Nuku Hiva, Taiohae was the first civilization that we had seen since we left Puerto Vallarta: other “towns” had consisted of a road, some quaint houses and if you were lucky a “general store.” Very general. The size of a welfare kid’s room and just as sparsely decorated. So when we pulled into the bay and saw cars driving by, it was like we were in a bustling metropolis. After checking in we got some provisioning done: this place is expensive. I can tell you it is expensive but here are some examples so that you can really digest how expensive it is. A can of Spam is $8, a can of Heineken at the grocery store is $4, it is $7 at the restaurant. I happily paid $10 for canned ham and $6 for a dozen eggs. Apparently the only food that is cheep is the government subsidized food: baguettes and Pork & Beans are the only subsidized food I have found so far. Diesel is $7 per gallon. The souvenir I had my eye on was $250: ten days budget…. Hckmm, Hckmm… Is there something stuck in my throat or did I just throw up in my mouth? I am feeling very poor right now. We didn’t even ask how expensive laundry was, it was a no-brainer that we were going to be doing our own. On the dock with all the locals watching us we plunged the clothes again and again into the soapy water until finally, after hours of hard work the laundry was done. I do not envy my ancestors who had to do all their laundry by hand.

After much deliberation we decided that expensive or not it was the time and the place to get our tattoos. The Marquesas is the birthplace of the tattoo and we met a guy in town who was also very talented and decided to take the plunge. Brett got a tattoo on his ankle with a turtle that has a band around it and I got the tattoo on my lower back dressed up a little with a turtle and the lines on the side made to be more elegant and sweeping. It hurt a lot, I have a phobia of needles and it makes me very tense to even think about needles, let alone sit still while one drills me over and over again. I managed and am pretty happy with the outcome. Brett watched as I got my tattoo, made jokes and actually made me laugh while the artist (Maki Tiki is the name of his business) was drilling away with his needle and ink. I was sweating and had my feet planted firmly on the floor, it would not do to flinch or to jump while he was at work, but I was obviously under some stress and when it was done I was very glad. Brett went next and I could tell that it was hurting him a lot. That made me feel better. Maki Tiki’s work is all freehand and he does no two tattoos the same. There are no pictures that he follows, he simply draws the outline and then he starts to fill it in with cool geometric patterns.

When we left Taiohae we went to another anchorage on Nuku Hiva that was still on the south side of the island but had no town: Daniel’s Bay. We had heard a lot about Daniel’s Bay: beautiful anchorage, waterfall hike and the water in the anchorage is as flat as a mirror. We were not disappointed. When we arrived we were the only boat in the bay and we had that perfect combination of sun and fluffy clouds. Brett and I decided to go on the waterfall hike and I got on my flip-flops, got some water, made a sandwich and we headed out. The hike was beautiful and full of life. We hiked through lush greenery until we came upon a spot that was black rock rising out of a sea of green and the valley narrows until it comes to a cascade sheet of whiteness.

We sat and had our lunch and as I gazed at the waterfall. My eyes fell on a face that had been watching me for a long time, his head was about three inches around and he had a long leathery body that stretched an impressive four feet.. He was the exact same color as the still pond water that sat at the base of the waterfall. He looked at us as if to say, “what are you doing here at my pond?” He really scared me! We turned around to get a bit of bread out of the backpack to feed the beast and were surprised yet again, this time with miniature mice. They were gray and very tiny! I threw one of them a cashew but he was too small to lift it. How adorable can you be? It was about this time that I realized that I was being eaten alive by some sort of “no-no,” that’s what they call the vicious little sand flies that plague these islands. You do not feel the bite and it only starts itching about two days later. It has now been 6 days after this incident and I am still recovering. We bolted down the track and they followed, my flip-flops have gotten wet at this point since there were a few stream crossings to get to the waterfall and they became slippery on the inside so I had to walk slowly while I was being slowly consumed. Having encountered the vicious “no-see-ums” of the Amazon I was under no illusion that this was going to be tough but you always put a smile on memories and I don’t think I really remembered what a pain they were until my ankles had swollen until they were tight little sausages with swollen bites everywhere.

I have heard that if you never scratch the bites they do not get itchy. This is not something that I have been able to prove, they all itch and have all been scratched until I drew blood, basically the only way to rid yourself of the itch is to replace it with pain. We stayed in Daniel’s Bay for another night to celebrate Cindy’s birthday on Chinook and then headed to Anaho Bay which is also on Nuku Hiva. We had heard that there was some great snorkeling there. We had a hairy sail on the East side of the island where we were slamming along in twenty five knot gusts. The bay was huge and protected with a sandy beach, gently sloping hills and a shack that was tucked behind some trees. We arrived and were almost immediately in the water. I was an itching volcano of no-no bites and needed some water to cool off. The visibility was poor but it was easy to tell that the sea life was abundant. We found great shells and were rewarded for our diligence with a large Manta Ray.

We ran into Charisma, a boat that we were next to in Puerto Vallarta and we ended up having diner on their boat and hiking with them and the folks from Airwego during our three day stay here. The hike was nice, there were horses, wild horses that looked very majestic until you got close enough to see their mottled fur and that they appear to have more than one ancestor who was an ass. I saw one of the most beautiful beaches on this hike: long white sand with coconut crabs scurrying to get at least twelve feet from us and then burrowing in the sand. It was ideal. On our way back we stopped at a small farm, very small. He had a watermelon patch and was willing to sell us some for $4 per kilo. Knowing we were going to have to heft this giant melon back with us we opted for the smallest one, it was only three kilos. $12 for Melon?? We got the melon and some pompomous, a grapefruit like fruit that is green and ugly but tastes light and sweet. I love the fresh island fruits and veggies. Especially when they are picked off of the tree right in front of you.

It is time to move on from Nuku Hiva, there is another island called Ua Pou, it is supposed to be as scenic as Fatu Hiva and a little more town. It should be fun. We did have to come back to Taiohae in order to provision. This will be our last big provision probably until we hit the Tuamotus. We were able to keep ourselves under control, only spending $150 on groceries… wow, I am getting used to this whole paring down thing! This is also the only island that has access to internet for some time. It may be another two to three weeks untill we can update the site and get regular email. Today was laundry and provisioning and I discovered Benedril: this stuff stops the itch! I am so happy to have a few free hours where I am not either guiltily scratching or stoically not scratching. Got to go and scratch now, the Benedril is wearing off. 😉