Know how sailors have this reputation for getting tattoos?
You may not realize this but that pretty much started here. When the European sailors arrived in the islands they were so impressed with the Polynesian tattoo that many of the ships’ crew got tattoos themselves and brought the idea back to their home countries.
The Polynesian people have a rich and diverse tradition of tattooing. Each island group had their own extremely intricate traditions and remember, there are a LOT of islands out here!
Unfortunately, like the hula dance, music (they used a flute with their nose!) and many of the other pieces of Polynesian culture, a great deal of the knowledge was lost when the Europeans arrived. The new arrivals completely banned parts of Polynesian culture that were deemed “inappropriate.” Just one more setback these people have born with incredible grace. Since the Polynesian people did not have a written language and their cultural practices fell into disuse for long enough that most, if not all, of the practitioners died off, many of the secrets and details and meanings of their culture have been irretrievably lost. However, unlike the other pieces of Polynesian culture, tattoo has some form of record. Modern Polynesian artists have recreated their unique arts using what few oral traditions remain and the diaries and drawings of the original European explorers who were so amazed with the drastic artwork etched all over the native islanders’ bodies.
As the drawing suggested, the ancient islanders covered their entire bodies with tattoo that they applied with a bone blade and a hammer. Yeah, that would be extremely hard core! Every single piece had a distinct meaning. The first marking was made when the child was 12 and it periodically grew after that according to your wealth and station in society.
Ow. A lot.
Girls got off easy, they just got their lips, jawbones arms & legs done. (AH! Who tattoos their lips!?)
The modern adaptation is slightly more conservative though no less impressive and it is not unusual to see someone with a whole leg or shoulder done in traditional designs. It’s rarer, and some people still do facial tattoos.
Next time we’ll look at the cruiser community and Polynesian tattoos…
There is a waterfall lagoon in the center of this island (Nuku Hiva) that is known for it crystal clear waters and abnormally large eels. Naturally, everyone thought it would be a good idea if we went swimming with them. Apparently this is what one does at Daniel’s bay. Hike for two hours, eat lunch, toss some baguette to the eels the size of my arm (literally) to draw them out, then go swimming with them. Good times. Oh and yes, eels have teeth. So after leapfrogging over rivers, sauntering through canyons hundreds of feet deep, climbing through ancient Polynesian ruins and scaling some fairly large boulders…
You know what? Describing natural perfection week after week is hard. Here’s what we saw; you should watch it:
The eels were smart. They grabbed the baguette, saw kids and got right back under those rocks before anyone got in the water.
Like I said above we also saw some ancient ruins and genuine historic tikis. Much like the mangoes, these people have their history just scattered about them. However, unlike mangoes, their history is not overly abundant. Due to lack of funding & personnel, much of these ancient ruins are simply left.
Also the flowers. I mean, wow, the flowers are everywhere.
Overall a great hike and yet another example of the fantastic beauty these islands have to offer. This is the end of the Marquesas for us and we are off to the Tuamotu island chain. We’re leaving behind our “Buddy Boat”, PROXIMITY, here at Nuku Hiva. There are so many islands out here, which is shocking to me because my perception of the South Pacific was “ya know…there’s Hawaii, Tahiti, Guam, Bora Bora…and a couple more. Ok, so here’s some numbers for you:
There are tens of thousands (yes, that’s plural) of islands in the Pacific Ocean. In the South Pacific there are 3 “regions” of islands, of which Polynesia is one. The Polynesian region is about the size of Canada & the US combined. It’s big. The other regions are also lacking smallness (kind of a theme out here). French Polynesia is one of the larger countries in Polynesia and is about the size of the continent of Europe (yes, the continent). In French Polynesia, there are 141 islands and they give you 3 months before they kick you out, unless you’re European, then you can stay way longer (thanks France… :P) I know 90 days sounds like a lot, but really, it isn’t for so much space…and this is probably the first, last and only time you’ll ever get out here. So this is your one shot to have an amazing life experience. Here’s the dilemma: You want to stay and meet people and make friends and have awesome cultural experiences. You also don’t want to miss any of the other cool stuff on the other 140 islands in this country…and let us not forget that our boat needs to be through the entire area in 90 days or less. Important to remember those boats are slow and a couple of hundred miles between each island does make a significant difference. You should also add in about a week or two for boat repairs, supplying, customs, etc. What we’ve done so far has used up about 20 days. It goes fast.
