Hiva Ho

Spouting rocks, drunken artists, pedophiles, and some new friends, ancient Gods and CANNIBALS

After a few very peaceful days in Fatu Hiva we had to drag ourselves away to Hiva Ho and make our presence in French Polynesia legal, by checking in.

It is only a days fast sail north, never the less we left a little late ran out of wind and arrived upon the shores of Hiva Ho in the pitch dark. Something I hate doing from sailing in the West Indies where there is nar' a light house from Cuba to Venezuela, not so here in 'France' we were greeted by working light houses... so nice..

FARRFLY met many of her new friends in the crowded official harbour  for the nearby village of
Atuona... Gradiva, Kite, Ri Ri, Remedy, all crossed at the same time as we did.

Paul Gauguin; artist, womaniser, pedophile, boozer and general chancer.

Gauguin lived, worked, pillaged and died here in Hiva Ho. There is a very nice small museum here showing his life history and on display are printed copies of much of his work. The gallery is a credit to the people of the small village. History records that he 'purchased or borrowed' a 13 year old girl from her parents in return for a sewing machine...

Grave of Paul Gaugin

One of Gaugins better works. Personally I don't
think he was much of an artist. It is his subjects who were and are interesting.
Gauguin was the first artist out here. Today it would be like sending a mad drunkard  to
paint Martians. Everyone would want one. ( A painting, not a Martian.)

                                        

                                         Birthday Boy

The birthday boy.. It was Tonys birthday so we spoiled him.... in the local Chinese.
The only restaurant in town..

      Baie Hanaiapa;

Then we were off again, This time to Hanaiapa, a large bay on the north of Hiva Ho. And yet another spectacular place.. only one other yacht and it left.. At its entrance is the 'Roche Fatutue' which has many faces, as you can clearly see from this single photo,,,

arty farty foto

                              The spouting rock of Hanaiapa

We stayed in this idillic bay for a few days, as we had it all to ourselves. The village was yet another perfect Marquises village. No litter, no crime, fruit everywhere. A basketball court and a football pitch, a stream, a tiny church and one shop.. naturally with no sign on the door, the Marquisens don't 'do' signage. 










Ancient statues, new treasures, pine trees, and foreboding places.

Pine trees in the tropics? The mountains are so high it is cool enough.
Settlers imported pine trees which have thrived at the top of the mountains
in the moist cool air.

Ancient Tikis of The Marquises islands;
There are a number of fascinating old religious sites on some of the islands. These priceless statue Tikis are simply sitting in fields, un-guarded. It is a small miracle they have not been stolen. One must suspect that the originals have been carted into hiding and replaced with copies...but no, they are all original.. I was even tempted my self!! Nothing better on the mantlepiece than the average dime a dozen 1500 year old Polynesian Tiki God...
Now I have to say they are located in some pretty extreme places, but we found them... 

Ancient stone Tiki God

Smiling Tiki

Spooky sacrificial site, completely intact, you can still smell the virgins blood.

 In the photo below, this bay looks OK, however as night fell, the wind started to howl on to the shore.. where there is the ancient spooky burial ground (above) where cannibalistic/sacrificial  rituals took place... no doubt the phallic symbol has not been lost on you either.. The Polynesians were cannibals up to 100 years ago and were way ahead of 'Eyes Wide Shut' when it came to pleasing the Gods...
So we legged it... sailed off into the darkness... glad to get out of there..
The locals say the Tikis are cursed and anyone taking or even moving them is doomed... glad we didn't give into our temptation.
The place was scary enough and we only took...................................
photos.

So where did we go... The forgotten island of Ua Huka of course, where else would you go in a gale in the middle of the night after getting a dose of the hee-gee-bees.?
Well there is a reason for everything.. We heard a story there was a stonemason there, one of the last who can carve Tikis out of stone... 
Well we got there, got drenched trying to land the dingy on a rocky shore in 35 knots of wind, found the stonemason and the nice local craft shed, which half the village opened for us.. all 10 of them... but alas, no stone Tikis.. they had been sent to Tahiti to sell. However they had a treasure trove of beautiful hand made and carved local spears, a canoe paddle with a bone stem, a drum, a wood carved Tiki that weighed a ton... After not much wheeling and dealing.. Polynesians don't negotiate.. we headed back to the ship with our new treasures.. Got soaked again!
And so we set off on 'The Trail of the Stone Tikis' sent to Tahiti... more of that later....

Some little treasures.. but no stone Tiki

The stonemason/wood carver big guy in the middle.

So with our lucky wooden Tiki on board, without further adoo, we set off again, flying visits to these islands... next stop Ua Pou... where ever that Gotham City is..


So that brings us to the end of this little tale as we anchored for the night in the lee of a stormy Ua Pou and decided not to go ashore but rather press on for the Tuamotus. It seems that farrflys erratic owner had suddenly developed a sense of urgency....  So off into the howling gale went  the gallant crew and their little ship ... bound for the Atol Makemo.. She lay 450 miles to the south west, in 30-40 knots of wind... well alas.... they never made it...

The perfect village continued, Fatu Hiva and beyond.

The sweet little church, open to all.

Fruit trees everywhere.

A brook running thru the village.

The perfect little houses are 'woven'.

I don't remember school like this? All the children seem so
relaxed, friendly and happy. There is no crime on the island.

Back to our arrival into this wonderland..

We broke out the R.I.Y.C White Ensign as we arrived.. 

The R.I.Y.C White Ensign is a rather special 'flag' however they fall apart if left flying.
So now we only hoist our new one for special occasions.

The stunning north shore of Fatu Hiva.

