Polynesian Paradise

Bamboozle
Jamie and Lucy Telfer
Tue 23 May 2006 19:51
I can't believe it has already been 10 days since we arrived in the Marquesas. The islands have so far been all one could wish for. We spent a week in Fatu Hiva where we caught up on a lot of sleep, swam, walked and generally relaxed after the passage. One evening we were invited to a traditional Marquesan dinner to celebrate the 14th birthday of one of the village girls (at $15 a head I think the yachts sponsored her birthday party!) which centred around a pig,  cooked wrapped in banana leaves in a pit in the ground filled with hot coals. The result was spectacular and delicious. This was accompanied by a wide range of local dishes but the lack of electric lighting meant we had very little idea of what we put on our plates with one yachtsman discovering he was chomping his way though a portion of the banana leaves in which it had all been cooked. The dancing was spectacular, the Polynesian girls certainly know how to wiggle their hips and it is not surprising that Captain Bligh had trouble getting his crew back on board for the trip home to Portsmouth.
 
We moved on to Hiva Oa to check in with customs who made the unusual effort of coming on board to examine us.  Having told them we had no more than normal "ships stores" they randomly opened a few lockers.  I was a little less relaxed when they started lifting the floorboards but they found only our a large supply of bottled water. Fortunately they did not realise that the locker they were kneeling on to do this contained at least 50 litres of wine. Their suspicion should have been raised by the quantity of tonic they discovered next but maybe they just thought we had it as a source of quinine to keep malaria at bay!
 
We tried to get some of our huge pile of laundry done on one of the smaller islands. We had been warned that in some of these communities money still means very little as there are no shops to spend it so bartering goods is still the normal means of trade. Apparently perfume is much sought after so Lucy raided her bathroom cupboard and headed for the village. Sadly it seemed that Lucy's Eau de Toilette (despite being genuine and from Paris) was not up to the high standard required by the washerwoman so we were sent away still clasping our dirty washing and Lucy's Eau de Toilette.
 
We are now making our way slowly up the chain. The population of the islands exceeded 200,000 before the arrival of whalers and the missionaries but soon fell to the less than 20,000  who still survive. This means that many of the bays and smaller islands, many beautiful beyond description, have no resident population at all. Tomorrow we will set of across the 60 miles to Ua Pou whose 4000ft crags we can see from here but tonight we are anchored with another yacht in a bay on the N-E corner of Hiva Oa. This afternoon we landed through the surf (yes, we got very very wet and almost upside down) and walked inshore a little to collect a pile of fresh lemons. There is a hut for drying coconut copra on the beach but it seems the only regular visitors are the occasional local hunter in search of the wild cattle and pigs that roam the island. Apart from the scarcity of people very little has changed since Captain Cook passed this way.