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.
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.
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.