Day 224, Year 1: Trouble Getting Money
Date: Monday, May 29, 2006
Weather: Back to Beautiful Sunny Days with Bright Blue Skies
Location: Hakatau Bay, Ua Pou Island (pronounced wapoo), Marquesas
Life was back to normal today. The skies were blue with scattered puffy clouds and the rain has gone away. When we got us this morning, we saw Quantum Leap heading out for the Tuamotus. We didn’t realize they were heading out so early and we didn’t get to say farewell, but hopefully we will see them soon in the Tuamotus or in Tahiti. About that time, Minaret pulled anchor and headed for the north shore of Nuka Hiva. That left only a few of us here in Hakahau.
We started our day by going to shore and taking showers under the faucet on shore. That saves us carrying water to Windbird and gave us the chance to wash hair with as much water as we would like. It was delightful. We then went back to the boat to have breakfast. While we were doing this, Hawkeye and Esprit pulled up anchor and headed for an anchorage on the west side of this island. Now it was really beginning to feel almost lonely here. We headed to shore to try and complete the transaction to get the needed bonds for our stay here in French Polynesia, but we continue to have problems getting our credit cards to work here. They accept only Visa as a charge card and we only have MasterCard as a charge card, with Visa as our debit. It is so confusing and so frustrating. We have decided to go with an agent who will simply guarantee our bond for a fee!
We saw Margaret and Patrick from Aqua Magic in town and decided to walk with them up the valley to get a view of the bay from up high. The first road we took didn’t really give us the view we had hoped for, so we headed back down the mountain to town and took another path. This one led us past a couple of houses on the edge of town and then up the mountain to a private home at the end of the road. We never really found the track we were looking for to take us high into the mountains, we certainly got to see how the locals live-in town, in the “suburbs”, and then at the end of the road.
We returned to town and did some shopping before returning to the boat. We had invited Jamie and Lucie from Savoir Livre and Margaret and Patrick of Aqua Magic over for mid-afternoon snacks and drinks. We had a great time comparing travel notes. I asked Lucy what her most memorable moment of her trip so far was and she, as well as the rest of us, found that an impossible question to answer. It really seems as if every day offers so many memorable moments that it is impossible to pinpoint one time or place.
We will be leaving here in the morning for the next island north-Nuka Hiva. I didn’t get to visit all of the places here on Ua Pou that I had hoped to, but there is just no way to see it all. Hopefully our time on Nuka Hiva will give us the opportunity to see some of the same kinds of things that we have missed here.
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| 060529 Day 224 Marquesas, Ua Pou–On Land and in the Anchorage |
