Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Moorea, Delicious Fruit & Today’s Kitchen Sink Plant Blood

The island of Moorea is absolutely majestic. We spent the first half of our epic vacation there before heading off to Bora Bora to get married. Moorea is less developed than Bora Bora and its beauty is stunning (as you can see). This is a picture of Cook’s Bay where our resort was located. (See that hut-looking thing on the left? That’s where we ate breakfast every morning.) Each day started out with this romantic view of dazzling topography and ocean water.

Our days on Moorea were full of adventure and fun. This was the island where we took our shark and sting ray feeding excursion. Additionally, we went for a safari ride around the island where we visited flower and pineapple plantations, experienced different views of the surrounding tranquil ocean, and learned about black pearls.

The fruit was amazing! The pineapple – OMG! So sweet and delicious, you eat the core right along with the surrounding flesh. That’s a picture of me when we visited a pineapple plantation. We also enjoyed pamplemousse (french grapefruit, which is sweeter than normal grapefruit found in the states), rambutan, and star apple (one of my favorites – it was sweet and almost custard-like in parts). You can easily live it up Raw in French Polynesia, but I sure did miss my hardcore greens.

One of the best aspects of these islands is the feeling of safety. On both islands we walked about (outside our resorts) at all times, day or night, and felt very safe. The people are kind there, whether they work at the resort or are just walking down the street. French Polynesia is quite possibly the friendliest place I’ve ever been and one of the reasons I didn’t want to leave. Their warm and “no worry” attitude is contagious.

Back to the present… it’s been a lovely day. I spent a boat-load of money at Whole Foods stocking up of plant blood components and other raw vegan ingredients I need for a special dinner I’m attending tomorrow night with Raw Model (I’m bringing Tuscon Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto: scroll to Aug 23 post, a variation of my side: The Greatest Hummus in the World, vegetable crudites, flax crackers, and Blackberry Cobbler).

Today’s food has been scrumptiously Raw Vegan. So far, I’ve had:
3 bananas (not all at once)
Spinach salad (cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, Italian dressing)
Kitchen Sink Plant Blood (green juice).

What is Kitchen Sink Plant Blood you ask? I basically juiced everything I had except the kitchen sink – LOL. I’m talking: dandelion greens, carrots, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, celery, cucumber, and purple kale. It was DELICIOUS!! Drinking fresh juice (preferably green as the majority of it) is so important for optimal health. Whether you’re 100% Raw or 10% Raw, 100% Vegan or 50% Vegan, toddler age or senior… you need to be drinking fresh plant blood on a daily basis. Drinking plant blood daily is what divides the men from the boys, the divas from the groupies, and makes all the difference in the world when it comes to ultimate health.

Snorkeling w/ Real Sharks!

by Kristen in Bora Bora, moorea, sharks

One of the best parts of the trip was our excursion of shark and sting ray feeding while staying on the island of Moorea. Let me just start by saying that I could never have gone through with this if I hadn’t first seen the amazing documentary, Sharkwater. (It’s a MUST SEE!)

That’s a pic of me underwater looking at real sharks swimming around us in the ocean. I’m not gonna lie, my heart was pounding and my breathing was heavily labored, but it was so amazing. The beauty and elegance of these massive creatures (did you know they’ve been around for 450 million years?) is mind blowing when you see them up-close in their natural environment. The excursion boat threw out a long rope which we all grabbed hold of in the ocean and watched while the crew threw out chunks of fish for the black-tipped reef sharks to eat. (We also went to a spot where we stood in waist deep ocean water with sting ray swimming around, bumping into us, and we actually got to pet them… talk about intense!).

Here is a picture of a couple of the sharks swimming around us. There were many and they averaged 4-6 feet in length. It was amazing. I text messaged my mom that I was doing it and she freaked out – poor thing – haha. I’m sure someday that karma will get me back for torturing my mom that way, when I have my own children.

My husband (giggle, I love writing that!) took another excursion while on Bora Bora where he went scuba diving out past the reef and was up close with gray sharks that were 6-7 ft. I think snorkeling with the sharks was a needed warm up for actually swimming around deep into the ocean with them. What was I doing while he did this? I was enjoying a hot volcanic rock, detoxifying massage without a worry in the world because I knew he was safe with the sharks (after all, I saw Sharkwater).

Experiencing nature in this perspective was humbling. I proudly call myself a Mother Earth Warrior, and seeing these beautiful creatures in their environment made me want to protect the earth (our, and their, home) that much more. I don’t think we pay enough attention to the waters taking up the majority (71%) of the earth’s surface, and how important it is to protect and care for them.

I have many more things to share about our epic vacation so I’ll stop here and save those for future posts.

On another note, Raw related… I’m sipping a quart of delicious plant blood (a recipe I’m featuring in my upcoming class, Breakfast in Bed. One thing is for sure… I missed my fresh green juice while on our trip, although I DID enjoy fresh pineapple juice. So, to ensure I was getting adequate greens I brought along my Vitamineral Green powder (this is a diet-saver when on vacation!) and chugged it down with bottled water daily. We also brought along some Whole Food Energy Bars from Vega. I wasn’t sure exactly how my food situation would be so I came prepared.