More about Nuku Hiva
Ripple2
Thu 13 Jul 2006 22:55
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Well you've seen the pictures so here's the
story.
Nuku Hiva was a lovely spot to catch our breath and
get 'civilised' for a few days. A large anchorage and not many boats, so we had
plenty of swinging room. A bit rolly, but it didn't matter too much as we were
off the boat most of the time. On shore we found all manner of treats
like:internet, laundry service, post office, bank and best of all BAGUETTES!
Next best thing: RESTAURANTS. We had a lovely lunch overlooking the harbour from
the balcony of the big resort (Pearl Lodge). We shared a beautiful caesar salad
- we hadn't seen fresh tomatoes for 2 weeks, and lettuce for even longer -
and wonderful main dishes of lamb and chicken all beautifully presented and
delicious. We also managed to eat out every other night we were in
town and had Pizza, steak, and duck and loads of lovely fresh baguettes to
soak up all the tasty sauces. It was a bit of a splurge, but worth every
centime.
We went on a day tour one day with a guide who
drove us over to the other side of the island via several valleys, one of which
is Taipi valley where Herman Melville set his book "Typee". Darren has just
finished the book and gave a description of it to the others in the group (5
other yachties). The book is based on fact - Melville jumped off a ship here and
lived with one of the Native tribes (who were all cannibals) for 6 weeks in
the 1840's. It gives a very comprehensive description of the idyllic
lifestyle of the Marquesans before the missionaries arrived and made them put
clothes on and go to church and give up their carefree ways. There are a few
archaeological sites of old villages and we visited a couple of these. The
houses were built on stone foundations made from smooth round rocks piled on top
of each other and holding together with no mortar, some of the rocks, especially
on the sacred altars are huge, you wonder how they moved them. Each village
was set around a huge banyan tree and they used to throw the left over body
parts into the tree roots when the ceremonies were over - apparently they only
ate people as a ceremonial or sacrificial rite, not every day, and only the
chief and priests actually did the eating, usually an enemy who had been
captured in a battle. The original Marquesans were heavily tattooed and we
saw lots of indentations in the rocks which would have held the ink/dyes they
used. Tattooes were outlawed by the missionaries but are coming back into
fashion again and a lot of the men and some of the women have quite interesting
stylized tattoos. One guy we saw had them all over his lower face and a lot of
the women had them on their backs and behind their ears, lots of swirls and
geometric designs a lot like Maoris have. Anyway it was very ineresting and a
little bit spooky to wander around these ancient ruins imagining what it would
have been like back in the day..In 1986 some of the old people decided to try
and revive some of the old culture by holding a Festival which is now a yearly
event, and they have started carving tikis again out of wood and stone ( these
are large or small statues of chiefs/gods - all the originals on this island
were destroyed by the missionaries) and they do traditional dancing and drumming
etc which would be great to see. The Festival is held in December so we'll just
have to fly back.
Anyway we had a nice stay there, we spent a
few days in a quiet bay not far from the main port but so isolated by
mountains it was almost too quiet. We are now on our way to the Tuamotus,
another group of islands 500 miles to our south-west, so we are in the big blue
bowl again. The last 2 days it has been a rough ride but today it has calmed
down nicely and we are enjoying a lovely peaceful sail for once. A 4 foot dorado
escaped our clutches this morning but we have the hook out again so here's
hoping for some fish and chips.
I hope this blog explains some of the pictures
I sent last week. I had written a text+pictures blog in Outlook
Express but we couldn't get the computer at the internet cafe to send it -
world of pain when it comes to trying to do anything 'fancy' with our photos -
so for now it's just words or pictures not both (at least no captions), so
bear with us.
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