3/6/09
Tubuai didn’t make it into the Lonely Planet guide for
the South Pacific. There’s not much
here and the anchorage is very bouncy in this wind. Yesterday was overcast all day which
didn’t help.
We went ashore
mid morning to see the Gendarme and check in. By the time we found him he was leaving
on an errand and said to come back at 14:00. Which
we did and only waited a few minutes for him to return from his French lunch. He
and his colleague managed to make the process take a full hour but it was all
good humoured. We asked about
restaurants and they told us of two.
We went to check the first one out in a motel about 25 minute walk from
the half a dozen buildings which constitute Centre Ville. It was closed as it
was mid afternoon but looked promising.
When you check in here they
take a copy of the document, fold it in thirds, staple it and give it to
you to go to the Post Office and buy a stamp. By the time we found La Poste it
was closed. There is a bank with a
cash machine which ate Steve’s card.
Fortunately the bank was open and he was able to retrieve it.
Absolutely every single islander waves at
you when they pass by car or by any
form of transport. They are all
smiling. I don’t know what the
secret is, but they all appear to be happy. Last night we duly walked to the
restaurant only to find it closed. On the way back we heard drumming from the
sports centre and watched the local community rehearsing a very elaborately
choreographed traditional dance routine. All generations were there. About 25 men and 25 women were dancing,
often in turns, supported by a chorus of 30-40 and a host of drummers. They were
preparing for the inter island contest which is held in
Papeete in July. It was compelling viewing and
we stayed for half an hour.
We then walked another half and hour or so in the other
direction in search of the other restaurant which we eventually found in the
middle of nowhere. She had just
closed but said if we wanted Poisson Cru and Chow Mien, she would oblige. We didn’t argue. Walking back, we were passed by three
cars and I tried to hitch a ride.
They may have waved and smiled by day, but wouldn’t stop by
night.
Yesterday I bought a kilo of grapes. For the equivalent of £8.81. We’re definitely back in
French Polynesia.
According to an out of date pilot book, there are 1600
locals on this 3 miles wide and 5
miles long volcanic island. It is a very fertile, with coffee, copra, banana and
oranges grown here. We saw lots of
copra being stacked up on the wharf, but none of the other fruit.
This morning Thiery, a local we met on the road yesterday
came to the boat with a little video camera to do an interview for the local TV
station. He is very ecologically
minded and asked a few questions about the planet. He tells us there are 2000 people here
spread between five “cities.” Among other things, they mine aggregate
and ship it to Papeete. The locals
can only buy it from Papeete and
ship it back, which is a source of discontent. Mark ups here tend to be 500%. He came
below decks to inspect the boat and then had to leave almost immediately as he
was getting rapidly seasick in the rolling. He is from Raviavae and his mother is
going to try to find someone to show us around when we get there.
We went ashore to post the customs form and then
walked to a fruit and veg store we
had seen last night which is a couple of kilometres down the road. It turned out to have less than we
expected. This time £8.80 bought a
dozen small bananas 3 bits of some sort of bread which
was a bit heavy and sort of cake like, a few peppers and a few tomatoes. Saint
Johns Wood doesn’t seem so expensive now.
We will up anchor about 17:00 and head off the 111 miles toward
Raivavae.
