Fatu Hiva saw the fewest European visitors all along, and people here speak a soft Marquesan dialect, live in widely dispersed houses surrounded by grassy open space. Marquesan arts like tapa making and dancing and wood carving were preserved here and from here re-taught to others. The music is softer and slower than Tahitian.
It's so fun to be around as the Aranui unloads, it's done so skillfully like a ballet, many of these towns are getting not only groceries and the occasional SUV but also building supplies, the flat barge is lifted off the ship by the cranes and then the sailors help the crane place heavy bags of crushed rock and cement on and the barge barely makes a ripple even though with the wrong move, it'd go down. One barge we saw was so heavy under its weight it barely cleared the water. This ballet is done against a backdrop of exquisite tall volcanic cliffs with spires, with a dark waterline that has caves and secret beaches with waterfalls. It's really very magical. The towns are magical too. Most folks and kids get around by bicycle, or horse, the kids and women are wearing beautiful flowers in their hair on Aranui day, the men also all wear a blossom on their ear. To encourage us visitors to see the tapa and wood carvings and seed leis and fragrant oils, there is a local band playing guitar Uke and drums. I heard them playing Marquesan words to 'Ua Noho Au A Kupa', a Hawaiian melody I know pretty well,wish I knew the Marquesan.
The language is awesome they drop almost every consonant compared to Hawaiian so it sort of burbles along. The marquesan for aloha is kaoha but here in fatu Hiva the h is dropped too. There isn't a harsh sound anywhere the mouth moves like butter around that word the way I heard it said. One of my favorite moments was being down on the sea wall sitting on large black polished stones under a tree next to a big pasture like soccer field with of course the usual grazing horse, watching a nice grandma hold her toddler grandson helping him throw pebbles in the ocean while he oooohd and aaaahhhd at the barges and boats moving back and forth from Aranui. Since the Aranui is the only boat that regularly makes it here, in between things are probably pretty sleepy! Today some forklifts and some trucks deliver shrink wrapped boxes of this and that to the two small stores in town, but it's hard to imagine much need for motorized vehicles on other days.
Another aspect of traditional culture that's preserved is pig hunting! Down in Hanavave, we saw several men with each about nine leashed young doggies walking through town down to the breakwater. There they put the dogs into dinghys! The dogs are totally happy about this, that's because they are going around to the back of the island, where goat and pig hunting is the best. Imagine the happiness of your dog when you'd say WALK. Now triple that. The dogs were so hāpou,,,,
So--- where's the torture.
Ok I'm interrupting this blog to show our current situation at dawn watching this sunrise
Anyway. Yesterday (sept 27th) was the day about thirty of us did the ten mile hike, up from Omoo up the ridges to the top of the hillside and down to Hanaveve. This is one of those up up up then downdowndown hikes. But it was so worth it. The high mountains were gorgeous, there was Lehua up there and the deep valley we came to, with towering basalt columns and waterfalls and a lovely river that clearly folks still bathe in all the time, was amazing, like a Hollywood set actually. UN-be-live able.
Here is where we will be today¯: The back side of Hiva Oa
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