Baai D’Anaho

Next stop was Baai D'Anaho, a protected anchorage in a beautiful white sandy bay. Well, it was Vagabond and Calypso back on the hiking trail again, this time over the mountains to the village in the next bay to visit the archeological sites; several maraes nestling in the hills above the village. The hike over the mountains took about two hours and led us up a horse trail through hundreds of wild mango trees as well as noni bushes and a few other fruit trees for which we still have not learned the names. The trail took us right into a gorgeous village against of backdrop of spectacular rock spires. We still haven't got over how magnificently all the gardens and properties are maintained. Even the road along the beachfront was beautifully landscaped and kept pristinely clean. After spending so many years in Africa and then a few years around the Caribbean, South and Central America, this is, indeed, a refreshing pleasure.

We stopped at a lovely little restaurant serving local cuisine of goat and seafood then hiked further up the mountain behind the village to the two maraes. These are the sites I mentioned previously that served as ceremonial centres. A local guide informed us that they dated back to the 12th century and, in the first, the sacrificial platform could easily be seen.

The second was enormous and was apparently built as a temple to the goddess Tevanaua'ua'a (I defy you to pronounce that one) with a huge sacred banyan tree. Throughout the villages we've visited as well as at sites such as these, there are numerous tikis, carved stone statues of strange looking figures. Looking at these, one could easily get the impression that creatures from space must have visited the early Polynesians, as they don't have a lot of resemblance to the human form. Whether these were carved in the likeness of their gods or this is how they saw themselves is hard to say. We haven't really been able to learn much of the origins of these carvings as yet.

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