Bora Bora
Kristy Clingerman
HTT/200
July 8, 2012
Jennifer Kelso
Bora Bora
When I was a child was when I first hear of Bora Bora. I thought to myself that is a funny name, it can not be real and soon after that it was out of my mind. Until, I heard it again on a television show and a popular movie, as a teenager. The movie was XXX with Vin Diesel and Samuel L Jackson. At the end of the movie XXX (Vin Diesel) in sitting out side a hut in what I would say is the most beautiful place I had ever seen. My curiosity got the best of me. I had to see if it was really that pretty or if it was one of those Hollywood tricks. So I got on the computer to do some research on Bora Bora . Right then and there I looked at the pictures and I decided if I could ever go anywhere in the world Bora Bora would be the place to go.
When Captain Cook first heard the name Pora Pora he mistook the softened sound of the Tahitian “P” for a “B” and called the island Bora Bora . Pora Pora - the ancient name, meaning "first born," came from legends describing this as the first island to rise when Taaroa, the supreme god, fished it out of the waters after the mythical creation of Havai'i, now known as Raiatea (Tahiti-tourisme.com, 2012). Something I found very interesting there is no letter “B” in the Tahitian language. Vava’u suggests that the original people to inhabit this 7 million year old island arrived from Tonga. (worldatlas.com, 2012) Bora Bora is volcanic in origin and its main island and fewer smaller islands are completely surrounded by coral reefs.
Bora Bora is a part of the Society Islands of the French Polynesia, and is overseas territory of France, originally claimed in 1843. The largest town in Bora Bora is Vaitape (worldatlas.com, 2012). The official language is French but there is some Polynesian dialect is used (worldatlas.com, 2012). The land area of Bora Bora is 44 sq km (16.9 sq miles) (worldatlas.com, 2012). The population in Bora Bora is 4,650...