My isle of dreams... (Last day in Marquesas, Taiohae on Nuku Hiva and Hakahau on Ua Pou)

Today is Tuesday October 1st and its our last day in the Marquesas and its kind of a business day for Aranui.  (And for us as this is our first wifi in a while!)  The boat has been docked overnight in Taiohae Bay, on Nuku Hiva, and today it seems like every container is coming off the boat to be repacked more tightly before the big journey home.  A journey which will be sad or at least anticlimactic for us passengers but probably a welcome trip home for a week for the staff.

Such as Moana.... Who is from Ua Pou where we will stop again in an hour for an hour, but who lives in Tahiti. Here is Moana with one of his many necklaces... All with teeth of animals he hunted, up in the hills of the islands

We feel so fond of the staff.  Last night, "polynesian night," was a chance for a big party and Pa'ina and a chance for us all to acknowledge the crew.  What a feast.... Poisson cru and sashimi and nearly every imaginable fish and seafood, New Zealand green lipped mussels, an entire roast suckling pig, delicious fresh greens, of course lots of the house white and red, and then the pastry chefs spread a table with about eight or ten different delectable French pastries and tarts.  Then, some of the passengers coached by Mana Ari'i, who really is a very good Tahitian dancer and coach, did some Tahitian and then many of the crew danced and we passengers were also asked to contribute a performance.  Craig and I did Kimo Hula and as a surprise for us, the staff had brought on board long long tuberose leis for us.  (Apparently we did it very well which was so nice as we wanted to show the beauty of Hawaii as part of the polynesian night).  The whole evening  was an awful lot of fun, very far from cheesy. A nice surprise was three of the women crew did a nice adaptation of Kumu Blaine Kia's "Kamali'i o Ka po". And one of the women was our favorite re-re, Tahitian transvestite, and she really danced so beautifully.  I have no idea how Tahitians manage to do the whole male to female transformation so sweetly and beautifully.  This morning early, Craig and I walked into the village of Taiohae, and bought a crusty fresh baguette sandwich from another re-re, and same experience of lovely tender smile and femininity.  

Right now we are sitting in the shade of the back deck with a pleasant offshore breeze looking at the exquisite Taiohae Bay 

Comme ça 

Now... to us this is practically metropolitan, because yesterday we were still in the Marquesan backwaters.  all of Monday we spent on Ua Huka, an island, which, like Fatu Hiva, is a bit out of the way and less populated. It's very lovely. It's drier and less forested but it has beautiful birds and wild horses.   Gorgeous red rock canyons. And incredible carvings and Tahitian ukuleles also.  We met the local Uke maker... And bought one. 

The most beautiful moment yesterday was hiking high up a steep mountainside to a very overgrown sacred me'ae ... Craig has written about this....

Our Aranui house band like Hawaiian ukes which they refer to as 'kamakas' althought very few of them are kamakas-- and they have been very impressed with my travel Uke, a red Kamoa that I got in San Rafael for maybe $180.  Apparently due to import taxes and transportation charges this is way way cheaper than any ukes they can buy here. We would really like to help them upgrade their ukes so we mentioned that we  would be willing to part with our travel ukes at our replacement cost and we are seeing a lot of interest in this! 

It's amazing looking at this harbor with so many boats and especially this  great big luxurious yacht in front of us... This is hardly the big city but compared to the tiny hamlets we've been walking in for the past few says, it really is.  We have been in such a time warp in the outer Marquesan islands.  So many dreams come true ....