Nuku Hiva
March 17th, & 18th
Hiva Oa
March 19th & 20th
Photos by Ellen - 5th
time Visitor to Tahiti
Travelogue by Paula - First time Visitor to Tahiti
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The most anticipated portion of our journey was to the outer most archipelago of the Marquesas Islands. Of the eleven islands that make up this group only 6 are inhabited. To get to our first stop, we flew back to Papeete from Fakarava and spent the night in a small downtown water front hotel. This allowed us to walk along the promenade to Vaiete Square to check out the mobile dining scene of the “roulettes”. There are a variety of choices of cuisine, Chinese, BBQ, and French savory and sweet buckwheat crepes. We enjoyed ham and cheese crepes for diner and went all out on the desert crepes of bananas, ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and Grand Marnier liquor. One of the fun benefits of the casual atmosphere of the communal tables is meeting locals and fellow travelers. The large cruise ships dock here and we shared the table with an English couple who were doing an around the world cruise on the Black Watch and were in port for the night.
Early the next morning we departed on a three hour flight for Nuku Hiva the island originally brought to notoriety in Melville’s literary works, Typee and Omoo and more recently as the setting for one of the Survivor television show series. As we approached the island we noticed how the geology differed greatly from the Societies and the Tuamotus. The oldest of all the chains, the coral reefs no longer surround the island and the ocean comes in direct contact with the islands. There are small coves and bays for swimming, but for the most part these are black sand beaches and are bordered by steep cliffs.
The Transfer from the airport near the town of Nuku Ataha to our hotel, in the town of Temehea, took one and one half hours. Mostly on unpaved dirt roads, you would not attempt the trip without a 4 X4. The roads are paved near the villages but for the most part the island roads are rugged. The trip was broken up with several stops to take in the majestic panoramic view of the island’s Grand Canyon, the high plateau farmlands of the Toovi Valley and the sweeping vistas of the coastline.
Ellen and I were checked-in to separate bungalows that sat on a cliffs edge overlooking Taiohae Bay. Each was decorated with Marquesan wood carvings and large panels of hand painted tapa cloth and a sliding glass door lead to a deck with cooling up draft breezes from the bay below. After a simple lunch of baguette sandwiches we met our afternoon guide named Jocylnn. She gave us an overview tour of the sights surrounding the bay, including a stop in a government office to see a photo collection of the local population taken in the early 1900’s. Notable portraits were last cannibal chief, and the catholic bishop who Robert Lewis Stevenson writes about meeting during his visit to the Marquesas. Prior to contact with the west in the 1700’s the islands population was 15,000, by the time Melville arrived in the mid 1800’s it had declined to 1,500 to 2,000. Diseases brought by the sailors and the systematic dismantling of religious beliefs and the cultural fiber by the Christian missionaries doomed the inhabitants to an unprecedented loss of life and ancient knowledge. The Spanish influenza was the greatest killer. Paul Atallah. our guide in Huahine, likened the impact to the Polynesians culture to what our loss in technological understanding of our society would be if a disease were to wipe out everyone over the age of six. What does survive are the ancient arts of tattoo and wood carving and the tattoo arts have only recently made a come back. These are intricate abstract designs rich in symbolic significance, all of one deep blue black color. The tattoo tells the story of one’s life and traditionally after a male reached puberty he would receive his first tattoo. By the end of his life his entire body would be covered from head to foot. The women also had their hands tattooed to create a barrier between themselves and the flesh of their children who were considered sacred if they were born during certain phases of the moon. Perhaps one of the most compelling reasons to visit Nuka Hiva, apart from its incredible beauty, isolation and mysterious archeological sites is to meet the wood carving artisan in their home studios and see their work. Ellen fell in love with the work of Edgard Tamarii and brought home one of his tiki statues carved from Tao wood (false banyan tree) and who has elaborate tattoos covering his wooden body from head to foot.
The tour also included stops at the sacred ceremonial site and the nearby Catholic Cathedral which features the carvings of several artists. Stones from all of the Marquesan islands were brought in for the most recent construction. The ruins of earlier structure remain on the grounds. What we began to realize from our transfer and the introductory tour is that Nuka Hiva is a place to have an authentic experience of what has survived of the Polynesian culture and unspoiled natural beauty. You still see some of the locals traveling by horseback on the horses that were originally brought to the islands from Chile. We were anxious to go further into the island, to discover the hidden archeological treasures and hear the stories of our Marquesan guide who we would meet the next morning.
Highlight of the day: Meeting Victoria Moessner a professor of German at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. She had translated a personal diary kept by Hermann Ludwig von Löwenstern (1771-1836), the fourth officer on the lead ship Nadezda under Captain Adam Johann von Krusenstern. The uncensored diary records the first Russian expedition around the world from 1803 to 1806. One of its ports of call was Nuka Hiva. A highly censored version was published for the Russians in 1813 and Victoria shared some of the 19th century scandal she uncovered in her translations. She was in Nuka Hiva to meet with the current Catholic bishop to see some very early lithographs made by the artist that accompanied the expedition, depicting the full body tattoos of the islands inhabitants. We are adding her translation, The First Russian Voyage around the World, to our reading list!
