tables where we could drop off our bags, but aside from that, there was no sign of civilization or human influence on this motu.  If we didn’t know better, I would have thought Ato just discovered this island today for the first time and no human had ever been here before.

We officially found paradise.  This remote island in the middle of no where in the Pacific Ocean is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

 As we continued walking through the trees, it opened up to another lagoon on the opposite side which Ato described as snorkeling in a swimming pool haha  

 We explored the island while Ato and his crew unloaded a bunch of stools, coolers of food and drinks, and a BBQ (where did they store all of that stuff?!).  

 I think there were 24 of us between the 2 boats, and we all spread out around the motu, enjoying the beach and the water.  

 There was a little snorkeling here, but it quite unexciting when you compare it to the coral garden we saw just minutes ago.

 Be careful of these little white and yellow fish… As I was standing in knee-deep water taking some photos, one of these fish swam up and bit me!  It bit my calf and I jumped in shock, then it bit my knee!  WTF?!?  I wasn’t doing anything to harm or threaten him.  Quit biting me!!  I ran out of the water and avoided all of his little cousins for the rest of the day.

 While there wasn’t much coral or many fish in the lagoon, there were several hundred sea cucumbers!  You really had to pay attention to where you were walking because it was hard to avoid stepping on them!!

 Notice how shallow the water was… we are quite a distance from shore and it’s still not even waist deep!

 On the opposite side of the beach, our boat was still anchored in the lagoon

 After about 45 minutes, one of the crew brought around an appetizer with pieces of fresh coconut and a mystery fish marinated in lime juice (with the language barrier, we couldn’t tell if it was muscles, clams, or scallops, but whatever it was, it was tasty!)

 They handed out cans of Hinano, sodas, and cups of water, and called us over for our lunch buffet at around noon.  All of the food was delicious and incredibly fresh.  They served freshly grilled coconut bread, fried rice, chicken, and sausage.

 This guy was preparing Poisson Cru

 They also cooked fresh grouper and snapper on the BBQ

 There was plenty of food for all of 24 of us, and even enough that we could have seconds if we wanted.

 As we were finishing lunch, someone noticed that there were black tip reef sharks swimming in the lagoon!

 There was no need to put on our snorkels and get fully in the water because the sharks came right up to the shore we could clearly see them from above the water.

 As is the custom throughout FP, they built a fire to burn all the trash.

 Once everything was cleaned up, we piled back in the boat, 45 minutes later than originally planned.  I had no complaints though!  I wished we could have stayed on that beach forever.  I’m not even sure if those photos fully conveyed the pristine beauty of this motu.  Thank you Ato for bringing us here… I know this is a day that none of us will forget.

Ato said we were going to make a short 10 minute stop at a beach just a little bit away.  A few of us were thinking “What’s the point?  Can’t we just skip that stop??” but Ato inisisted.  Little did we know, the REAL reason for making this stop is that Ato needed us to get off the boat at that point because it was so close to low tide that he could not get the boat out of the lagoon with our weight on board because the water was so shallow! Haha  This was truly an Only-In-FP situation.  

The beach was very pretty, with soft white sand surrounded by bright blue water.

 What started out as a functional stop turned into such a unique and interesting experience.  Ato brought the boat way out into the water, so in order to meet him, we had to walk on water.  Literally. We walked several hundred feet through water that was barely ankle-deep.  I felt like we were a bunch of refugees trudging to safety, but it was just so incredible how far out we could walk with the water still so shallow!

 Looking back towards the beach where we started our journey…

 When we finally reached the boat, Ato put one of the stools from lunch into the water so we could climb up on that to get back on the boat.  Once everyone was back in their seats, we motored over to our next stop about 5 minutes away.

 This was a tiny motu in the middle of the lagoon but it had even more unbelievably beautiful snorkeling than we saw at the coral garden this morning!!  We saw an eel that must have been 10 feet long, plus there was interesting blue coral and these little things that looked like Christmas trees.  Ato said we could spend 30 minutes here.