After 15 days hard going at sea, it did not take Katja long to
fall asleep on the fore deck under the full moon.

"ALL ASHORE, GOING ASHORE"

On our first morning, the 16th we decided a good hike was in order having spent 15 days on the boat.. so we headed out into the rain forest in search of a large waterfall rumored to be somewhere near the village. Following a mishap or two, including a small run in with the local ‘Municipal Policman’ who at first insisted if we had not ‘checked in’ in Hiva Ho we must not come ashore..  a little Blarney and a phone call by our new friends on Gradiva cleared it up and off we went.. The pictures tell the story.. 

I will say however that the hike and the waterfall were very similar to the landscape in Grenada. I almost felt at home. Much of the terrain, the trees etc were similar if not exactly the same.. however the waterfall was a surprise.. the pool was ice cold, and it contained a very strange creature. Not a fish, not a small alligator, not an eel.. it was about 2 feet long, it had 4 legs, the jaw of a baby alligator, and was long and swam like an eel.... I decided to go for a swim, but armed my self with a stout stick in case the 'not so little' fellow was territorial!

Secret waterfall Fatu Hiva.

Potentially nasty unknown fellow swimmer!

Never go swimming un-armed.

No idea where my 4 legged friend has gone.. note 'home alone'..
where are the rest of the cowardly crew? 

Well they eventually got in after the 'test dummy' survived.

Back to the perfect village;

This ancient Tiki guards the little Harbour. (The ancient one on the right that is.)

LAND AHOY

Land fall.... Bay of Virgins, Penis Bay,

 Babylon, The Garden of Eden.

S/Y FARRFLY, Log extract 15 May 2011.

After only 15 days we sighted land.. the east coast of Fatu Hiva.

Might have arrived a little sooner if they had used the GPS!
 

I have been lucky to have visited some really beautiful tropical locations such as the Tobago Keys, Los Roques, Isle St Barths, almost all of the West Indies and of course Grenada where we live.  Grenada is outstanding with its turquoise waters, high mountain peaks, long sandy unspoiled beaches, tropical rain forest and waterfalls. 

Despite all this I must say that Fatu Hiva is a very special place.

Where, you might well ask, is Fatu Hiva?  It is the most southerly of all the islands of the Marquesas. Fatu Hiva was not our intended  landfall after we crossed the Pacific. Yachts are not allowed  to ‘arrive’ in Fatu Hiva as it has no Gendarmerie and a yacht cannot ‘check in’ there (customs immigration etc.) But to arrive in Hiva Ho where you can ‘check in’ meant back tracking south to get to Fatu Hiva which seemed a bit silly.  I decided to risk it and arrive there.  Every now and again the French navy boys invade the anchorage and fine everyone 200 euro if you have not checked in. A few days after we left the navy raided the anchorage and collected a couple of thousand euro! 

First sighting of Fatu Hiva. Giant Eagles feet?

Some will recall that the only boat we saw on the Panama to Galapagos leg was the 53 foot Chuck Paine design ‘NuMornings’ owned by Ross and Fay. Strange as it may seem, having crossed the Pacific without seeing a single boat, as we came around the head land on the north coast of Fatu Hiva the very first boat we saw was none other than NuMornings...  

Nu Mornings;  Fatu Hiva 15/5/2011

Penis bay with Nu Mornings in the foreground.

Penis bay or the Bay of Virgins is regarded by the French tourist board as the most beautiful bay in the whole of France...

On the night of 15th May our first night,  there was a  stunning full
moon which shed a eerie light over the phallus and faces of Virgin Bay.

Penis bay is not just famous for its phallic peaks, but also the faces etched into the rocks over millions of years. A favourite game on board is to spot a new face in the cliff walls... 

Fatu hiva is enchanting.... From a distance the landscape looks like giant eagles feet.

On the east coast we did not see a single dwelling, although the land looks rich and green, if very mountainous. There are only two villages on the whole island, which has a population of  600 people.

The only anchorage is in Penis bay. If you look at the photographs you will see how aptly named the bay is. How many ‘willies’ can you count? However, when the Christian missionary nuns arrived they were somewhat upset by the name, (not surprising given the Christian faiths obsession with sexual matters) and so the good ladies changed the name to The Bay of Virgins.. In French it involved only the addition of one letter.. Verges to Vierges.. interesting how close the the penis and the virgins are in French !

The Lonely Planet Guide has an interesting opening sentence on Fatu Hiva....

 “As far away from the rest of the world as its possible to get in these modern times. Congratulations you have made it to one of the hardest to reach islands in the world.”

Fatu Hiva has no air strip and there are no ferries.  To get here you have to arrive by yacht or hitch a ‘sea-ride.’ As a result the locals are friendly and curious. At every corner you are met with smiles and waves. One household gave us a huge bag of fresh fruit and would not accept any payment.

The perfect village, a Garden of Eden.

The village is a perfect dream land, a cross between Babylon and the Garden of Eden.

Not a square foot of land is wasted, fruit trees have been planted everywhere. Limes, grapefruit, oranges, avocado, breadfruit, bananas, mango and every other tropical fruit you can imagine over hang the little road.  A stream gurgles its way down the gently sloping valley. Winding its way through the colorful little houses. There is no shortage of water in the Marquesas so he stream runs fast and fresh. The locals who have dotted their houses along the stream have cleverly dug large pools some damed with boulders, in front of their houses, so they have natural swimming pools in their gardens. Simply perfect, and no maintenance bills!

By damming the stream the locals created bathing pools in their gardens!

The villagers dammed the stream at the beach and created this huge
fresh water public swimming pool right between the basketball court and the football pitch.