Position: Still in Daniel’s Bay

At the beginning of the hike we met this character. His name is Augustine and he was very gracious.

But...as we looked around, we saw this and had to wonder...?

Cooking goat in coconut milk. Yum!

Heading to the waterfall with Dave and Kathy from Lightspeed

We had to cross the river about five times

Yes, there are eels in the river. This one's about four feet long

The waterfall is 700 feet. So big, you can only really capture it in a picture at a distance, even though we went right to it's base

The final push the last couple hundred yards. Falling rock was a real danger, so we moved really fast. In and out.

Since this is such a beautiful spot, we are planning on staying here a couple days. We’re so deep in the bay, there’s smooth water in here, which is nice for a change since most of our anchorages have been pretty exposed to the open ocean and therefore pretty bouncy.

So…we got picked up by Light Speed at 0900 in their dinghy and headed off to the beach where the path to the waterfall starts. Turns out at something like 700 vertical feet, this waterfall is the third largest in the world. The hike up through the jungle was fun. First off we were on a trail known as the “King’s Road”. This trail was hand built at least several hundred years ago for the Marquesan King with large boulders and rocks so you were elevated from the muddy jungle floor. Lining the trail along the way were the ruins of old Marquesan villages. It’s still a wonder to see the Pae Pae, which are the large rock platforms they used to build their huts on. We could also see a number of rock walls that likely held their livestock and there was a single example of an interesting artifact. It is basically a pit dug in the ground about 10 feet, by 10 feet and six feet deep. It was carefully lined with rocks. It was used in older times to store breadfruit as a hedge against famine. Breadfruit is one of the most valuable food sources here. So valued that in the churches, you will often see breadfruit integrated into scenes with and carvings of Jesus, baby Jesus and Mary. This island (and others) actually had developed a population problem in the 1600s or so and amazingly, food shortages were becoming a part of life here. Breadfruit is a hugely important commodity in the islands and it was stored in these pits where it apparently fermented, but remained edible for long periods of time (sorry for the vagueness, we don’t have Google to sharpen our knowledge of this history). We know that by the 1800s Europeans had brought diseases that were decimating the villages, so the overpopulation issue was prior to that. Anyway, it was fascinating to see these ruins, untouched, largely ignored, but in great shape, that have been here for hundreds of years at least.

Continuing to the waterfall, we had to cross several streams and then hike up the most amazing canyon. It was maybe 75 yards across and towered at least 1000 feet above us. Very scary actually because the risk of being killed by rockfall is very real. Everywhere along the trail we could see huge boulders that had obviously fallen very recently. We made the final push (about ¼ mile up the canyon) very quickly for this reason.

We were thinking about swimming in the pool at the base of the waterfall, but the threat of rockfall and eels (at least we had heard there were eels) left us wanting to just head back and enjoy the view from further away.

As we retreated from the steep, narrow canyon and got back to one of the major streams we had to re-cross, we became very, very glad we didn’t swim. There in the stream were two of the largest eels I have ever seen. They were at least 4-5 inches in diameter and about three feet long and they were swimming upstream! Needless to say we were very careful fording that stream.

The rest of the hike back was uneventful. An aside: later we heard from one of the other cruisers anchored near us that a woman was killed here last week from being hit on the head by a coconut. Sounds crazy, but these things are all over the place and by the time they are ripe enough to fall, they weigh something in the neighborhood of 20 pounds. Her skull was crushed. So, add coconuts now to our list of things not to do. Sharks, eels, coconuts. Stay away from these things.

As nice as the hike was and amazing as the view was of the canyon and waterfall, the best part of the day was meeting some of the local characters who live here. There are only a few, but they are memorable.

