08 Apr Anaho Bay, Nuku Hiva – Sunday, 08 April 2001
 The men of Hatiheu play boules on Sunday |
Anaho bay is a quiet, peaceful place until Sunday morning when the Aranui arrives. We have gone ashore to take a hike over the ridge to Hatiheu Village in the bay to the West, when the huge white supply freighter arrives and fills the anchorage. We continue our hike as the long boat brings ashore the passengers and perhaps picks up copra to take to Tahiti. It takes us an hour to hike over the saddle and down into Hatiheu and it is hot, buggy and sweaty. I look like a vagabond when we arrive in the village; I fell in the mud on my way down the other side.
Our reward was to be lunch a Chez Yvonne, a restaurant with a notable reputation in a country with few remarkable places to eat.. Horrors, we are hungry and Chez Yvonne is closed. What to do? What to do? We meet Emanuel, the father of Ismael of fruit gathering fame, who loads us into the back of his Toyota 4 wheel drive pickup and takes us to the outdoor annex of the church where the Sunday afternoon bingo game is taking place. The ladies are sitting at a table and on the ground playing bingo and the prizes are food: sandwiches, salad, fried chicken, watermelon and cake. They sell us some of each and we feast to fortify ourselves for the hike back to Anaho. The hike back is faster because it is not as steep on the Hatiheu side. When we return the beach is full of passengers of the Aranui, in swimsuits. They must be really tough because the beach is full of nonos, those nasty little sand fleas that infest the Marquesas. I will continue to wear my long pants, although I have relaxed to a sleeveless top. Back on board we have a wonderful Sunday night dinner on Chez Yachtee Starr.
 Bingo in Hatiheu |
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