Island of Ua Poa-the last island in the Marquesas Island group

Well…this post is a month late and I only have an hour to post so here it goes : )

Town and the anchorage- Ua Poa is just south from Nuka Hiva and we planned to leave here to the next island group of the Tuamotus (a group of atolls…basically collapsed volcanoes).

Ua Poa is unique to the Marquesas islands that it has these huge spires.  I am not a scientist and it has even been explained to me a few time but I will fail miserably to tell you why.  The point is this island is to us the most beautiful bth for its majestic spires but also the peeple.  The other Marquesas islands people were friendly but they seemed to be “tired” of the visitors, where in Ua Poa..we were welcomed in every aspect and were able to connect with so many locals…this is what we are here for!!!!

A view of Ua Poa from our boat sailing to the Tuamotus. You can see the spires…usually covered with clouds..this day it was a spectacular view.

We were here in the main town with SV Me Too and SV Fandango and we have been with them ever since.  We were here in Ua Poa for almost a week reprovisioning, laundry, eating well and the best part was the hike.  

The view of the main town in Ua Poa when we were driven back from our hike
We called this the “Tree House”….Jerome, a French native married a local Marquesan and moved here many years ago and started this restaurant and hotel. We got wifi (slow but wifi) and he was the one who took us on the hike. Unfortunately there were other boats who did not extend or share our love for these people. The short story is that a boat ordered wine and dinner for 4..Jerome hand delivered this to the beach for them to pick up and they refused to pay for it because it “wasn’t what they thought they ordered” and then said they would take the wine but shorted him in price….This made us furious and made sure that we communicated to other boaters. Food is delivered by boat from Tahiti and is not extremely accessible so it was a shame the food was wasted.
At Jerome’s place, he had a puppy…say no more..I think I spent more time with the puppy than online…sorry guys. This is Briley from SV Me Too having way too much fun with this 4-legged freind
Ua Poa is also know for Flower Stone which looks like flowers in the stone that is special to this island. Here is the local guy who carves and makes jewelry. We purchased just item for a keep sake.
The local kids playing where we take the dinghy in. They definitely played in our dinghy when we explored town…little foot prints were obvious and we didn’t care a bit!!!!
Kimi’s foot relaxing at the anchorage after a fierce sail south from Nuka Hiva. We literally had 2 meter swells hitting over our port side bow and going over our dodger/bimini. It was a hard bash to say the least!

 The hike

Map of the island in French…..
Yes the hike had ropes to hang on to….seriously can;t believe I made it!
Trevor eating a dried banana at our break at the top of a spire….
We hiked for 6 hours….Jerome as our guide though private property (99% is private property s you can;t just “go hiking”) and SV Me Too (Clay, Jill, and Briley) and SV Fandango (Ian, Brad and Elizabeth) and us. Group photo at the top of a spire
Our hike ended at a different town where we had a awesome dip in a water fall.
Our tour ended with an incredible lunch…I would call it a polynesian style paiea, wine, beer and of course espresso.

We will post our amazing trip to the next group of islands, the Tuamotus hopefully soon.

 

 

2 comments

  1. You salty sailors……. well done.
    The weather in the pacific looks great this year, enjoy.
    Cheers Richard, s/v Child.

  2. I have a huge, silly smile- just got caught up on your wonderful adventures. I meant to tell you that you were my first birthday present- your April 26th entry- a coffee in bed, and an awesome read from our heroes safely across the Pacific!

    We are blessed to have our Zoe 1 home and have been enjoying her here in the Broughton Archipelago. Not sure when we’ll be ready for ‘epic’ again but we sure love being able to live vicariously through you, teehee. Wahoo guys!

    Bright blessings from your BC, Canada friends!
    Sheila Cook

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