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Date: 16 May 2008 23:19:54
Title: Fare, Huahine, Society Islands
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16:42.745S  151:02.404W
 
On Friday (5/9) we motored (no wind) the short trip through the Huahine (HOO-HA-Hiney) eastern reef pass around the northern tip of the island and back through the northwestern reef pass to an anchorage just outside the town of Fare.  Here, as mentioned before, we joined eighteen of our closest boating friends and set down anchor (picture 1 - the crowd).  That afternoon Don and I lolled about on the boat while our ambitious crew took the dinghy into town for a quick tour.  That night the four of us joined the crew of Andante again for a dinner out in the one restaurant that exists in the town of Fare.  The open air restaurant situated on the water front was complete with table tops made of great tree trunk slabs and branches for legs - all varnished quite nicely for an elegant ambiance.  A good time was had by all and some of us sampled the local specialty - fish with a vanilla coconut sauce.  Brilliant!  Bob, the captain of Andante, picked up the tab for us as a thank you for Don and Bill's help in fixing Andante's water pump impeller.  Again, brilliant!
 
The next day was a true island adventure.  Bill dinghied into town bright and early (9am) to secure us a rental car such that we could complete an island circumnavigation - on land - something new for us.  We volunteered Bill for the driving since Don and I haven't driven since October (not to mention the fact that we no longer have car insurance since we sold our cars).  Around ten-thirty we all piled into what we fondly referred to as our roller-skate - a Fiat Panda (picture 2).  Once in, we wondered how many Americans could be crammed into such a car and thought it might make a nice competition some day - kind of like the telephone booth cram sessions of old.  Besides, who in their right mind would name a car model a Panda?  A more unmanly name I can't think of.  We paid extra for the air conditioning though and enjoyed it mightily throughout the day - pure luxury.
 
Our first stop was another marae archeological site - larger than we had seen before, but similar in construction.  Lots of stone paved platforms and human sacrifices left to our imagination.  Once again we escaped without ghost harassment and moved on to the next sight - ancient stone fish traps.  These were constructed in a salt water stream that connected an inland lagoon with the outer lagoon.  They looked like stone mazes rising from the stream bed to the water surface.  Many of the walls had collapsed and it didn't appear as if they were effective as a trap anymore as many of the fish we saw were easily swimming in and out of the stone wall maze.  When we listened hard, we could swear we heard them yelling, 'Na, na, na, naaaa, na!' at us.  Nasty fish.
 
Next, things really got interesting when we pulled into the parking lot for Huahine (HOO-HA-Hiney) Pearl Farm and Pottery.  The Andante crew was leaving just as we arrived and said it was, 'Lovely!' and you guessed it, 'Brilliant!'.  We hopped in the boat taxi and headed out to the farm.  Picture 3 is the pearl farm as we headed toward it.  Picture 4 was taken from the front of the taxi by Bill, looking back at Don and I, with our boat taxi driver in the background - obviously enjoying the photo session.  This was a bit of a higher class establishment than the pearl farm we visited in the Tuamotus, but the operation was basically the same.  Upon arrival, we were greeted with a hearty French welcome and each given a Tiare to put behind our ear (the national flower of French Polynesia).  Next, we received a speech on the cultured black pearl production process, which Kathie interrupted several times to ask various burning questions.  At each interruption, our host Frank took a deep breath, looked kindly at Kathie and said quietly, 'I'm just there', then proceeded to finish his spiel and in the process answered Kathie's questions just as he quietly indicated he would.  Our host's patience!  Highly commendable.  We of course bought some things, the most notable being the gorgeous black pearl earrings Bill bought Kathie for Mother's Day.  In return, Kathie offered Bill a guaranteed full day of 'You can do no wrong'.  Not a bad deal all in all.
 
Leaving the pearl farm behind, we moved on to the fresh water blue-eyed eel viewing spot.  We never found it, but are pretty sure we came close to it at one point when we passed through a small village and saw a bunch of kids gathered around the edge of a small stream.  We later learned from the crew of Andante that we didn't miss all that much unless we really had a thing for blue-eyed eels.  Or green-eyed eels as there were some of those too.  None of us are too fond of eels in general, so we didn't feel cheated having not seen them.
 
We then wound our way over the twisted, narrow, but nicely paved road that circles the island, our roller-skate occasionally struggling with the inclines.  All worth it as the views were excellent.  The most important stop was yet to come though...that being lunch.  A beachfront hotel/restaurant had been highly recommended by several sources, so we headed for it on the southern coast of Huahine (HOO-HA-Hiney).  We arrived, only to find Andante's roller-skate in the small parking area - it's hard not to bump into fellow boaters when traveling around an island the size of greater East Aurora, NY.  We were ushered in to a table made from a giant tree trunk slab with branches for legs.  Sound familiar?  Still extremely quaint though.  A thatched roof, woven palm frond ceiling, banana stalks hanging from the ceiling, a bunch of giant grapefruits piled up in a gigantic clam shell the size of a kitchen sink and open air with a fabulous view of the multi-blue colored lagoon.  Pictures 5 and 6 are views of the hotel and restaurant grounds.  Note the thatched roof with oyster shells hanging from it as well as those stuck to the outside walls and foundation stilts of the building.  Kathie couldn't let a lunch in a tropical South Pacific restaurant go by without ordering a pina colada, so that's exactly what she received.  One just about as big as her head (picture 7).  And quite excellent - flavored with the locally grown coconut and vanilla.  Our waitress was very cute, and for those of you that have been pining for more pictures of Polynesian women - this is for you (picture 8).
 