The first on the way back was Augustine. We actually met him on the way up and told him we would stop by “later”. He’s Polynesian and has a shack, almost more of a stable where he works and lives. He keeps a carefully tended property full of fruit trees that is immaculate. Not a rotten piece on the ground. He also carves Marquesan designs out of bone. Boar tusk, cow bone, etc, he carves it. On the way up, we stopped and he cut open a couple coconuts for us to drink (very refreshing). I saw a dutch oven cooking over some coals and asked him what he was cooking. He took me over and showed me the goat (cut up) he was cooking in coconut milk. I said; “yum” and we left it at that, since it was just barely cooked at that point. We stopped again on the way back and he invited us into his place (I’m not sure what to call it since it was part stable, part shack, part house almost, but all open to the temperate environment. There were no windows. Very eclectic Polynesian is the best I can do to describe it. You kinda have to have been there). Anyway, we sat down at his table, the top of which he intricately carved with Marquesan symbols. Very detailed and stunning. He cut some coconut for us to drink and eat and then some papaya. As we were eating (we were famished from the hike), he looked at me, barked something in Marquesan, crooked his finger and signed for me to follow him into his “kitchen”. Which I did. The dutch oven was there and he pulled off the lid and grabbed a meat covered bone and said, “you try!” I did and it was delicious! “Me Like!!” He was happy. I was holding the bone wondering what to do with it and he signed to give it to the dog. So there you go. Nothing gets wasted here. After my “vetting” of the food, he was satisfied that we would like it and loaded a couple bowls with this goat meat in coconut milk and steamed bananas and we feasted. Just like that. Then he poured a redish looking liquid and said; “wine!” So we tried that. Kind of a fermented pineapple, coconut, I don’t know what else,drink, but incr edibly refreshing and goes well with goat!

Needless to say we had a blast! One of the highlights so far of the trip and he really was just doing this for fun. He didn’t want money. We “gifted” him with some Reef flip flops that Ann had and didn’t like. He laughed, looked down at his feet which were bare, but graciously accepted them knowing that he could either give them to one of his sons (15 and 10 who were away at boarding school like all the children on the islands) or trade them further down the line.

We very reluctantly left Augustine’s house, but it was getting late and we had to move on.

We were still looking for some fresh fruit. After Augustine’s gracious hospitality, we didn’t want to impose and ask him for fruit too, so down the road we went. There are half a dozen other homes/gardens and at one, a woman came out of her house and we asked if she had any fruit. At this point I should point out that Ann has become proficient in French. In fact, we all now consider her our translator. So Ann steps up and starts asking stuff (I say “stuff” because I have no idea what she really said, but it got things in motion) in French and next thing we know this woman is shouting at her kids to get in gear and get some fruit. The son motions to Dave and I to follow him around the house, the woman (we didn’t get her name) proceeded to empty a wheelbarrow and then line it with a nice tablecloth and wheel it into her garden whereupon she and her other children proceeded to cut down a bunch of papaya and pamplemouse. In the meantime her son is showing Dave and I how to cut a bunch of bananas down. This was incredibly valuable to know as bananas grow fairly high and we have been wondering how to gracefully harvest them. We now know the secret. (Watch for the secret to be revealed in future blogs.)

We left laden with fruit in backpacks and bags, not to mention our stalk of bananas that weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty pounds.

OK, on down the road. The last place housed Tahiki and family. Tahiki plays the part of a traditional Marquesan warrior. Some of the people anchored near us who had met him the day before were actually scared by him. He is very fearsome looking with a traditionally tattooed face, in the Marquesan style as well as on the rest of his body. He is also “buffed”. He has muscles everywhere and wears a boar tusk necklace and earrings. Quite a sight. He charges at you, yells in Marquesan, dances, etc, but he’s also a very nice guy. We stopped at his house (read shack- tin roof, no real windows just square holes where you would put glass if you needed it, but very clean with a nice porch. In this environment that’s all you need). We stopped here to support them and bought some of their fruit because Tahiki is such a blast to be around. The fruit we bought cost a whopping $6 for the four of us, but he was happy and decided to show us how to shuck coconuts. He had a spike that he uses to tear off the husk so you can get to the nut. First he showed us (with many warrior-like flourishes) and then each of us had a turn. When it was Ann’s turn, she yelled in warrior-like fashion too, which delighted Tahiki’s two boys. She has two new fans now. Dave and Kathy gave them some baseball hats as gifts and we now have a bunch of new fans.

So, a really fun day. We’re staying here at least one more day to do some more exploring and to just enjoy the amazing, amazing scenery that we’re blessed to be anchored in.