Everyone has a different way of dealing with this. There is no way you’re going to be able to explore every island in 90 days so ultimately, you have to pick and choose. How much time do you want to spend finding the out of the way more remote islands like Fatu Hiva vs. enjoying the people and culture of more developed main islands like Nuku Hiva? Ok, and by “main island” remember I am talking about 2200 people on this entire island. So a tiny US farm town population…it’s isn’t exactly crowded. For the really adventurous, the Gambier island chain is a few hundred miles south and while it’ll eat a ton of time and there aren’t a lot of people there, you get a see a grand cathedral made entirely of coral, by hand (crazy priest, thousands of locals die in the construction, it’s a long story.)
Everyone says they want “off the beaten track” but we’re basically doing that by being here. So how far off do you want to go?
Rod & Elizabeth from PROXIMITY are staying in Nuku Hiva to enjoy the culture of the Marquesas and make some friends. Rod helped me learn the ukulele and they are both a lot of fun. We will miss them and hope to see them down the line. They expect to hit maybe one island in the Tuamotus before heading to Tahiti. As for us, we want to see some of these coral reefs floating out in the middle of the ocean, so we’re heading out.
I know, we have to “rush” though French Polynesia because we only have 3 months living here. It’s a heavy cross, but I bear what I can 😉
I would have included this entry into the last one except that I noticed you all have been asking for / demanding / threatening bodily harm if I fail to deliver some sweet, sweet pics of the Islands. So here you go:
Daniel’s Bay is picture perfect and just 5 miles from the largest town in the Marquesas, Taiohae Bay, by boat. Apparently a season of “Survivor” was filmed here. I can see why.
Just for a moment, let’s picture the crew chiefs in charge of filming the show and providing for the film crew, etc coming upon this place.
Crew chief 1: Wow this place is perfect!
Crew chief 2: Yeah, so remote, so tropical island in the middle of nowhere looking!
Crew chief 1: One problem, where we gonna go get a beer after we’re done filming for the day?
Local walking by: La bier et la pizza est huit kilometers pour ton bateau
(translation): Beer and pizza is 8 kilometers (5 miles) for your boat
Crew chief 1&2: oh really…
There see, even tossed in a little French lesson for ya. Anyway, if you watched that show and were concerned about the well being of the competitors, know that they were about 30 minutes from a piping hot pizza, prepared in a stone pizza oven I might add, at any given moment. This assumes 10 minutes for actually ordering and cooking the pizza. I am concerned about the residual effects on the local community however…
Now as we have said before, there is an overabundance of coconuts, flowers, plants, bananas, and any tropical fruit or plant that you can really think of. However, me telling you this just doesn’t convey the abundance these people have come to live with. Tiffany was shocked to find that these people literally have more high quality fruit then they can possibly handle.
Let’s continue on with our exploration of the unrelenting awesomeness that is this flora of this island as we hike up to the much talked about waterfall on the island.
As we had a short respite here in order to prepare for our wanderings into the 100 or some odd remote (even by Polynesian standards) islands of the Tuamotus, we decided to take care of some of the day to day chores that had built up.
Like, defrosting the freezer with our hair dryer, because apparently this is an important part of the cruising lifestyle
And hand carrying diesel fuel to fill the boat back up (last gas station was Hiva Oa, remember?)
We also bought food and in a French colony that means we acquired fresh baguettes. I find that I have yet to devote the proper space in this blog to the natural wonder of the world that is real French bread. As a native of Northern California I will go toe to toe with anyone who claims the superiority of French wine or cheese, but ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to bread these people have us beat.
Since we are talking of chores, I should take a moment and discuss showering. Yes, showering. Not that we didn’t shower before, it’s just that we didn’t shower for the amusement of the local athletic establishment prior to this anchorage.