Last, but certainly not least, we stopped at what was billed as a vanilla plantation.  We had a little difficulty finding it - none of these islands are big on the idea of signs.  We did find it though and pulled into a narrow grass strip that lead up to a small area where we parked next to what appeared to be the owner's BMW.  Hmmmm, the vanilla business must be good.  There we met Frank and his wife?  boss? wife and boss?  Frank and his wife/boss didn't speak much English, but Frank was somehow delegated to take us on a tour.  He started up the slope of the plantation going at a massive pace, yelling back at us in French, 'Keep up! Keep up!'.  We quickened our pace.  Sweating.  He stopped at each type of tree, ceremoniously handed the stained and rumpled vanilla farm plantation brochure he was carrying to Kathie and explained in English as best he could gesticulating wildly, 'This no fruit!  No vegetable!  No eat!  This medicine!'  In this case referring to the noni trees (the fruit is picked, pressed, dried and shipped to a company in the US for processing into a dietary supplement sold in health food stores...we know this only because we've read about it in our guide books).  Next, 'This paupau!  Ok for eat!' - a papaya tree.  A long handled implement appeared from nowhere and in one quick motion, Frank clipped two papayas out of the tree, caught them gracefully in one hand (one at a time) and gave one to Kathie and one to me.  Then, 'Pomelmouse! (sp)'.  Grapefruit.  Again, one for Kathie and one for me.  'Citron!'  Lime.  One for Kathie and one for me.  Then, 'Hot, hot!!'  Chile peppers.  None for Kathie and none for me.  At this point we had climbed a fair distance and Frank must have decided we had seen the best of the various trees.  Back we went, Frank quizzing us as we went.  'What this?'  'Mango!', we yelled in unison.  Great rolling of the eyes, 'No! Paupau!', said Frank.  A series of three of four more trees, each time we guessed wrong.  Very poor students.  However, we did chant 'Hot! Hot!' at the correct time while passing the chili pepper bushes.
 
Finally, we got to the purpose of our visit, vanilla.  Frank opened a door into a screened enclosure filled with row upon row of vanilla bean plants.  He led us to one, stopped, ceremoniously handed the stained and rumpled vanilla farm plantation brochure over to Kathie and concentrating hard, explained as he pointed to a vanilla bean blossom, 'No papa!  No mama!  No baby!'.  We looked at each other.  'No papa?  No mama?  No baby?'.  We shrugged our shoulders and looked blankly at Frank.  He tried again.  More emphatically he said, 'No papa!  No mama!  No baby!'  Not waiting for a response, he repeated louder, 'No papa! No mama! No baby!'.  Not wanting to disappoint, we repeated back, 'No papa! No mama! No baby!'.  Frank smiled.  Encouraged, we repeated again, more enthusiastically this time, 'No papa! No mama! No baby!'  Frank beamed and laughed.  Ok, so at least he was feeling good about the conversation.  Later, we read in one of our guidebooks, 'Polynesian vanilla grows on a vine, its flowers must be fecundated (in Polynesia, following the 'marriage' method of artificial fecundation) to produce a fruit, the vanilla bean.'  Aha!  So some kind of artificial pollination takes place, hence, 'No papa!  No mama! No baby!'.  We get it.  Frank picked one vanilla bean for Kathie, and one for me.  'No papa! No mama! No baby!' was repeated several more times just to be sure we got it.  Bill caught Frank's vanilla bean lesson in movie mode on his camera, so if anyone doubts this story, proof exists.  Picture 9 shows a smiling Frank with Bill, Don and myself.
 
The tour finished, the real business began.  Out came a dilapidated brief case.  Frank, after ceremoniously handing the smudged and rumpled vanilla plantation brochure over to Kathie, opened the briefcase with a flourish, revealing several clear plastic bags of dried vanilla beans - about six per bag.  He took some out, rubbing them on both Kathie and my hands.  'Smell good?'  Next he rubbed some on my face.  Hmmm.. not sure why.  We asked how much, he said 1,000 French Polynesian francs (about $13).  After some deliberation between Kathie and I (it went something like this, 'What do you do with vanilla beans?  I don't know.  We should get some, just to have them.  So we can remember Frank.  Will we have trouble bringing them back into the US?  Maybe we should only get one pack and split it.').  I turned to Frank and delivered the news, 'We would like just one pack.'  I received the death stare from the previously jovial Frank.  Only hesitating a few seconds and after a quick glance at Kathie for confirmation, I quickly said, 'Ok, we'll take two.'  A slightly less hurt look from Frank and we paid our 2,000 francs and hopped back in our roller-skate for the trip back to Fare.
 
And that's the tale of our trip around the island of Huahine (HOO-HA-Hiney).
 
Does anyone know what to do with vanilla beans?  We're not just talking about the beans themselves, we are talking about the whole, five inch long pod.  The fragrance is lovely, but how and to what kind of food do you transfer this lovely essence?
 
Remember - No papa.  No mama.  No baby.
Anne
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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