January 11. Our destination today was the island of Hiva Oha. However the captain was not able to find a safe place to drop our anchor here so we continued on to the bay of Hapatoni on the island of Tahuata. Like all the other islands in the Marqueses Tahuata was a volcanic island with steep cliffs, few beaches and no fnatural harbors.
Tahuate is a very small island with a population of 600 residents. So, during our visit the population on the island was doubled.
We anchored in a small bay and used a tender (life boat) to get ashore. Here is Gloria disembarking from the tender.
A narrow gravel road took us along the beach past a few residences, an elementary school and a graveyard. The few natives that we saw were friendly, and the actually thanked be when I took their picture.
The scenery along the beach was spectacular. However the complete absence of urban amenties like running water, stores etc limits its appeal for me.
At the end of our walk we found the local power station.
On our walk back to the tender we stopped to watch a game that the local school kids was playing. We believe they did this for our benefit.