French Polynesia at last

“As a philanthropist in general, and a friend to the Polynesians in particular, I hope that these Eden’s of the South Seas, blessed with fertile soils and peopled with happy natives, many being yet uncontaminated by the contact of civilization, will long in their simplicity, beauty, and purity.” - HERMAN MELVILLE

Melville, of Moby Dick fame, once jumped ship here and spent a few weeks in 1842 writing Typee. Paul Gauguin settled and died here in the Marquesas Islands as did revered Belgian song writer Jacques Brel. They are both buried in the same cemetery on a nearby island. Robert Louis Stevenson loved Nuku Hiva. How come I’ve never heard about this place? This volcanically formed island has about 2600 inhabitants in a total area of 342 sq. km. A tropical paradise to be sure; lush foliage and vegetation, hundreds of thousands of coconut palms, ferns of all shapes and sizes, mango and mimosa trees, banana plants, bougainvillea and frangipane abound, and the whole place runs on “Island Time.” Jimmy Buffet would love this.

The ship offered no tours on Nuku Hiva so we had made arrangements for a 4X4 vehicle excursion with some fellow passengers on line, about a month and a half ago, through the Cruise Critic website. (www.cruisecritic.com has been an indispensible asset for us for the past five years and we highly recommend it to anyone who is planning a cruise, long or short, to any destination, on any cruise line – sign up, it’s free! We were able to correspond on line with a group of about 70 passengers who are on this trip with us and we made arrangements that way for eight other tours/excursions later on in this voyage. A series of three “meet and greet” gatherings and four luncheons were arranged, spaced throughout the entire cruise, for the CC folks to get together).

This was a tender port and we were anchored in a picturesque little harbor on the south side of the island. At the tender landing we were met by the tour operator and piled into a caravan of four wheel drive vehicles, four to six people in each. Ours was a Land Rover that we shared with Barbara and Orlin Stansfield from Tennessee who we had met on the ship last year, and they are also on Cruise Critic.. There is barely more than one main road on this island and it is not completely paved. We all have bruises from these rough roads while climbing up and down over peaks in the terrain, up to a couple of thousand feet, and around many sharp hairpin curves. Every once in a while we’d get to stop at some spectacular scenic vista, a secluded small black sand beach, or an antiquity site. The Polynesian ceremonial sacred sites (called Marae) we saw on Nuku Hiva date back to about the 12th Century and, the remnants of which have been explored, restored, and preserved over the past twenty years or so. We visited two of the main sites and had a hard time fathoming what these sites may have represented and also how they were able to be constructed in the dense jungle-like settings where we found them. The ancients here did practice human sacrifice and other rituals that it would take a college level course to fully comprehend. We are anticipating we will encounter similar cultures on the other islands we will be visiting.

When we arrived at the far side of the island, we stopped for a noon meal at Chez Yvonne’s. Yvonne has the reputation of being the best cook in the entire Marquesas island grouping and she did not disappoint. Including the tour drivers, we were a group of 30 and we were seated at a long community table. You can see from the photos what the spread looked like, a first course of poisson cru (the Polynesian version of ceviche), platters of seafood including beer battered fresh water shrimp, two kinds of fish both grilled and fried (with a great warm lime/tomato dipping sauce), manioc, and breadfruit fritters, and finally, platters of fresh fruit with fresh mango. I was impressed by the poisson cru. I understand that there are many variations of this preparation depending on who the cook is. In Papeete I expect there will be street side vendors selling their own individual versions of this dish. So much sampling, so little time.

Well, we survived the bumping and bruising ride and returned to the tender port after almost seven hours out there in the “wilderness.” There were a couple of brief tropical rainshowers while we were on our jaunt. This is as beautiful and unspoiled a place as you can imagine and the local and French governments recognize the ecological significance of this island. Netting of fish is prohibited and lobster traps are banned as well. The natives (who speak French, a local Polynesian patois, and some English) are only allowed to harvest fish and shellfish by long-lining or diving (and what beautiful fish they are). One last item of interest, there is a high school for the kids and it is in Tahiti, some 800 miles away (that’s like from Tampa to Washington DC).

Great place to visit, I wouldn’t want to, or be able to live here…gas is $7 a gallon, like, where would you drive to in any event? You grow some bananas, breadfruit, and mangoes; you catch some fish; you collect eggs from all the free-range chickens wandering around; that’s all you do - RBM

Oct 7, 2009

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