Nuka Hiva is roughly 130 square miles in size and is the largest island in the Marquesas. The current population is approximately 2600 people. The principle town is Taiohae on the southern coast which was our port of entry. It supports two Magazins (small grocery stores), a 50 bed hospital and, of course, the Gendarmerie – the local and regional police force along with a few (very few) restaurants, a number of cafes, a small farmers market and one resort. The highest point on the island is almost 4000 feet and it sports the third highest waterfall in the world and an extremely interesting ride to the airport on the other side of the island – but more about those in other posts.
The above picture is a view looking back down on the Taiohae Bay.
This closer view shows the commercial wharf in the background with a large sailing cat backed to the wharf while fueling – an interesting experience that we also went thru, but again more about that in a later post. The wharf in the foreground is for small boats and dinghies and offers much needed protection from the ever present surge when landing. While the harbor may look smooth, it is quite a different matter close to shore.
A number of small cafes, a small restaurant, dive shop and farmers market occupy the area around the wharf. It is really, other then the Magazins, the retail hub of the town.
So here are a few shots of that area including one of our favorite breakfast spots for crepes.
An another for poisson cru.
And the area around the restaurant (Alice’s – no relation to the one of Guthrie fame) and Farmers market.
From the water side, here are some other views looking around the harbor.
The East and West Sentinels (as they are called) guarding the harbor entrance.
Unfortunately, reminiscent of Fiji, we also had to share the anchorage with this Chinese piece of junk – Joy of Great Luck number 307 – hard to imagine anyone owning (or wanting to own) at least 307 of these noisy, stinky boats. Fortunately they moved on the day after we arrived.
The day after we arrived, the commercial island freighter came to town.
The whole process was amazing to watch as these islands are totally reliant on these ships for their survival. Before dawn, all the villagers arrive by car, truck and foot with their paperwork in hand and the boat is offloaded directly in to their waiting conveyances. Everything from cars to trucks to boats to refrigerators to building materials, dry goods, produce, and fuel all arrive weekly on the supply ship. Taiohae being larger gets ships once a week. Some of the islands don’t see ships more then once a month.
It was off to to the farm market at 0400 (yes 0400) the morning the boat came in to get our fair share of fresh produce that arrived on the boat – and there must have been 50 or 100 people there with us. By noon, the only produce left was that which was grown on the island.
Thats it for now – more next time