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| Nuku Hiva |
Voting day was today, Saturday, in French Polynesia along with Friday. It's mainly a contest between the Autonomy and Independence Parties. Currently Fr Pol is an Autonomous Region of France which means France pours in money, but Fr Polynesia has their own president, legislature, local officials. The Party in control elects the president and changes about every 6 months which means a new president every 6 months. Richard, not one to be shy about his opinions, says whenever the Party which wants complete independence has been in control the economy sinks. Furthermore, the constant changing of presidents is bad for the country. He is of the Autonomy Party. He must know everyone on the island and shared his political affiliations with everyone we passed on the road. Regarding religion, the Marquesas are 80% Roman Catholic with the rest Protestant. They are getting more "Jehovas" which he doesn't like, he says, because they come to your house all the time, even on Monday when they should be working. Speaking of work, a person's garden is a reflection of their life - if your garden is a mess so is your life - so people work constantly at keeping their gardens clean and tidy.
The archeological sites are being restored and are currently used this time of year for contests and festivals. The sites were used by priests for ceremonies, human sacrifices and dances. There is an overall resurgence of Polynesian culture including dance, drums, tatoos (some say the most beautiful tatooing in the world is Marquesan) and songs from the ancient culture. Cannibalism has not had a resurgence. Geologically, the islands are similar to Hawaii, with volcanos forming islands as plate tectonics cause creeping of the ocean floor over a hot spot. He says the N Pacific Ocean plate is tilting upwards with a tilting downwards in the S Pacific causing the S Pac islands to be sinking. Because the islands are the remains of volcanic craters, the sides are very steep. This means each island has several very high waterfalls. Historically, before the arrival of Europeans, there was not disease in the Marquesas - infection, but not disease. Gauguin is an example of a European bringing syphilis. He had a preference for 12-13 year old girls. The population of the Marquesas went from a healthy, thriving 100,000 to 8000 after the European's arrival. Presently, the Marquesas gets most of its income from copra harvesting (exported to get coconut oil and subsidized by France) and noni juice.
Richard worked for the Survivor production company when they were at Daniel's Bay in 2002. He thought the production of the series there was good for the people and the economy. On our way home, he gave us pomplemousse, papaya and mangos from his parents' (neat & tidy) garden. Yum.
The locals put on a fundraising dinner and dance show Saturday night. Dinner was so-so and a good example of why many Marquesans are obese - pig fat, meat, meat, meat but no plant foods except mountains of white rice and Coke. The children's dancing and drumming, on the other hand, were superb. Barry took movies for you. 90% of the attendees were Marquesan; most of the rest were cruisers who were seated all together by the hostess. Fun and inspiring to meet each other and hear the stories of our counterparts. Sunday, we went to the Cathedral of the Marquesas in Taiohae Baie. We think the bishop was also a cardinal; at least he wore a red yarmulke-type cap. All the people's part of the service was in Marquesan, the Gospel was in French and Marquesan and the sermon in French. We had a Marquesan language service folder which the very sweet lady behind us translated for us - into French! The Cathedral is famous for its many pieces of wood and stone art, but we thought the little church in Hane had much more beautiful wood carvings. All the service was filled with the most glorious singing on this earth. Compared to Polynesians, most white people can't sing!
Monday morning we were supposed to pick up our dry laundry at 8. We didn't think that trying to ferry dry laundry out to your boat that someone else did for you would cause anything untoward to happen. But you know what happened, don't you. Yes, a couple of hours of downpour! When it finally cleared, we fetched the laundry and bought a new internet card. We spent a few hours trying to read a few emails. (Be SO thankful for your high speed DSL and cable connections.) We visited Sam and Marilyn, talking more boat talk. Monday night, we had an excellent dinner at the best hotel in the Marquesas with Marilyn & Sam and new friends Rick & Connie from San Clemente. We arrived at the hotel at 5 and left at 11! Not our lifestyle at all, even though the friends and food were wonderful.
Catharpin Blue enticed us with their reports of Controller's Bay, where they saw mantas. So Tuesday, we prepared the boat and went to Controller's Bay. The most exciting event of the day was the large pod of tiny Pygmy Killer Whales that we sailed through and photographed. Smaller than any dolphin I've ever seen. In Controller Bay, I (Barry was asleep) saw 3 mantas, one performing right next to our boat. The part of the bay where we anchored is at the mouth of Taipivai Valley - the vai of Taipi (pronounced Tie Pee) which is the "Typee" that Herman Melville wrote when he jumped ship and landed here. Richard told us that Melville was treated well only because he was skinny and the Taipi tribe of cannibals was trying to fatten him up for eating. This morning, Wednesday, we left at 0130 for our long passage to the Tuamotus. At sea: Bulwer's Petrel, Brown Boobies, Frigatebirds, unknown species of petrel or shearwater, Fairy-terns.
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