Wow, this is the real Polynesia that I was hoping still existed.

First off, we just relaxed this morning, still catching up on our sleep from the passage. Had a leisurely breakfast and just sat and read books through the morning until noon. The weather helped us not plan anything too strenuous. Squally and gusty, winds up to 20 knots and occasional rain kept us under the dodger and in no hurry to go ashore. But, as the lunch hour led into the afternoon, we got a call from the other boat in the bay, our friends on Blue Rodeo, asking if we were game to go ashore. We were! Launching both dinghies, we rowed into the beach (the waves were too high to lift the outboards off their mounts and put them on the dinghies). I prepped Ann on the way in; “If we start to capsize in the surf, jump out of the dinghy and get away so it won’t hit you”. After a slightly hair-raising ride through the surf (2 foot faces, which seem somewhat like storm surf at Waimea Bay to an inflatable dinghy) we made it to the sand, dragged the dinghies up the beach and breathed a sigh of relief. Whew! Made it without the embarrassment of dumping! But we both had wet rear ends.

We walked down the beach to a little shack that had an outrigger lying on the beach out front and a Polynesian man was sitting in the shade of a coconut tree waiting for us. “Allez!” He said and we followed him into the jungle (what the heck?). First we went past a lovely grotto complete with a little waterfall backed by more coconut trees and other exotic plants. Picturesque does not even come close to describing the beauty of this little spot. But, it seemed we were on a mission, so “Allez!”, off we went further into the jungle. About a hundred yards later we came to a small set of huts set back behind a fence. “Allez!”, so we turn through the gate and walked toward the huts. Hoping this wasn’t becoming “Heart of Darkness” or “Apocalypse Now”, we continued to follow our guide. Soon we came into the small compound and sitting there (with shorts but no shirt and a large tattoo on his arm) was a very large Polynesian man. It quickly became apparent, he was in charge as he dispatched our “guide” into one of the huts. Our hope was that he wasn’t planning “Long Pig” for dinner tonight. But…the big man started talking with a big smile; Big Man Booming: “Parlez vous francaise?” Us: “Um, no, not so much”. Big Man: “Ah…Americans!” And off we went with a mixture of French, English and Polynesian. In the meantime, the “guide” came back with a watermelon and a large machete with which he quickly and deftly dispatched said watermelon and offered us huge slices; a little respite from the early afternoon heat. It tasted delicious! A few more attempts to communicate left us all with a basic understanding that a) he was a caretaker of sorts who lives in Atuona but comes out here on weekends to take care of the place (it’s listed in the guidebook as being a coconut plantation) and b) we were cruisers on our way through the islands from America and were hoping we could go for a hike through the jungle. “Ah, bien! Allez”. But we couldn’t “allez” through the jungle before he sent the “guide” behind the shack to bring back three huge papayas (we’re talking the size of melons), two cucumbers and two tomatoes for each couple. A veritable treasure trove of Polynesian fruits and vegetables. Since this was our first landfall outside of a town, we hadn’t thought through the concept of “trading” for stuff. We didn’t bring anything. So I dutifully took off my fairly new Lattitude 38 hat (that I “won” by telling a joke at one of the Lat 38 parties) and presented it to the gentlemen. I think they liked it, but am not sure. In any case, we now understand that going ashore in these lands of small villages with still somewhat tribal people means being ready to trade a bit or exchange gifts. We are now ready and won’t be so clumsy at our next attempt.

So, after our delightful encounter with these folks, we continued up the trail to see what we could see. The guidebooks suggested that we might find ancient Polynesian ruins and we were not disappointed. We also weren’t disappointed by the fact that the path through the jungle was “littered” with ripe mangoes. Yum! Going up the valley, we saw foundations of entire villages. Apparently before being “discovered” by Europeans, this was a very populous area. Some of the statistics we’ve seen were that in the 18th century it was estimated there were 60,000 people living in these islands, but by the early 20th century that number had dwindled to only a little over 2000 inhabitants. It is estimated that by the end of the 20th century, there were approximately 10,000. In any case, many of the ancient villages and even paths between them are still evident and we saw them today! There were many impressive walls and foundations spread throughout our hike in the jungle. We even found a grinding stone in the midst of several foundations and rock walls. It was a very large boulder with three indentations where people ground seeds to turn into flour and other food. Some of the foundations were built from volcanic stones that must have weighed hundreds of pounds (if not more) each. In the next several bays, we also hope to see Tikis and other idols that have been preserved. Possibly holding us back will be the weather. Beach landings here on the North side of the island can get very difficult depending on weather, so we’ll see. Stay tuned on that one.