Nuku Hiva, July 3, 2017--Daniel's Bay, waterfall hike

By David

Before reporting on yesterday's outing, a bit of housekeeping: 

--We're still waiting on word from the immigration service on our extension request.

--Both my tooth and sciatica are much improved, but Pearl is still dealing with her bout of sciatica. Turns out that my sciatica is related to sitting for long periods while doing the blog posts.  Given the photo editing and the slow internet, each post takes 4-6 hours, so is a lot more sitting than I'm used to.

OK, that out of the way, we had a wonderful outing yesterday to Hakaui Bay which is about 5 miles west of here.  The bay is known locally as Daniel's Bay after a Marquesan and his wife who welcomed sailors there for decades. That ended 15 years ago when Hollywood descended on the bay in the form of the show “Survivor” which was filmed there. They made him an offer he couldn't refuse and that was the end of a local legend.

Fortunately, the filming did not ruin the beauty of the place, which is as idyllic as one could imagine a South Seas bay and valley to be. 

As usual, we'll mostly let the photos tell the story.

We paddle into shore to join the group.
(Photo by Francesca Melandri)

Our crew includes Francesca (on left), a French couple and Eric, our excellent guide for the day.
We've most enjoyed getting to know Francesca, who is an Italian author staying at a local pension.

Pearl watches manta rays as we squeeze between the rocks

The idyllic Hakaui Valley

The group negotiates the first of several river crossings.

Guide Eric explains the pae pae, or house platforms that we pass frequently along the  Royal Road.  Even after centuries, the Royal Road is still paved in stone.  At the height of Marquesan culture, an estimated 4000 people lived in the Valley.  Today that number is down to 4 full time residents. 

The Road passes through a forest of Polynesian chestnuts.  Banging a rock against the fluted tree trunks, Eric demonstrated how they were once used as very effective drums to signal up and down the Valley.
(Photo by Francesca Melandri)

After hiking for 2 hours, we suddenly we emerged from the forest and stood slack-jawed at the spectacle of 1180' Vaipo Falls.    

Couldn't resist another Vaipo Falls photo here.  (Photo by Francesca Melandri)

Looking across to the almost inaccessible cliffs on the west side of the Valley.  In a cave near the base of the cliffs is a ritual gravesite for royalty.  Eric told us how he came recently with a friend who has a helicopter drone.  They were able to see ritual dugout canoes with skeletons in them.    

At the last river crossing, we found river eels which Pearl couldn't resist touching.  She reported them as very slimy.  They're chunky critters, about 4' long and 4-5 inches across.
They expect handouts, as this is a popular lunch spot for visitors to the falls.  We deduced that they must be French eels, since if the bread had any peanut butter on it, the eels spat it out.  The French seem to detest peanut butter.  Eric looked on incredulously as we ate our peanut butter sandwiches.
(Photo by Francesca Melandri)

Symmetrical vanilla vines grow up coconut trunks.  This type of vanilla, introduced from Mexico, has become invasive.  It requires a wasp to pollinate, which doesn't exist here.  Instead, it spreads via the roots.  In order to produce pods, it must be pollinated by hand, a time-consuming process evidenced by the high cost of locally made vanilla. 

A breadfruit pit from ancient times.  Breadfruit was allowed to ferment, then mashed up and slathered on banana leaves which were layered in the pit.  After an anaerobic fermentation process, the resulting m`a was eaten as a staple.

In more recent times, the pit is covered in palm leaves and opened coconuts are suspended above the pit.  Wild pigs are attracted to the coconuts and fall into the pit.

One last view of Vaipo Falls on the way back.

Pearl holds a giant pink hibiscus

Absurdly, a phone booth is located near the beginning of the Royal Road.

Francesca takes a selfie with us as we speed back aboard Eric's boat.
It had been a long, awe-inspiring and informative day.  By the time we returned to Minimus it was almost dark.

Happily, David held up well, including his knee.