Tahuku Bay, Hiva Oa, Marquesas
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 29 Mar 2008 18:02
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09:48.188S 139:01.897W
We continue to enjoy our time here on Hiva
Oa. We went into town today (Friday) and saw that some of the men
really do wear those shirts with the big flowers printed on them and the girls
really do wear flowers entwined in their long hair or tucked behind their
ears. And I always thought that was just movie stuff. The town of
Atuona is small, with a post office (busiest place in town), one
bank, a couple of clothing stores, three little supermarkets - one
with so little merchandise that they spread it evenly across the barren shelves
to make it look like more. It's the first time I've been in a grocery
store where I couldn't find a single thing to buy. We really don't need
any more ketchup, soy sauce or ramen noodles - all of which they seemed to have
a good supply of. The only bread to be had in town are giant French
baguettes, which are sold in every food store. As a result, there are
people constantly walking around the streets with a giant clear plastic bag
filled with 8-10 baguettes. I wanted to join those multitudes today, but
by the time I figured out where to find one of those giant clear plastic bags,
the entire plastic crate of giant bread loaves was empty. Wow. This
is a bread-loving people.
Don completed our taxes during our trip (how's that
for multi-tasking?), so we desperately wanted to file them electronically
before moving on because this is probably the last place we will find
internet access for a while. It turns out that the only place to get
internet access is in the post office. We arrived there this morning only
to find that there was a long line and they were serving #22. We picked up
a ticket (just like being at the deli in Wegmans!) and saw we had #42.
There were only two people on duty. We were in for a long wait. A
girl from Denmark was in line ahead of us and jumped the line to inquire about
internet access. She came back to let us know that only 10 hour internet
cards were available for a mere 10,000 French Polynesian francs ($133).
Wow, and we paid $2 for two hours in the Galapagos. We shared the cost
with the Danish girl and Don went about filing our taxes and doing our banking
while I went shopping for giant bread loaves.
The town is a one-road type town and all the
boaters walking around stuck out like sore thumbs. We are all so
recognizable. Somewhat scruffy, in need of a hair cut, clothes slightly or
mostly crumpled, wearing boat shoes or funny looking sandals with velcro straps,
and hats that look ridiculous unless worn while sailing. All the women
(including myself) have multi-colored hair of two or three different shades
due to lack of access to an expert colorist. The good news is nobody
cares. Including the locals. They are so used to being visited by
'yachties' that nothing seems to surprise them. Not our tortured French or
our bad hair. As I strolled down the main street in search of giant bread,
every non-local I saw was someone that I knew - either from the rally or from a
non-rally boat. What an odd thing. And most of the locals smiled and
nodded their head when I strolled by, regardless of the bad hair and funny
looking shoes.
We had dinner at a very nice pizzeria tonight and
our waiter was something else. He? she? had long wavy hair
done up in a sloppy bun with flowers, shaped eyebrows, make-up, dangling
earrings and a walk that was more of a sashay than anything else. A
Polynesian transvestite. Who would have guessed? But why not?
He/she was a very good waiter/waitress and we really could not complain - he/she
smiled when we tried to speak French and calmly indicated we should just point
to what we wanted on the menu. Just another one of the many scenes we've
experienced so far that cause us to wonder if we fell
through the looking glass at some point when we weren't paying
attention.
Those are at least some of our adventures so
far. Attached are two pictures which do not do the scenery proper
justice. Hopefully we'll get some better shots as we go along. The
first picture is the view from our boat. The volcano mountain gets lost in
the clouds as it is so tall (over 4,000 feet). Too bad because it is
really spectacular. The second picture is the view of the same volcano
mountain as seen from town. Again, the head of the mountain is in the
clouds. It's possible that the clouds never dissipate enough for the full
mountain to be seen...
We plan to leave Hiva Oa tomorrow and head to
neighboring island Tahuata. There we should be able to fulfill Don's #2
priority, which is to find a less crowded bay, set down the anchor, swim and
relax. After that we will continue to make our way around the various
Maquesas islands over the next two weeks or so. Life is tough, isn't
it?
More Marquesas adventures in a few
days.
Anne
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