Jan 10 -- Nuku Hiva

Today we awoke to a slowly moving ship heading into Nuku Hiva's harbor.  The scenery was incredibly beautiful and lush with hills and shorelines untouched by humanity (until we arrived at the harbor,  of course).  We sat on our balcony and watched the parade of scenery until the ship dropped anchor out in the harbor.  This is another of the ports that isn't deep enough for the ship to pull up to the dock,  so tendering in using several of the ship's lifeboats will be the method for going ashore over the next two days.  

Arriving in Nuku Hiva

The beauty just doesn't end!

Sailboats in the harbor

Once the tenders started shuttling passengers ashore it was fun to watch several guys in outrigger canoes waiting for a tender to leave them paddling like crazy to pull themselves into the wake of each tender.  It looked like a fun ride once they were riding behind the tenders!   In most of the ports we saw men in these single passenger outrigger canoes paddling all over the harbor and sometimes racing each other.  We were told there's a big competition coming up that has contestants from all over the islands competing for a large cash prize.

Tender shuttling passengers to shore

Since we had no excursion planned today we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast,  watched the scenery,  and read.  After lunch we went ashore just to explore the small harbor area.  Although Nuku Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, the islands itself is not heavily populated with primarily Polynesians and a small proportion of Europeans, mainly from metropolitan France. The original inhabitants were cannibals who lived in the central valley. 

This island was the inspiration for Herman Melville's books Typee and Omoo, and was also the site of the 4th episode of Survivor. When Survivor was being filmed the crew took over the entire island so no one could either arrive or leave for over two months!   They put in cell towers,  so the natives have had cell service ever since.  All hotels and tour companies (of which there are very few -- of each) were paid as if they were fully booked for the entire time the episode was being prepared for and filmed.  They loved it -- paid more than they usually brought in for doing absolutely no work!

The harbor area is very small as is the main town there. Locals have a couple of tents set up with carved wood items,  some jewelry, and stone items -- many were very interesting but would be very difficult to get home.  Many of the men here appear to have adopted wearing large necklaces and earrings that look like they're made of bone.  In addition they have tribal tattoos that are much more detailed and extensive than those we've seen on the other islands. 

Greeting arrivals from the tenders

Jewelry for sale

Wood carvings

Refreshment stand surrounded by hanging bunches of bananas

Pineapples for sale

Nearby beach

Gorgeous poinciana trees

After walking to a nearby beach just to see it and enjoying the beautiful trees and flowers along the way,  we tendered back to the ship for Happy Hour with our friends then dinner in the main dining room.   We retired early again, as we've been doing almost every night. Tomorrow is an early day,  so hopefully we'll be rested up for it!