After almost a week at Taiohae, we moved just a few miles west to Anse Hakatea, (or Daniels Bay as it is known to cruisers). Here there is a great hike up to the Vaipo waterfall which is purportedly the third highest in the world. Put that one in your next Trivial Pursuit evening. (What, where – never heard of it!) And what a fabulous hike this was.
We started out walking through the beautiful gardens of the few individuals who reside in the bay and then progressed upwards. The scenery was amazing and the waterfall (which was, unfortunately, almost dry at the time) was in the most spectacular blind canyon with massively high sheer rock faces creating an amphitheatre around a crystal clear, cool and refreshing pool. Quite an awesome sight with brilliantly white fairy terns and long tailed tropic birds hovering above against the backdrop of black volcanic rock formations.
This, we now realize, is what we dreamed of when we first started to play around with the idea of cruising and the good news is we know there is lots more to come. The Marquesas have proven to be such a delight, mostly untouched by the pace of life found in the more heavily populated islands such as those in the Caribbean. They are lovely happy people who appear to be proud of their heritage, their lands, their properties and themselves. There are no large tourist hotels or resorts to mar the scenery, no jumbo jets (or even small ones) landing thousands of sightseers daily and no gigantic cruise ships spoiling the natural inlets and bays around the islands. Just simple tiny communities where, with the exception of the odd satellite dish, cell phone and 4X4 Toyotas, one could imagine that not much has changed in the last hundred years.
The entire population of all the islands is now around 6,000; some are not inhabited at all. When Captain Cook visited in the 18th century, these numbered about 100,000, but they were weakened by imported diseases and decimated by tribal wars and were reduced to a mere 2,000 at the start of the 20th century. We have come across many maraes, stone structures which were the sites where all important decisions were made and were the centres for social, political and religious activities, including sacrifices (often human) made to their many gods. Most of these are hidden in the rain forest or amongst coconut or banana plantations. Cannibalism was also very much part of their culture in the past as was the art of tattooing their bodies. The early missionaries banned tattooing but today it is part of a strong renaissance. I've never been an advocate of tattoos but the Polynesian style, especially that of the Marquesans, is really quite beautiful, a real art form and, I have to admit, were I a lot younger, I might well be tempted as most of the cruisers have. Maybe just a teeny little manta ray somewhere!
Speaking of manta rays, we were thrilled to see quite a few swimming just below the surface of the water in Daniels Bay; such magnificent and graceful creatures.
PHOTO GALLERY:
We started out walking through the beautiful gardens of the few individuals who reside in the bay and then progressed upwards. The scenery was amazing and the waterfall (which was, unfortunately, almost dry at the time) was in the most spectacular blind canyon with massively high sheer rock faces creating an amphitheatre around a crystal clear, cool and refreshing pool. Quite an awesome sight with brilliantly white fairy terns and long tailed tropic birds hovering above against the backdrop of black volcanic rock formations.
This, we now realize, is what we dreamed of when we first started to play around with the idea of cruising and the good news is we know there is lots more to come. The Marquesas have proven to be such a delight, mostly untouched by the pace of life found in the more heavily populated islands such as those in the Caribbean. They are lovely happy people who appear to be proud of their heritage, their lands, their properties and themselves. There are no large tourist hotels or resorts to mar the scenery, no jumbo jets (or even small ones) landing thousands of sightseers daily and no gigantic cruise ships spoiling the natural inlets and bays around the islands. Just simple tiny communities where, with the exception of the odd satellite dish, cell phone and 4X4 Toyotas, one could imagine that not much has changed in the last hundred years.
The entire population of all the islands is now around 6,000; some are not inhabited at all. When Captain Cook visited in the 18th century, these numbered about 100,000, but they were weakened by imported diseases and decimated by tribal wars and were reduced to a mere 2,000 at the start of the 20th century. We have come across many maraes, stone structures which were the sites where all important decisions were made and were the centres for social, political and religious activities, including sacrifices (often human) made to their many gods. Most of these are hidden in the rain forest or amongst coconut or banana plantations. Cannibalism was also very much part of their culture in the past as was the art of tattooing their bodies. The early missionaries banned tattooing but today it is part of a strong renaissance. I've never been an advocate of tattoos but the Polynesian style, especially that of the Marquesans, is really quite beautiful, a real art form and, I have to admit, were I a lot younger, I might well be tempted as most of the cruisers have. Maybe just a teeny little manta ray somewhere!
Speaking of manta rays, we were thrilled to see quite a few swimming just below the surface of the water in Daniels Bay; such magnificent and graceful creatures.
PHOTO GALLERY:
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