The day after we arrived the passenger carrying freight
supply ship, the Aranui 3, was due in. Naturally, the local people were
putting on a dance and selling their handicrafts.
At 2.30pm it was time for the festivities. So we,
together with most of the other yachties, dinghied ashore.
The handicrafts were very good, but of course with the
ship in, things were expensive. The wood carving is very good indeed, but with
the restrictions on importing wood into Australia, I can only look.
Also they have a good selection of Tapas (no not the
Spanish snacks). These are pictures painted on bark that has been hammered out
until it looks like papyrus. Fatu Hiva is one of the very few islands that
still do this craft and they are quite expensive.
Now we have been told people will trade here. Great I
thought, that is why I bought so much rum. However, Roger has other ideas. He
nearly fell of his chair when we were discussing battering using Rum and Wine,
with Tom and Selme.
There is no way he is going to barter with his grog. Well
we’ll see about that, as I bought an extra case purely for that purpose. So we
will have to see.
I was looking at the black pearls today. They ranged
between 5000 and 100,000 CPF’s ( $50 and $100) but they didn’t grab me, if you
know what I mean. Although, I wonder how many bottles of rum that would
cost???
Anyway, back to the dancing.
The dancers ranged in both size and age.
I was fascinated by the ladies tattoos. Unlike in western
society, where, in my opinion, tattoos on ladies don’t really work. These were
quite beautiful.
After the dancing had finished Roger & I decided to
go exploring in the dinghy. We headed round the coastline to the next
village.
It was about 30 mins before we turned into the Omoa
bay. The surf was pounding against
the shore and there were a few guys with surf boards waiting to catch a wave.
We headed to the dock where a rather large young man, who
introduced himself as Raanui, which means sky (probably because he could just
about touch it, he was so tall) took our line and tied us up.
On the launching ramp there were lots of people, not just
children, playing in the surf and having a great old time. That seems to be the
way of life here, everyone appears laid back and like to enjoy
themselves.
We took a short walk up into the village, which is bigger
than the other one, having 2 shops and a restaurant. The shop keepers were far
from friendly though.
Having bought a baguette and something for dinner we
headed back to the anchorage in time to catch the sunset. I feel it incumbent
upon me to take up where Sheralee left off, taking the sunset photos.