So we have left the southern part of the Marquesas and are now in the more populated Northern Islands. By “more populated” I mean a total population of 5,000 spread out over four islands vice a total population of 3,000 spread out over four islands. Needless to say, a total population of about 8,000 people is a small, small amount for an island chain that has it’s own flag, identity and has considered being a separate country than the rest of the other four major island chains in French Polynesia. The other French Polynesian chains are the Tuamotu Islands, Society Islands, Gambier Islands, and Austrial Islands chains. Tahiti and Bora Bora are part of the Society Islands, FYI. I was curious about this odd independence of such a small amount of people and did a little reading and asking around at the tiny museum in Nuku Hiva, which is where we are now.
Let me say this and don’t laugh at me when you hear it, but the Ruskies have got absolutely nothing on the Polynesians when it comes to putting up with difficulty. These people have been plagued (syphilis), cannibalized, colonized, converted, warred upon, beaten down, re-plagued (smallpox) and then one of their islands in the Tuamotus was hit by 141 atomic bombs (let me say that again: One hundred forty one atomic bombs, 6 of which were hydrogen bombs!) by France when they were conducting nuclear testing. In the Marquesas alone the population was devastated by a whopping 95% before people stopped dying in droves and they were able to begin rebuilding their society. According to one book, The Marquesas alone started with 800,000 people at the start of the 19th century and dropped as low as 2,000 at one point! Now, to be fair, before us Westerners got here, they weren’t exactly a peaceful people with everything going on perfectly; islands were constantly at war with each other, raids for human sacrifices occurred and cannibalism most assuredly was practiced. Still these people took a beating and are starting a long bounce back from pretty dire straights. Despite all this they are the nicest people you have ever met, they put up with me bumbling through a language that isn’t theirs but that they adopted in addition to their own in order to better communicate with their sponsor country / people who colonized them. All in all, I respect the heck out of ‘em.
So we were going to stop at Ua Pou, another major island in the Marquesas but we gave it a quick flyby instead. Tiff explains:
We did get some awe inspiring pictures of the giant spires formed by dormant volcanoes that this island is known for. Spires like this are all over the island and are so high many are enshrouded in clouds.
We pressed onto Nuku Hiva and into Taiohae Bay, which with a population of 1,700 is the “big city” and capital of the Marquesas. We were greeted with sights of civilization such as pizza, crepes and a grocery store. What I describe below is by far the most advanced cruising port in the Marquesas.
I would include internet in the list of modern conveniences; however, when I say “internet” I would think most people would picture things like Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, email and the like. If I said I had internet you may write me nasty emails saying, “Hey, why haven’t you responded to my Facebook message I sent you!?” This would because it is, for your reference purposes, a 60 minute process to download and read a 2 line text email. Pictures and videos ain’t happening. Web 2.0? Right, we’re working on web 0.3 here. Little perspective on Marquesian internet access for ya: I asked one of the locals and they told me that the internet is in fact satellite based – but wait, here’s the bad news – the ONE SERVER for the ENTIRE ISLAND CHAIN is in Tahiti. Remember that island that’s about 2,000 miles away? Ya, that’s where the ONE server is. You thought dial up AOL was slow? Lightning compared to what we can get here.
On the up side, by giving up all hope of accessing the web, I get a lot more time to wander about, get in trouble, get humiliated by high school kids in volleyball and find interesting things for this blog, like a local tiki park created for cultural preservation (though the locals spell it “ti’i”). This one is my favorite: a naked tiki holding a war club in one hand and the head of another tiki in his other hand. Why do I call the Tiki a he? Nope, no assumption here, lets just say this guy could easily fit in at a particular bay on the island of Fatu Hiva. It should be noted that of all the islands in French Polynesia, the Marquesas are known for their exquisitely detailed and precise tikis…
In addition to the Tiki park, it first must be said that this place is simply gorgeous. Not just this town, all the islands we’ve come to so far have been jaw-droppingly amazing. These people live out their lives within mother nature’s personal art gallery. No words can accurately describe the abundance of picture perfect plants that surround us on a daily basis. The flower bush in this video was just on the roadside. It is not overly unusual, I just picked it to give you an example visual assault of perfection that we are bombarded with on a typical day:
Speaking of natural beauty, as it were, I also discovered that if you think that school clothing regulations in the US educational system are lax, you will have a very different perspective once you see what these kids wear at recess:
