TAHITI CRUISE #2, Marquesas Isls*#042

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The Fare Pōte'e eco-museum...

A natural museum...

Maeva district, Huahine cradle of chiefdoms, contains in its soil treasures of ancient Polynesian culture.

Old capital of Huahine, Maeva appears as a spiritual center of Polynesia, including the number of relics dug up through the work of Dr. Kenneth Emory, Dr. Yosihiko Sinoto and their assistants.

The museum was built in the fare pōte'e to exhibit the objects and other remains collected during numerous excavations. Among the objects you can see are rowing, adzes, pendants tooth fish, pestles, combs tattoo ...

 These archaeological treasures are still pointing on  the quality and the harmony of the former Polynesians culture. 

The Marae is right next to the road and very easily accessible. Because it is so easy to get to one is tempted to walk on it. This little museum with explications about the Maeva Marae is located in a beautifully reconstructed meeting house complete with woven bamboo floors.

Interesting Replica Traditional House...

We visited the Fare Potee as part of our day tour with Island Eco Tours. Before entering, you remove your footwear; we were then greeted, welcomed and given a flower. This museum had lots of display cases filled with various artifacts, text documents and exhibits filled with information about Polynesian culture and life! Outside the building were a couple of restored marae.

Our guide proudly showed us not only the vanilla bean plants, but some other plants on this property that included pineapple, papaya, mango, breadfruit, bananas, etc. 

They had some coconut trees and decided to pull one off the tree using an old piece of rebar he had fashioned into a hook.

I bought a couple of the vanilla beans, which smell so amazing. Fresh vanilla beans are kind of rubbery in texture, very pliable and are very fragrant - a different sort of vanilla scent than what we're used to in the States. 

Below you can see some of the interesting photos of the young people selling the products like bottles of vanilla.  You can visualize by the pictures how it looked and lots of photos in the download of our entire day tour are available for your own library...

Fatu-Hiva is the southernmost island of the Marquesas Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. With Motu Nao as its closest neighbor, it is also the most isolated of the inhabited islands. The island was named Isla Magdalena ("Magdalene Island") by Spanish explorers in the 16th century, a name rarely used.

The eastern coastline of Fatu-Hiva is characterized by a number of narrow valleys, carved by streams that lead to the interior. Between these valleys are headlands which terminate in cliffs that plunge directly into the sea, making travel between them possible only by travelling over the high mountain ridges between them, or by boat. 

Hiva Oa is the largest and most fertile of the southern Marquesas islands and second only to Nuku Hiva in size. Similar to all the larger Marquesas, Hiva Oa features steep cliffs abruptly rising from the ocean to a rugged interior spine of volcanic mountains, ridges, and deep, isolated valleys. Unlike most other Polynesian islands near the equator, no fringing coral reefs protect Hiva Oa from the pounding of the ocean and only a few sheltered anchorages and sandy beaches are scattered around the coast. Travel along the shoreline is by boat as most of the coastal terrain is too rugged for roads. A few dirt roads traverse the interior and link seacoast villages and settlements.

The outstanding geologic characteristic of Hiva Oa is the collapsed volcano Temetiu. Semi-circular Ta'a Oa bay, also called the Bay of Traitors, is in the crater of the volcano whose walls rise sharply 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above the bay. Within Ta'a Oa are Atuona Bay and adjacent Taha Uku which are the best anchorages on the island. Taha Uku has a protective seawall built in 1981.

The capital of the Marquesas Islands administrative subdivision is the settlement of Taiohae on the island of Nuku Hiva.

Taiohae is the main town on Nuku Hiva island. The town is located on a former volcanic crater, which has partly collapsed into the ocean, creating a bay.

Tikehau or Porutu-kai is a coral atoll in the Palliser Islands group, part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It is included in the commune of Rangiroa.  Tikehau is a small, circular atoll neighboring Rangiroa in the Tuamotu Archipelago. Aside from a few pensions and guesthouses, there are two resort accommodations in this remote locale.

It looks like a crown of white and pink-sand beaches shimmering around the Tikehau Atoll lagoon making it almost too breathtaking to be true. Only about 500 Tahitians call this tranquil world home, generations of fishermen whose lives revolve around the sea. And, it’s a life of both peace and plenty.