1001 saveurs des Marquises part 3/4

Part 3
7/07/2019

 

Ciao Tahuata (for the second time). 

It’s a short and rough sail, but we try to fish anyway. We learned from our boat friends, ex fishermen, that you put the line in the water as soon as you see a flock of birds agitated over the water. It’s usually tuna. But fishing around the Marquises is not that easy or at least we’re not that lucky 😏 

On the way to Ua Pou, we stopped one day at Hanamenoe, Hiva Oa. A beautiful bay that rarely sees cruisers because the water isn’t so clear. That’s always the case when a river discharges in the bay. In return you have the most magnificent countryside around those places 😎

So in this bay you have three houses in a huge farm. Mainly coconuts, pomplemousse, papaya, mango’s, … We meet one of the owners and are allowed a stroll around the farm. 

First you need to go ashore, not always easy with two very early puberty girls 😖

A bit distracted by the wonderful rays … 

Arrival on the beach, the girls get off for a crazy run, it’s not often we have a soft, relatively flat beach 😝

And they have a blast chasing crabs 😎 

This is a wealthy family and they have a beautifully maintained farm with wild horses and big pigs eating the scraps and coconuts. 

The river provides them with running water ‘a gogo’. This is also where they do the washing, all of their washing …

Two fishing boats well looked after and a quad (yep I walk like a Pinguin with my two broken toes, not easy in the sand 😌).

We didn’t ask to see their houses but it’s almost always a mattress on the floor even in ‘wealthy’ families.

Their children are in boarding school during the week or live with family in the ‘city’. That is because they are lucky and have a school on their island. The smaller islands only have a primary school and the older children often come home exclusively for the holidays (by boat off course). If they want to continue after high school, they have to go to Papeete, Tahiti. Or the very rich children go to France, mainly Paris.

 

Just great how remote these families live! I wonder if we could live like this … 

9/07/2019

“Temptation, Temptation for LouiseAnna”, the girls imitate our VHF calls.

We are two cats sailing to Ua Pou from two different islands. Without setting the time, we entered the bay coming from the North of the island, they chose the South. And we arrived at the exact same time in Hakahetau 😜

Ua Pou is often skipped but is one of our favourite islands. The scenery is more dramatic than the other islands. 

The bay Hakahetau does not have that many visitors either. People are very friendly, but leave you alone, a virtue I really really appreciate :-)

  

10/07/2019

We set of for a hike towards a waterfall and chocolate”factory”. The locals are proud of the many ancient archeological structures and it’s the only location in the Marquises where they have panels explaining the history, geology and fauna and flora of the valley.

Everything seems like moving so slowly, especially time! The pets are just a little different too 😜

We enjoy the unspoiled nature, wild horses on the road and the beautiful waterfall. The first (and only one in the Marquises) where you can actually swim and fish shrimps!

 

We learned form the locals that you have to make a big coconut fire as the smoke chases away the mosquitos. We enjoyed a fire already started by locals who visited the waterfalls before us, but it didn’t last long enough so as soon as the smoke was gone we got eaten alive by mosquitos. This is the result:

A bit higher up from the waterfall, you have Manfred (a ‘famous’ German) the chocolate guy. He is unique (full of outdated sexist jokes) but it’s a funny experience and he has a nice atypical Polynesian home. 

We were allowed to taste quite a lot of his chocolate, but were especially impressed by the freshly baked bread. It was supposed to be for the pigs and chickens, but we begged to take it home. It’s been a long time since we had really nice bread!!!

Find the odd coconut.

Oh there she is! They love coconuts! That’s probably why they taste so good!

You can clearly see the difference of the German approach of a house compared to the local houses. Manfred really constructed a very nice piece of heaven 😎😍

 Chocolate beans

 Papaya

  Breadfruit

 A little souvenir ...

‘Nana’ means goodbye 😀

There’s one restaurant in this bay. A French marine that cooks really well! Our treats for now are sparkling water for Louise, a Hi-C juice for Anna and the great Hinano beer for us. It’s very expensive and we drink it as champagne since we have absolutely no alcohol left on the boat! We just refuse to pay 65€ for a bottle of rum that costed us 5€ in Martinique…

11/07/2019

The anchorage might move a little, but you have a beautiful pontoon to get ashore …

 

… dolphins sometimes come to say hello …

 

… the snorkeling is great …

 

… there are nice deep caves …

… and just around the corner you can swim with pigs!

 

The downside of a lot of fish is (according to Geoffrey), that they make too much noice at night so he closes the window because he can’t sleep!!!

The advantage of being alone is that you can go crazy again 😜

  

So crazy that Louise and I see a face in this rock, do you see him too?

So we’ll be back, but by for now!