Marquesas - Hiva 'oa

On Nuku Hiva, the return drive of 80 minutes of rollercoaster, hairpin turns up and over 1100 metres of mountain, gets us to the airport for the 40 minute flight to Atuona, Hiva Oa. An amazingly tattooed man with pig tusk pendants gets Gen in portrait snapping mode.

From the airport, it's a half hour drive into town to lunch at Chez Iris, a beachside eatery delivering tourists and locals, mountainous portions. We had an excellent Boeuf braisé and Lethazard poisson à la creme sauce.

A steep climb out of town took us to our super paillotte/cabin, perched overlooking the port. 

Tania, our host, is large by nature, beaming like a smiling tiki, full of chatter and up for a laugh in an instant. Breakfast with Tania is a waterfall of local knowledge accompanied by local jams, honey, strong coffee and baguette.

To polish off a long day, we head into town to see the Jacques Brel and Paul Gauguin museums. Both persons have graves in the hillside cemetery above the town.

Gauguin, of Peruvian extraction, led a wanton life of debauchery that kept him busy bedding local juvenile beauties, siring countless progeny, cocking a snook at colonial authorities, painting works of art, and eventually succumbing to an early death from syphilis amongst other things.

Brel, a Belgian singer and poet, came here, dying from cancer, spending the last three years of his life flying his plane, immersed in local life.

Our day's destination is Puamu, a tiny seaside village to the North via 90 minutes of exciting, winding, climbing roads, beset by torrential showers, rockfalls, gallivanting goats, and even a horse barring our way until Gen got out and coaxed him aside.

Puamu: Warm breezes by the ocean, utterly tranquil scenes of palms dropping coconuts along a deserted beach. Bliss.

The artfully tattooed lady at the Snack took our admission fee for the nearby Iipona ceremonial tikis and drew us a mudmap to get there. However, the deconstructed, diy cistern of the Snack wc foxed me completely, plumb out of ideas how the flush worked in its disassembled state.

The tikis were in a great spot, surrounded by lush, tropical greenery, trees heaving with breadfruit and ubiquitous chickens squabbling over fruit they patiently waited to be squashed by cars.

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Marquesas, Marquises, French Polynesia, Hiva oa, Atuona, Tiki, Portrait, Pig Tusks, Portrait