Next stop was the Marquesas. The Marquesas are volcano-born islands far to the northeast of the Tahitian Islands. The ship sailed for an entire day to reach them. They are divided into northern and southern island groups. The northern islands tend to be arid, at least on one side, while the southern islands are much greener and, in some cases, rain forest-like. You will see horses on all of the islands, brought by settlers and explorers, some are wild, but most are claimed by locals and used to assist with agriculture. Yet, they seem to roam freely. There are also wild pigs and goats brought in by the outside world.
First stop was Ua Huka for the Marquesas Islands Festival of Arts or Matavaa Henua Enana.
Every two years all of the islands get together to celebrate Marquesan culture through dance and song, crafts, and tattooing. People travel from all over French Polynesia to attend so our ability to be there was a treat. We arrived during the day, and the drought conditions were obvious. The hills were parched dirt. The sun was blasting us as we tried to sit and watch some young dancers (just learning) perform. It was so hot that they were spraying the dancers’ bare feet with water to keep them cool. There were hundreds of people, and the heat became so intolerable that we fled for cover under an open-air building.
The dancing and singing are fine but let’s be honest, the drumming is what makes it all worthwhile. Look at those drums! Watch:
At the end of the performance, we were treated to a lunch of pork and fixings, the pig having been brought out of the underground oven. There is its head!
The other items on the buffet were raw fish salads (raw fish salads consisting of fish, and vegetables in a mayo dressing, were always available on every buffet), breadfruit, and bananas. Good stuff!
On to Nuka Hiva, the largest island in the Marquesas.
It was this island where Herman Melville jumped ship and fled into the jungle, leading him to write the book, Typee, about his adventure in and around the village of Taipivai. As a Melville fan, I was pumped. we were told that there was also a Survivor season filmed on the island.
Here we got a taste of the incursion of Christianity into the islands, visiting a Catholic cathedral decorated with a distinctive island slant.
Then off to the jungle to learn about the heathen side—dancers performed under a great banyan tree which spread over a site where ritual killings occurred. It was part of a larger 300-year old archeological site, including a place where public festivals occurred with seating for chiefs and important people while the poor folks got the bleachers. Nothing has changed.
That evening we were treated to a Polynesian plancha (a buffet with lots of Polynesian foods, meat of all kinds, potatoes, rice and pasta salads and fruits) and a dance show. Here is a guy giving us a welcoming greeting!
Next we traveled on to the island of Ua Pou.
This is a lovely mountainous island that unfortunately, has been overtaken by invasive acacia trees, which have so taken root and spread so voraciously that they will never be rid of them. (Why can’t people learn!). While some people went hiking, we visited town. Christmas decorations were out and we found these sad trees in front of the town hall.
We shopped a bit at the local craft market and then attended a tasting of local fruits. On all of the islands, wild mango trees abound, the fruit ripe for the taking by anyone who cares to grab a bite. The bananas are sweet vanilla cream. Coconuts, specifically the copra or the dried coconut meat, are a main source of income for many islanders and you can witness them being collected by the locals. The tasting was followed by another dance show. Every island seems to have slightly different dress and slightly different dances.
In the afternoon, we took a driving tour of the island and ended up in Hakatehau, a small town on the coast where we stopped for an afternoon snack. The drivers brought their ukes and serenaded us with fun songs including a lively rendition of “She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain When She Comes” sung in French. They were terrific. You cannot have a sad time listening to ukulele songs. These ukulele sessions, and there was one every night on the ship, were the highlight of the trip.
Another fun adventure occurred when we learned that a Swiss gentleman was making chocolate bars on the island. How he was managing this was not clear but we wanted to buy some so we could have chocolate from the Marquesas. Our driver tracked the chocolate down at friend’s house in town. There we found the friend’s husband waiting with chocolate wrapped in aluminum foil he had pulled out of the freezer. He spoke only French, but we made do. We arrived back to the ship very late, much to the consternation of the guides, but hey, we had our chocolate. It was delicious.
A Yank Among the Kiwis 