Manihi, 7-14-2017--Bastille Day

By David

Bastille Day at Manihi Atoll in French Polynesia, & we had a blast.

Picture 4^th of July in small town USA minus parade and fireworks. Sack races, food booths, coconut carry races, ice cream cones and in the afternoon an amazing coconut splitting contest. The amazing part being that no feet or hands were amputated despite frenzied activity with sharp axes and knives. Bare feet, no gloves, no hardhats. OSHA would have had a conniption. Oh, and no doc within hours. 

Great fun, as you can see in the images below. 

Pearl and Poe.  Poe took us under her wing and made sure we had a good time.  Poe's name is actually much longer and means Pearl of the Sky.
Poe is a student, working on getting her teaching certificate in Spanish.  It's so easy to assume these folks have never left the atoll or gone farther than Tahiti.  In fact, Poe has studied Spanish in Spain and spent two years studying in France.  Many of the folks we've met have relatives in France or have been there themselves.

First up in the morning were children's races of all kinds. 

And what are children's races without a sack race?

The "Tahitian canoe" race was hilarious, with some kids pulling when they should have been pushing & vice versa. Lots of fun crashes.

Two darling canoeists get ready to race.

Coconut carrying was another popular competition.

In attendance was Frank, the fisherman who helped us get in through the pass.  

Minimus floats in a sea of turquoise.

Coconut splitting was the afternoon's competition.  Here, two women compete against two other teams, each splitting, cleaning and bagging 40 coconuts.

Men's coconut splitting was last and had the crowd on their feet. Each team had to split, clean and bag 100 coconuts, which took about 20 minutes.  At the end of the competition, only 10 seconds separated the first and second place finishers.
Surprisingly, the winners weren't the biggest or strongest, but worked with machine-like efficiency.  

The winners do a dance with hip gyrations in front of the judges.  

Pearl sits among the coconut splitting spectators.