Marquesas

Antoine's view

The Marquesas archipelago, for many people, is only the place where two famous artists, Gauguin and Belgian singer Jacques Brel, once chose to spend their last years.
But the Marquesas are much more than that, they're a handful of islands, among the most spectacular in the world, and their isolation, the difficulty of accessing their steep territory, have helped them keep an authenticity that's almost unique in the world.

Although Nuku Hiva (and the town of Taiohae, the main town in the group) and Hiva Oa (where in the cemetery of the small town of Atuona are buried the two famous artists) have become a little busy, the archipelago's other islands have kept a purity, a virginity, an unrestricted tranquillity.
Ua Huka, where farmers still catch with a lasso the horses that roam free across the island. Ua Pou with its extraordinary peaks; Tahuata where some of the archipelago's few white sand beaches can be found : here, volcanism reigns supreme, and beaches are often black... or missing.
Steep mountains suddenly dive vertiginously into the ocean, creating underwater -walls- where diving brings impressive memories; but do not look here for sparkling coral reefs surrounding calm turquoise lagoons : The Marquesas are almost completely devoid of coral barriers.
But, behold the fabulous sight of these mountains covered with lush vegetation, from which arise the numerous tiki in the marae, the ancient temples.

I've had the privilege to discover the Marquesas from a sailboat, just like many visitors who arrive on board round-the-world sailboats that have, three or four weeks earlier, left the western shores of America or the Galapagos, and who stare with bewilderment at these incredible peaks, that spring from the deserted immensity of the Pacific ; others reach them more simply, by plane, from the airport of Tahiti Faaa.

But if you wish to discover the archipelago to the peaceful rhythm of old time's navigators, nothing beats boarding for two weeks the Aranui, the small cargo-passenger ship that cruises the archipelago's waters, calling long enough at each island to give you time to get a good idea of the island ; so, follow Melville's tracks: he remained for several months a prisoner of the ferocious Tai-pi , whose faces sported frightening warlike tattoos, and whose man-eating habits were not only a memory; he brought back from this stay -Typee-, the book that revealed his writing talent. Follow the tracks of Admiral Dupetit Thouars, who took possession of the archipelago in the name of the King of France in the 19th century; find the memory of Gauguin's quarrels with the place's priests and gendarmes... and the landscapes, the silhouettes that inspired the most tortured of his masterpieces.

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