After 19 days we arrive in French Polynesia

So – after three weeks sailing we finally arrived in Fatu Hiva. It was a great relief to finally arrive in French Polynesia and a little surreal – the island looking like something out of Jurassic Park. Just expect to see dinosaurs roving around. We came in around 8am and then once the boat was washed down and we’d done four loads of washing we went ashore – wow the Bay of Virgins here is just a stunning visual experience. Huge phallic like basaltic cones dot the shoreline at the mouth of a steep sided valley. We were off to hike up to the waterfall through the forest – easy we were told just follow the road….. Off we go along a road dotted with a few houses and women come out to ask us to trade perfume, lipstick or shoes for goods. Grapefruit as big as your head, and an abundance of fruit of all kinds grow along the roadside. We turn left down a track awash with scarlet hibiscus and keep walking uphill – wow is it hot but we know it is doing us all good after so long stuck on the boat.
Up and up we go following a route signed by a small petroglyph and we wade across a river – then it gets challenging! We are going through tropical forest wet and steamy and soon are ankle deep in mud but we’d gone so far we couldn’t go back without seeing the waterfall. Up and up we climb over rocks and along sharp drops – we pass a banyan tree and suddenly see a Me’ae – this is a religious site built with basalt rocks packed side by side and piled up. These were places of worship, burial and human sacrifice and there is still a bowl in the centre where Oscar tells us the blood runs down and into the roots of the banyan. It is an eerie feeling and an awesome sight and apparently they were also used for cannibalistic rituals. After scrambling around and upwards for another hour we finally come to the waterfall which is right in front of us and at least 100 metres tall bursting water down into a small crater. Exhausted and extremely wet and muddy we descend back down to the small village – there are only two extremely small settlements on the island one in the middle and one at the bottom and one road connecting the two. Some locals carve tiki and bowls from bone and rosewood and they are truly beautiful pieces – we went to a woman who was very keen to show us her work and welcomed us into her home. Two small rooms bear of furniture but a few chairs and a table and a cooker – very clean and tidy and in one corner her work – intricately carved tiki boxes (tiki are humanlike statues or carvings which are believed to be religious symbols) – we bought two wonderful pieces from her. Back to the boat for a shower before drinks and sushi (they’d landed a tuna that afternoon) on El Mundo and then back on board for a bbq – our first day on land for three weeks was a great one but I think all were grateful for bed!