First we’ll start with our check-in, which ended in some very good news.  The first step was to go to the one small bank in Atuona and pay our bonds (about $1500 per person).  There is only one teller, but the people are very patient and eventually our turn came. I had made sure the money was in my account, so there were would be no problems, but of course fate intervened.  The teller accidentally transposed two digits on the machine when he ran my card the first time and had charged about $700 less than we needed for all four people.  No problem, we’ll just run the card again right?  Unfortunately my bank and been very quick to notice a huge charge coming from the middle of the Pacific Ocean and had already turned off the debit cards for both of my accounts.  We had no better luck with one of Lauren’s cards and a credit card of mine and were about to resign ourselves to waiting two more days when Tiffany’s card finally went through.  In addition to the card mumbo-jumbo, the teller had to fill out a form by hand for each of us and then print 5 copies of a receipt-type document, with me signing all 24 forms.  Needless to say, the bank’s little waiting room was full when we finally finished.
The gendarme on duty yesterday was an incredibly nice guy that spoke good English.  He was a little perplexed as to why we were in such a hurry to check in, but was willing to be of help.  The authorities here are the complete opposite of Latin American authorities, with their stacks and stacks of paperwork, multitude of offices, and gravity for paper and process.  The gendarme told us that instead of having to get to Tahiti in less than 30 days to get our visa extensions, we could have them extended to 90 days here in Atuona by simply going to the post office and buying the appropriate number of stamps.  Apparently, when you need to pay the government a fee here, you just go buy that many francs worth of stamps.  It eliminates a whole accounting and processing department, which seems like a great idea to me.  After buying the stamps, he processed our passports and boat paperwork and now we’re all set for 90 days.  Having 90 days instead of just 30 to get to Tahiti has made things a lot more relaxed and we’re now able to take our time a little bit more.  We’ll be able to see some of the sights and spend some time in the Tuamotus as well.

Next, we stopped at the tourism office (first time we’ve seen it open) and found several leaflets in English about the culture of French Polynesia and met a nice guy who explained several of the archaeological sites around the island to us in Frenglish (mostly French, but with some English nouns and the verb “is”, which in Frenglish is pronounced “eez”).  Armed with his information on sites, trails, and bays, we hope to be more productive in our sightseeing than Lauren and I were the other day.

We made a couple of stops in stores while waiting to drop off some laundry (about $4.00 to wash and dry a kilo!) and checked out local prices.  $6.00 for one roll of paper towels was our favorite overpriced item, while $9.45 for 12 hamburger patties seemed pretty reasonable.  After searching the store, we found a few cheap items that we bought to sample, including a nice package of crackers and a small block of no-refrigeration cheddar cheese for less than $2!  The cheese turned out to be good, so we’ll definitely be back for more.

When we returned to the anchorage, it was shower time!  While we were waiting for our turn in the shower, we struck up a conversation with some other cruisers there on the quay.  The couple from the Brazilian boat, Matajusi, was very friendly and the man had lived in Houston for 4 years and Boston for 15 years.  The couple from the unmarked boat also came ashore and turned out to be a nice French couple with a small girl.  They speak some English and both boats had just come from Fatu Hiva.  They called Atuona, with its population of 2,600 or so “big” and had some great stories about trading for fruit in less populated bays of Fatu Hiva.

 

Ahhhh. All the mountain rain water you want. Check out the high-tech shower head.

Ahhhh. All the mountain rain water you want. Check out the high-tech shower head.

The locals keep racing outrigger canoes here by the anchorage and use the small bay as a practice area.  They come out in the evenings and practice in either a one-person outrigger or one of the larger 5-6 person outriggers.  We were launching our dinghy to go back to the boat right as a group in a 6-person canoe was coming it.  Their paddle handles are short with a wide paddle area that is swept back 10-15 degrees or so from the handle to provide a better angle with the water.  It’s fun to watch them accelerate quickly across the bay and to see teams of canoers paddle in unison.  It’s very similar to the style of the Hawaiians that we got to see a couple of years ago.

Just starting off from the canoe ramp.

Just starting off from the canoe ramp.

On our way back to the boat in the dinghy we stopped and invited the Swedish couple Paul and Eng-a-lee over for dinner.  We had hamburger patties and they had baguettes, so it was a perfect match. It also turns out that Paul is a vegetarian as well, so we had two sets of veggie patties.  We swapped stories of our passages and boat repairs.  They’re short of good books, which is a very painful thing at sea, so we dug through or library and gave them some classics that we’d already read.  Despite the humorous sight of a nice hamburger patty sitting between two small slices of baguette, the food was delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Today is a big holiday in town — Bastille Day.  The locals don’t care too much about the details of French history, but like everyone, they do love a good excuse for a celebration.  Although the larger festivities are in Nuku Hiva, there are going to be traditional drummers and dances that we’re anxious to see.  We pass by their practice area on the walk into town and got a couple pictures of them decorating a truck with coconut tree leaves.  Their traditional drums, pahu, were standing nearby.  The drums are made form a single piece of wood, with sides featuring a variety of carvings and the bottom portion formed into a base.

Weaving coconut leaves over the truck.

Weaving coconut leaves over the truck.

 

Pahu

Pahu