We went swimming with the sharks . . .

John Cinnamon and wife Ann Craig Cinnamon went on an underwater adventure.

. . . And we mean that literally. This isn't about working in Hollywood or trying the navigate the cutthroat world of big business. We were actually swimming with sharks. OK, they were black-tip reef sharks (the fairly harmless variety). But sharks, nonetheless! Oh, and we swam with stingrays, too.

We were cruising the South Pacific and our first stop out of Tahiti was Moorea. It was there that we took what they call an "underwater safari" with the company AquaBlue Moorea. Unlike snorkeling or scuba diving, you wear a large, heavy helmet underwater, connected to an air hose on the boat above, that allows you to breathe normally and comfortably, walking on the surface of the ocean floor.

In this case, we were in about 12 feet of water. It was on this adventure, we interacted with countless small tropical fish and several stingrays. The AquaBlue crew had food for the rays, which kept them happy and, for our purposes, close. It was terrific.

A black tip reef shark in Bora Bora

Next stop, Bora Bora. It was here we boated out to an area near the reefs that ring the island to get up close and personal with the aforementioned sharks. The water here was much shallower, maybe four or five feet deep. Water socks and snorkels provided an easy way to see the sharks. And there were plenty of them.

It was another great experience.

Want to swim with the sharks or plan another adventure? Contact Ann and John at The Travel Headquarters, (317) 709-4609.