 I have never before seen anything like these little guys:

 It’s hard to see but the eel is winding between the coral and rocks deep inside of here.  He never came all the way out so I didn’t get a full photo of all of him, but we stuck around to watch him squirm for a few minutes.

 I probably should have posted this earlier in the day, but this was our tour boat…

 By now, it was getting late in the afternoon so I assumed that when we left this motu, that was the end of the tour and we were just going back to the tender pier.  Ato had one last surprise planned for us.  He took us out to the pass where there is a break between the motus and it opens up to the Pacific Ocean.  First we rode through a section of water with hundreds of birds.  I am not sure why they were all there, but I think there are fish there for them to try to swoop down and eat.

 Then, we went a little further and Ato started to drive the boat around in circles creating a swirl in the water.  When we looked over the side of the boat, we could see straight down to the ocean floor.  Ato took out the left over fish from lunch and tossed it into the water and then the show began.  Eight to ten large pink snapper and 2 or 3 grey sharks came over for their lunch!

It was really hard to capture all the action in a photo, but maybe this video will do a better job…

It was such an exciting and unexpected end to our day!

After all our scraps from lunch were tossed back in the water, we made the 20-minute ride back to the tender pier.

 We got back to the pier at 3:50pm.  Somehow, even though all the other tour operators we used on this trip were on “island time”, Ato managed to take us the furthest distance from our starting point and still be the most prompt to return us there!  Way to go, Ato!!  If you are ever in Fakarava, I highly recommend taking this tour with Ato Lissant. Despite the look of his boat from the start of the day, he took such great care of us and brought us to such beautiful places.  While we were waiting for the tender to pick us up, the person who gave me a C- rating as a tour organizer earlier this morning updated his grade… he now awarded me an A+ for arranging our day in paradise with Ato!

We took the 4:10pm tender back to the PG and went back to the cabin to get showered and changed.  We were a little hungry and it was at that weird time of day when the buffets are closed, so we ordered a cheese plate from room service to hold us over until dinner time.  I don’t remember if I posted this yet or not, but here is the room service menu with non-breakfast items (breakfast has it’s own menu in the form of a door tag that you hang outside your cabin each night).

 After our snack, we went upstairs to deck 8 to for the sail away party, and I tried today’s drink of the day.  The Pink Colada is made with vodka, pineapple juice, coconut cream, and cranberry juice.

 When the sail away party ended, we went downstairs to the piano bar to listen to Alex play and have a few pre-dinner drinks. I’m not sure if I never noticed it or if tonight was the first time they did this, but some of the waiters came around with plates of small bites to nibble on.  These were hummus and tuna…

 It made for a nice appetizer until we were ready for dinner.  When we got to L’Etoile, the maitre’d said there were no tables for 2 available at that time.  As it turned out, the couple checking in just ahead of us live 20 minutes from us back at home, so we opted to sit at a table for 4 and got to chat and get to know each other better.  

 Steamed King Crab Leg with Clarified Butter

 House Made Gravlax

 Squid and Shrimp Wok

 Seared Filet of Tuna

 Dessert Menu

 Chocolate and Grand Marnier Torte

 Strawberry Bavarois

 Each night, the waiters served a little plate of sweets for the table to share, and they were always different.  These little chocolate balls were a rich, dense fudge and they were fantastic!

 After dinner, wanna guess where we went?  

If you guessed to listen to Alex play at the piano bar, you’re right!  There really wasn’t anywhere else to go for that downtime between the end of dinner and the start of the evening show, so luckily we greatly enjoyed listening to Alex because we spent a lot of time there!

Tonight’s show was at 9:30pm in the Grand Salon. The Cruise Director Claudine is a wonderful singer, and she performed a show singing songs of the Divas.

The show ended around 10:15pm, so we went back to the cabin to get some sleep after another wonderful day in paradise.