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.